Dialogue in writing

In their book Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French and Ned Stuckey-French say dialogue is a direct basic method of character presentation, which plays an essential role in bringing characters to life by voicing their internal thoughts.^[2] When significant or dramatic events are happening, dialogue can be written in direct quotation. Otherwise, speech can either be summarized as part of the narrative or written as indirect speech which is useful to get to the core of a scene.^[2]

In The Craft of Writing (1979), American writer of fantasy and science fiction William Sloane wrote:

There is a tentative rule that pertains to all fiction dialogue. It must do more than one thing at a time or it is too inert for the purposes of fiction.^[3]

In The Craft of Fiction (1921), British essayist Percy Lubbock (1879–1965) wrote:

The novelist may give the very words that were spoken by his characters, the dialogue, but of course he must interpose on his own account to let us know how the people appeared, and where they were, and what they were doing. If he offers nothing but the bare dialogue, he is writing a kind of play; just as a dramatist, amplifying his play with 'stage-directions' and putting it forth to be read in a book, has really written a kind of novel.^[4]

Dialogue is usually identified by the use of quotation marks and a dialogue tag, such as 'she said'.^[5]

"This breakfast is making me sick," George said.

'George said' is the dialogue tag,^[6] which is also known as an identifier, an attributive,^[7] a speaker attribution,^[8] a speech attribution,^[9] a dialogue tag, and a tag line.^[10] Stephen King, in his book On Writing, asserted that said is the best dialogue tag to use. King recommended reading a novel by Larry McMurtry, who he said had mastered the art of well-written dialogue.^[11]

Dialogue tags other than said, such as murmured, whimpered or thundered, are known as 'said-bookisms', and are considered to detract from the narrative if over-used.^[12] Journalist Cory Doctorow says said-bookisms lead to "writerly laziness" because it is easier to use dialogue tags to tell the reader how the character is speaking than have the dialogue itself convey this, and it thus weakens the story.^[13]

The following excerpt from chapter two of the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens shows dialogue between three characters.

"My Lady’s cause has been again before the Chancellor, has it, Mr. Tulkinghorn?" says Sir Leicester, giving him his hand.

"Yes. It has been on again to-day," Mr. Tulkinghorn replies, making one of his quiet bows to my Lady, who is on a sofa near the fire, shading her face with a hand-screen.

"It would be useless to ask," says my Lady with the dreariness of the place in Lincolnshire still upon her, "whether anything has been done."

"Nothing that YOU would call anything has been done to-day," replies Mr. Tulkinghorn.

"Nor ever will be," says my Lady.^[14]

• Exposition
• Fiction writing
• Pace
• Show, Don't Tell

• Browne, Renni; King, Dave (1993), Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, New York: Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-272046-5

• The Chicago Manual of Style (13th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1982. ISBN 0-226-10390-0.

• Crews, Frederick (1977), The Random House Handbook (2nd ed.), New York: Random House, ISBN 0-394-31211-2

• Gerke, Jeff (2010), Plot versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN 978-1-58297-992-2

• Hacker, Diana (1991), The Bedford Handbook for Writers (3rd ed.), Boston: Bedford Books, ISBN 0-312-05599-4

• Kempton, Gloria (2004), Write Great Fiction: Dialogue, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN 1-58297-289-3

• King, Stephen (2000), On Writing, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-85352-3

• Lamb, Nancy (2008), The Art and Craft of Storytelling: A Comprehensive Guide to Classic Writing Techniques, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN 978-1-58297-559-7

• "Proper Manuscript Format". Proper Manuscript Format / Shunn. July 12, 2021. Retrieved July 16, 2024.

• Sebranek, Patrick; Kemper, Dave; Meyer, Verne (2006), Writers Inc.: A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning, Wilmington: Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 978-0-669-52994-4

• Steele, Alexander, ed. (2003). Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide From New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 1-58234-330-6.

• Strunk, William, Jr.; White, E. B. (1979), The Elements of Style (3rd ed.), New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., ISBN 0-02-418220-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Turco, Lewis (1989), Dialogue, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN 0-89879-349-1

• Wiehardt, Ginny (November 20, 2019). "Top 12 Tips for Writing Dialogue". liveaboutdotcom. Archived from the original on December 18, 2005. Retrieved December 17, 2005.
• "Dialogue". Debbie Lee Wesselmann. 2007. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
• Marble, Anne M. (2001). ""Stop Using Those Said Bookisms," the Editor Shrieked: The Use and Abuse of Dialogue Tags". Vision. Forward Motion for Writers.