ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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Think about all the conversations you have in a day... [Group of people talking]

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You talk with your mom...

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Your teacher...

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Maybe even your baby sister.... though does that really count as a conversation….? [Girl talking to a baby looking confused]

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Okay, now that you have all of those conversations rattling around your brain, try and imagine [Different people spinning round the girls head]

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which ones would be entertaining to read as dialogue in a story...

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…probably not many, right? [The story explodes to reveal the baby sister]

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But that doesn't mean you're a boring person!

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It just means that most conversations aren't really important enough to share in a story. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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And that's why today's topic is how to use dialogue! [Spaceship flies past]

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See, not only is day-to-day conversation kind of boring, but it's usually chock full of [Schoolkids talking at the lockers]

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filler words...

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Y'know, like…."Hmm, umm, like, ahhh, and well."

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If you include any of those in a story, that'd be one long, kind of boring story… [The story explodes leaving the word boring]

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That's why we always want our dialogue to be to the point.

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It should be shorter than normal conversation, with no filler words.

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And unlike boring conversations about tooth-brushing and homework, dialogue in stories should be [School kids talking sat on the grass]

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included to either set a scene, or make something happen.

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Since stories are all about, well, the story, then your dialogue should be all about the [Pages turning in a book]

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story, too.

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On a more technical note, the spoken words should always appear within quotations, including

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any punctuation – like this.

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Oh, and don't forget to add the dialogue tags.

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Y'know, like “he said” or “she said,” so that people know exactly which character [Dialogue tags appearing]

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is saying what.

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And any sentence that normally ends with a period instead gets a comma, followed by a

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quotation mark, and then the dialogue tag.

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Like this. [Example is shown]

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So now that we've covered our bases, let's look at two examples and identify which one is [Baseball player is kicked off a base]

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worth keeping... and which one should probably get deleted immediately. [Example 2 folder is chosen]

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First up to bat... [An apple is hit with a baseball bat and explodes]

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“We only have ten minutes left until the black hole closes,” yelled Samantha.

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“If we don't fly our space ship into it soon, we'll be trapped on this alien planet forever!” [Sentence being typed out]

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Geesh, we hope Samantha gets out of that alright… [Spaceship flying towards a blackhole]

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sounds kind of terrifying.

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While Samantha deals with that, let's check out our second example:

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“So, like, what do you want to do today?” asked Marcus.

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“Hmm. I dunno, really.

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Whatever you want?

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Ahhh….yeah, I don't care.

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Uhhh…hm.”

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So, which one do you think is best?

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If you guessed the first one, you'd be right. [Example 2 folder is set on fire]

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That's because it's to the point, moves the story forwards, doesn't contain any filler words,

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and is interesting to read.

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The other passage?

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Well, it pretty much fails all of those tests. [Fail stamp]

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Oh, and before we move on, let's help Samantha get out of that mess… [A hand stretches the black hole out so the spaceship can go through]

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Phew.

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Close one.

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And just in time, too, because that's it!

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No more tips!

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But as long as you keep in mind what we covered, writing dialogue will be a snap! [Someone snaps a twig]

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And yes, you technically could make everyone speak like your baby sister, but we're pretty

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sure a book called, "Mmmgaah Maah Maah Maah!!!" won't sell very well… [Baby in a cot next to the book]

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