skinheadnamedrandybutternubs asked: All of my writings seem to lack something, and I think it's dialogue. It never seems REAL. Could you give me some basic tips for using dialogue in stories?

Tazzy: What do you mean about it not being “real”? Is it how the characters speak, or what they say? The way they interact?

Anyway, as to basic tips. :)

• Analyse how people talk in real life!

Pay attention to the kinds of expressions that people use and the cadence of everyday speech. Obviously not everyone in real life is going to speak the way you want your characters to talk, and vice versa, but this knowledge can help you out with what you want to do. (Don’t forget that people in real life go “um” and “ah” a lot, as well as allowing certain bits of slang to slip into what they say- such as saying “Y’know, like, it’s just, like, y’know” and all that. Unless you want to draw particular attention to the way a character speaks, don’t write them like that!)

• Use punctuation correctly.

Connected with the above. People don’t go on and on when they talk- they pause, stop, interrupt, falter for words. Don’t have pieces of dialogue that are just so long that your reader is having a hard time grasping what’s being said. 

• Don’t put in too much dialogue at once.

It’s not often that people tend to sit around just talking, depending what setting they’re in. Have your characters do other things while conversing; break up speech with action, if need be. A little bit of description can go a long way!

• See how other writers do it.

Is there a particular author (or group of them) that you absolutely adore? Go re-read something by them and see how they use speech! Identify what they’ve done well and how they’ve done it, and you can use this information to make your own dialogue better.

• Don’t overuse synonyms for said.

Now, if you’re trying to put particular emphasis on what someone is saying/how they’re saying it (showing their emotions), then of course you can use things like “sighed” or “hissed” and the like. However, don’t veer too much, and there’s no need to put “he/she/they said” after everything. For example:

“You’re so stupid,” she sighed.

“No I’m not!” He hissed angrily. “You’re just annoying.”

“I’m not annoying!” She raged.

“Yes you are!” He retorted.

“I am absolutely not!” She insisted.

I mean, how horrible is that to read? Guh. Compare it with this:

“You’re so stupid,” she groused.

“No I’m not!” He said. “You’re just annoying.”

“I’m not annoying!” She sounded insulted, frowning angrily at him as he opened his mouth to speak once more.

“Yes you are!”

“I am absolutely not!”

See? I’ve used a little bit of description to break up the dialogue- not only does it make it less horrifying to read, it still lets you see how the conversation has gone. (The above ones are terrible examples, however, so don’t rely on them too heavily!)

Anyway. There’s a really helpful website here with a bunch of links to different places with suggestions on how to write dialogue. I hope this helps!