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Writing Tip: Don’t Be Afraid of Mixing Dialogue and Action

So I’ve been reading a lot of amateur writing lately, and I’ve noticed what seems to be a common problem: dialogue. 

Tell me if this looks familiar. You start writing a conversation, only to look down and realize it reads like: 

“I’m talking now,” he said. 

“Yes, I noticed,” she said. 

“I have nothing much to add to this conversation,” the third person said. 

And it grates on your ears. So much ‘said.’ It looks awful! It sounds repetitive. So, naturally, you try to shake it up a bit: 

“Is this any better?” He inquired. 

“I’m not sure,” she mused. 

“I definitely think so!” that other guy roared. 

This is not an improvement. This is worse. 

Now your dialogue is just as disjointed as it was before, but you have the added problem of a bunch of distracting dialogue verbs that can have an unintentionally comedic effect. 

So here’s how you avoid it: You mix up the dialogue with description. 

“Isn’t this better?” he asked, leaning forward in his seat. “Don’t you feel like we’re more grounded in reality?” 

She nodded, looking down at her freshly manicured nails. “I don’t feel like a talking head anymore.” 

“Right!” that annoying third guy added. “And now you can get some characterization crammed into the dialogue!” 

The rules of dialogue punctuation are as follows: 

Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph - when the speaker changes, you start a new paragraph. 

Within the speaker’s own paragraph, you can include action, interior thoughts, description, etc. 

You can interrupt dialogue in the middle to put in a “said” tag, and then write more dialogue from that same speaker. 

You can put the “said” tag at the beginning or end of the sentence. 

Once you’ve established which characters are talking, you don’t need a “said” tag every time they speak. 

ETA: use a comma instead of a period at the end of a sentence of dialogue, and keep the ‘said’ tag in lower caps. If you end on a ? or !, the ‘said’ tag is still in lower case. (thanks, commenters who pointed this out!) 

Some more examples: 

“If you’re writing an incomplete thought,” he said, “you put a comma, then the quote mark, then the dialogue tag.” 

“If the sentence ends, you put in a period.” She pointed at the previous sentence. “See? Complete sentences.” 

“You can also replace the dialogue tag with action.” Extra guy yawned. “When you do, you use a period instead of a comma.”

So what do you do with this newfound power? I’m glad you asked. 

You can provide description of the character and their surroundings in order to orient them in time and space while talking. 

You can reveal characterization through body language and other nonverbal cues that will add more dimension to your dialogue. 

You can add interior thoughts for your POV character between lines of dialogue - especially helpful when they’re not saying quite what they mean. 

You can control pacing. Lines of dialogue interrupted by descriptions convey a slower-paced conversation. Lines delivered with just a “said” tag, or with no dialogue tag at all, convey a more rapid-fire conversation. 

For example: 

“We’ve been talking about dialogue for a while,” he said, shifting in his seat as though uncomfortable with sitting still. 

“We sure have,” she agreed. She rose from her chair, stretching. “Shall we go, then?” 

“I think we should.” 

“Great. Let’s get out of here.” 

By controlling the pacing, you can establish mood and help guide your reader along to understanding what it is that you’re doing. 

I hope this helps you write better dialogue! If you have questions, don’t hesitate to drop me an ask :)

💖⭐️💖⭐️🐱🐈✨💫🌟😺⭐️💖⭐️💖

Protection spell for your feline friends! Like to charge, reblog to cast.

⭐️ Let’s protect all the kitties! ⭐️

Some random Johnlock

wilbur just described a very integral and deep part of the grieving process, which is wondering why the world is still turning for everyone else when it has completely stopped for you. why no one else cares when you cannot bring yourself to care about anything else. it can make you so angry, it can cause you to lash out and blame everyone else.

there is no wrong way to grieve. you might very well end up saying things you don't mean, things you'll regret, but your brain does whatever it can to carry you through your trauma. and sometimes that might mean it is easier to feel angry than sad. it's a very human and raw emotion, and i'm very proud of wilbur for speaking about it. it lacks logic, but it's something most likely we have all felt at one point or another. grieving is a process that will differ from person to person - so please do not blame anyone for how they grieve. you don't have to understand it, you can only be there to the best of your ability.

kai parker culture

for some reason,there are legitimately zero posts on how to honour THE kai parker-one of the greatest villains of tvdu so-

-wear frick tons of silver rings(keyword-silver) -if you wear flannel shirts, wear them like jackets over t-shirts -smirk a lot, especially if you’re in a situation where you could end up dead. -cause as much chaos as you can, push that douchebag who catcalled a random girl on the road and run away yelling ‘drink acid,motherfuckers’, dox the girl who fat-shamed the loner kid, bring a collective of possums to your school and let them roam free. c h a o s i s k e y. - l o w k e y flirt with everyone and anyone except your crush -when talking to your actual crush,say the stupidest shit like ‘you have very nice palms.’ -like who you are,because isn’t that what matters at the end of the day? -wear all colours but in their darkest shades except green, no green. -if you aren’t someone who wants to ruin people’s lives, there’s other ways of being chaotic too- kick doors close, wear clothes you torn a teensy bit yourself, swear f r e e l y. -be ambitious. -tucks your pants into your boots or cuff them. -if your outfit features hardware,it should be silver. -have cocky bastard energy. -listen to grunge music. -mountain dew -strut around. -be confident in who you are. -walk around at three am and if you’re a girl and this is an unachievable dream(i feel you,sometimes I just wanna roam around at four but ITS FUCKING UNSAFE FUCK THIS WORLD) just like,eat ramen at four and cry. -thirst comment. -not a part but you’re probably bisexual. -if you believe he wasn’t bisexual,your bifi is off,sister.

feel free to add more actually i’m threatening you ADD SOME MORE OR ELSE

He really liked Newt.

I GOT A FRICKEN CONCUSSION

Happiness Will Come To You.

I’m very concerned about people who don’t...

*still uses pinky promise as a legitimate foundation of trust*

Lino wearing glasses requested by @leenow

Robert about screen-testing with Tom