Dialogue

Compiled by Janice Kay Johnson, a.k.a. Janice Bartlett (1995)

Dialogue is conversation between characters in a novel (or the occasional words spoken aloud by a character who is alone). It is punctuated with quotation marks ("), which signal to the reader that this line is dialogue rather than thought, description or action. The characters' thoughts or inner debates should not have quotation marks. Dialogue must exist for a reason: to move the plot forward, reveal character or evoke an emotional reaction from the reader. It needs to sound natural while avoiding realism--in other words, skip the boring parts! Most authors make a practice of reading dialogue aloud to make sure it can comfortably be spoken.