[stylist] dialect/dialogue

[Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter]

What do you mean with dialect?

Dialogue is not intended to be a filler. Dialogue always, always needs to
drive the plot forward as well as work as characterization. It should be
natural, unless it's well established with characterization that a
particular character speaks "different," IE, big words, speaking in
metaphors, archaic speech, etc. When speaking, most people use contractions,
so usually you want to write dialogue this way.

Dialogue should be its own paragraph. Action attributed to a speaker can be
attached to the para with dialogue, but otherwise, dialogue is in a para by
itself.

Example:
"I'm going to the gym." Jessica grabbed her bag and left.

Or:

"I'm going to the gym."

Jake watched her go before picking up the phone. He texted Eric that she
just left.

Dialogue tags should be used sparingly, especially with adverbs. If you want
to indicate a particular way of speech, try to present it in action.

Example:

Instead of: "I don't know what to do," she said tearfuly.

Try:

"I don't know what to do." Her throat was tight, voice pitched with tension.

Mechanically, punctuation is always on the inside of the quotations. If
using a tag, it's on the outside of the quotations.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jennifer
Applegate via stylist
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 10:42 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Cc: Jennifer Applegate <jlastar at comcast.net>
Subject: [stylist] dialect/dialogue

Hello all,

 

When you write dialogue with dialect, what does a good writer need to
consider? What seems hard to you when you write dialogue?

 

Thank you,

 

Jennifer Applegate

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