Dialog grammar

From The Writerium - the wiki for writers

Example of Dialog

"Dialog is written like this," she said.

"That looks good."

"Yes, doesn't it?"

"Okay, but what if I break off in the middle of a sentence?" He scratched his head quizzically.

"Breaks in speech--" she frowned "--go like this, I imagine."

"Oh, one last thing. Is it 'dialog' or 'dialogue'?"

"Either one you want. 'Dialog' uses fewer letters and is easier to remember. In some countries, though, Australia for example, the correct spelling is 'dialogue'"

"Gotcha."

They turned to look out of the computer screen. "Good luck with your writing, dear reader!"

Some Information on Dialog

Essentially, dialog (or dialogue) is verbal interactions between two or more characters. Many writers have different styles in writing dialog, though, it must follow the same general principles.

Commonly, dialog is enclosed between two quotes: "..." and dialog within dialog (for example, a character telling a story within his dialog) is written with an apostrophe: "And he said to me, 'blah'!"

However, in Tolkien's High Fantasy trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings", the rule is reversed. This is Tolkien's style in writing, however, he still follows the general rule that dialog must be enclosed in quotes or apostrophes.

(Outside of dialog, parenthesis work the same way. If you want to say something besides the matter, it is usually enclosed in parenthesis- but if you want to say something besides the matter while dealing with parenthesis, you use brackets within them [my cat is amazing!])

As discussed above, breaks in dialog are normally stopped and continued after a piece of description. For example,

"I wonder," he scratched his head absentmindedly, sighing, "if I can have some toast today."

This is a different style of writing dialog that accomplishes the same thing that is listed in the above section.

Dialog is a helpful tool in writing believable stories- only master storytellers can write a story with no dialog whatsoever- a lack of dialog will generally bore the reader or confuse them. However, there are many different styles of writing that dialog is effected by. For example, some stories are almost entirely dialog-driven, with almost no description. This style is commonly used by playwrights and children's authors.

However, some styles have very little dialog and is driven by action and description.

Find a style that suits you, and let the dialog of the characters flow through your fingers as you write. It is very hard to write dialog before finishing a character's development, as his dialog will be effected by his personality. After designing a character, try to imagine what his voice sounds like before writing his dialog. Hearing his voice in your head, and hearing him speak the words for you, will help you write dialog.