3 Tips for Writing Dialogue in Fiction

3 Tips for Writing Dialogue in Fiction 3 Tips for Writing Dialogue in Fiction â€Å"Fancy seeing you here,† the proofreader says, raising an eyebrow. â€Å"Word is you’re writing a novel and need some help. Well, you’ve come to the right place.† The proofreader takes your hand, gently but firmly leading you to a mysterious door in the corner of the room. â€Å"Come with me,† he says as he turns the handle, â€Å"and I’ll teach you all about writing great dialogue.† And as the door opens, you are dazzled by a bright light and feel the following tips fill your mind†¦ 1. Listen to People To sound real, dialogue should mimic the feeling of real conversation. A good way to get a sense of this is to listen to other people speak. Take note of the expressions that people use, the way conversations flow and change, and how speech differs from written language. Eavesdropping is the authors favorite pastime.(Photo: Thomas Szynkiewicz) However, don’t worry about making your dialogue too realistic. Human conversation is often full of â€Å"umms† an â€Å"urrrs,† but including these in your writing will make it stilted and hard to read. The main reason you’d include a verbal pause is to show that someone is hesitating. 2. He Said, She Said You may find yourself using â€Å"he said† and â€Å"she said† quite a lot in your dialogue. This is fine. In fact, it is better to use these terms consistently than to vary your dialogue tags too much. It is fine to use a descriptive term such as â€Å"shouted† or â€Å"whispered† now and then, but using too many will be distracting. The main thing is to ensure your readers know who is speaking at any given moment, so you can even leave dialogue tags out as long as this is clear from the context. 3. Show, Don’t Tell It can be tempting to tell your readers how a character feels while they speak. Typically, this will involve using adverbs such as â€Å"happily† or â€Å"sadly,† or even having the character outright say how they feel. Take the following exchange, for instance: â€Å"I got the job! I’m so happy!† she said. â€Å"That’s nice,† he replied distractedly. This tells us how the characters feel. But it is usually more interesting to show the reader how they feel by describing what they are doing. For example, we could change the line above to say: â€Å"I got the job!† she said, grinning from ear to ear. He looked up from his desk for a moment. â€Å"That’s nice,† he said, before returning to his work once more. Here, we can still tell that she is happy and that he is distracted. But we get this from the extra description rather than by being told directly. Summary: 3 Tips for Writing Dialogue in Fiction Keep these tips in mind when writing dialogue in a novel: Listen to other people’s conversations to get a sense of how they flow and the expressions used. This will help your dialogue sound natural. Stick to â€Å"he said† and â€Å"she said† as dialogue markers. Using too many terms such as â€Å"exclaimed† or â€Å"whispered† is distracting. Describe what your characters are doing while they speak. Most of the time, you can use actions to indicate how a character feels. And once you have a final draft written up, don’t forget that you can send it to us for professional proofreading!

The Many Forms of Plurals

The Many Forms of Plurals The Many Forms of Plurals The Many Forms of Plurals By Mark Nichol Plurals take many (sometimes curious or counterintuitive) forms. Here is an outline of how to form various types of plurals according to the word form or ending: For words ending in: nonsibilant, or voiceless, consonants: add -s (dogs). voiced, or sibilant, consonant blends: add -es (riches). vowels: add -s (knees). -f: delete -f and add -ves (loaves) or -s (chiefs). -x: add -es (foxes). -y: delete -y and add -ies (bodies). For words of Latin or Greek origin ending in: -a: add -s or -e, depending on context (formulas/formulae). -ex: add -es or delete -x and add -ces, depending on context (indexes/indices). -ies: leave as is (species). -is: change to -es (axis). -ma: add -s or -ata, depending on context (stigmas/stigmata). -um: add -s (aquariums), delete -um and add -a (curricula), or either depending on context (mediums/media). -us: delete -us and add -i (alumni), -ii (radii), -era (genera), or -ora (corpora), or leave -us and add -es (octopuses) or use another form, depending on context (cactuses/cacti). Types of irregular forms include: ablaut, or mutated, plurals, with changes in the midst of a word (tooth/teeth; louse/lice). identical singular and plural forms (deer, spacecraft). -en and -ren endings (oxen, children). Some words have more than one plural form, one of which may be archaic (cows/kine) or reserved for a distinct meaning (dice/dies). One problematic category is in referring to fish in general and specific varieties of fish in particular: â€Å"Look at all the fish!† but â€Å"Gars are long, slender, predatory fishes.† Also, some types are given a distinct plural form (sharks, barracudas), though for others, the plural form is identical to the singular one (salmon, sturgeon). Plurals of letters, numbers, or abbreviations are generally formed simply by adding -s, although occasionally, the otherwise incorrect use of an interceding apostrophe is warranted (â€Å"Mind your p’s and q’s†). Usually, however, pluralizing names of letters requires no special treatment, especially when the letter is italicized, as here: â€Å"There are five es in beekeeper.† Initialisms and acronyms also require only an -s: â€Å"Many NGOs are headquartered here,† â€Å"It’s like having two NASAs.† The singular forms of some words are, because they end in s include gyros, kudos, and biceps (as well as triceps and quadriceps). The plural forms are the same, although the latter examples are also pluralized by adding -es. For other words, the original singular has been supplanted by a plural form used in both cases (alga by algae; graffito by graffiti). Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Types of LanguageHow to Pronounce MobileEbook, eBook, ebook or e-book?