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Tag: Dialogue

January 27, 2022

6 Ways Dialogue Reveals Characterization

In truth, there are infinite ways dialogue reveals characterization, but, for the sake of article, I’m going to cover some of the most common and useful ones. Building Characterization through Dialogue Dialect Let’s get the obvious out of the way and talk about dialects or accents (don’t get nitpicky with me now, linguists). Dialogue is a wonderful way to establish...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 0
April 20, 2017

People Don’t Listen: 7 Dialogue Tropes to Give Them Away

People don’t listen. You know it. I know it. We’ve probably even heard it but didn’t realize because we weren’t listening. And since we’re so familiar with people who don’t listen, using that idea in our stories adds a lot of realism. That makes these 7 dialogue tropes really handy for giving them away. So handy, in fact, that I’m...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Humor & Wordplay/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 7
April 11, 2016

3 Words So Commonly Used Incorrectly That Most People Just Don’t Care

Sadly, there are far more than three. You know it. I know it. Let us remove our hats, bow our heads, and have a moment of silence for all the poor words so commonly used incorrectly. Ok. Moment of silence over. I picked these three words because they’ve been misused so much that the false definition is commonly accepted as...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Grammar & Editing/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 4
March 8, 2016

With Dialect, What Words You Say Are as Important as How You Say Them

One reason that some authors say not to write in dialect at all is that syntax and word choice can be used to suggest a dialect, region, or first language without modifying the words whatsoever. For example, in the U.S., specific kinds of pronoun errors are common to more rural areas (also often poorer areas with worse education though not always)....
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 0
December 1, 2015

Characterization Through Dialogue

If you’re having trouble with characterization, you might want to check the dialogue. Even though real people don’t talk like book characters, dialogue is one of the fastest and most reliable ways to communicate what a character is like and where a character is from without going into a lot of detail. And the most important part of using dialogue for characterization...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/General Thoughts & Updates/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 3