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Originally Posted by Anarkos
My rules for dialogue:
1) Keep it simple. Four way conversations? Not if I can avoid it!
2) Use the bare minimum of dialogue tags.
3) Intersperse dialogue with description and activity.
4) Allow characters to misunderstand each other.
5) Allow characters to ignore each other.
6) Allow characters to interrupt each other.
7) Use sentence fragments almost exclusively.
 Give characters verbal tics or other little habits [the most obvious example of this is Yoda] to help build individual voices.
9) Rarely write dialect phonetically.
10) Use passive voice. |
Excellent rules. One thing I've been trying is the use of a sentence before or after a character's dialogue to state how they're talking, rather than altering the
he/she said phrases. You've pushed me to work on that even more. The potential is much broader, and it reads much more quickly with easier comprehension.
