Dialogue is one of the most important parts of your story, but a writer must know how to make it captivating enough to keep the reader interested, because bad dialogue can quickly lose them.

So, I am beginning this chapter with a guide for when you should use dialogue and when you shouldn't.

Dialogue: When Should You Use it and When Should You Lose It??

Dialogue should always add something to the story.   Otherwise, it's useless.   Whether you have a villain giving clues to his evil plan or a couple of characters arguing about who gets to date the hot guy, it should always be relevant.

You're probably confused, so allow me to give you a couple examples of relevant vs irrelevant dialogue.

Example 1- Description Within Dialogue: The Wrong Way, The Right Way, and Another Right Way

Incorrect: "Your long brown hair with blonde highlights is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.  And your big blue eyes are like the ocean.  I think of the beach when I see them," he told me.  "I also love your smile; it is so pretty."

The character is describing another character in way too much detail than is comfortable.  Would anyone really talk like that to your face?  Probably not.  Let's change it up a bit. 

Correct Option 1: He looked at me and smiled, stroking my long brown hair, which was complete with blonde highlights.  "You are so beautiful; I just love your hair.  And those eyes, they're to die for.   They remind me of the beach," he told me.  I blinked at him happily.  My eyes were a bright blue with a hint of green.  My lips turned upward into a smile at his words.  "Ohhh, and there's that pretty smile."

Description is your friend.  Use it.  What are your characters doing?  This gives you the opportunity to describe how they look as well. 

If you have a character (let's call him character 1) talking about the appearance of another (character 2), then you can describe character 2 either before, after, or in between character 1's dialogue to make it less weird and more interesting to your reader. 

Correct Option 2: He looked at me and smiled, stroking and complimenting my long brown hair, which was complete with blonde highlights.  He also said he loved my blue eyes, saying they remind him of the ocean due to their hint of green.  After I grinned at his words, he was sure to point out the beauty in my smile.

You can also totally opt out of dialogue.  This can be used if you have used a little too much dialogue in your story already, and you want to give the reader information about what people are saying without them having to actually say it.  It's a great way to mix up your story and add variety to your writing style.

Example 2 - Say It vs. See It

Does a reader know a character loves someone because they told them, or because of their actions?  Some things in life are just understood, so why shouldn't your writing reflect that?  It's your choice whether you want to say it or allow your reader to see it, but keep in mind that it's good to use both in your writing.  Here are the different options:

Option 1 - Say It: "I love you," he said.  "More than anyone else, more than love itself.  I never want to lose you."

This is good for a really romantic scene where a character is professing their love for another person.  They can share their feelings with complete honesty and flattery.

Option 2 - See It: He looked at her with a wide smile, his eyes twinkling.  She returned his smile, and he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, then cupped her face with his hands. 

The way he looks at her proves that he has strong feelings for her.  You know it without even being told. 

Option 3 - Both: He looked at her with a wide smile, his eyes twinkling.  She returned his smile, and he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, then cupped her face with his hands.

"God, I love you so much," he said.  Her smile widened.

Here, you can combine dialogue and the description from option 2 to reinforce what the description is telling you.  This is a way that you can include dialogue if you want it, but reduce the amount of dialogue you use.

Example 3 - How Much Dialogue Is Too Much?

Dialogue can be an important part of your story, but at some point, your reader is exhausted after staring at quotation marks for so long and actually want to get past a conversation and into the story.  

Like okay, Jeremy, you're nervous about asking your girl to prom.  Well stop fretting about it with your friends for ten pages and tell us how the promposal went, please and thank you.

So, how much is too much?

I wish I could tell you a magic number, but there really isn't one.  The best tips I can give you are to read over it and see if you get tired of the dialogue.  Also, if you find characters repeating themselves, maybe it's time to end a conversation.  But if the conversation is long, here are some tips to emphasize the conversation's length without actually making it a long one in your story.

Option 1 - Keep it nonexistent.

Jeremy was so nervous, his whole body was trembling.  He told he friends repeatedly how nervous he was.  After half an hour of waiting, it was finally time.

Where's the dialogue?  There is none, but the reader knows that he has been pestering his friends for half an hour about being petrified.

Option 2 - Repeating a phrase, but a lot less than your character.

"Oh, my god, I am so nervous," Jeremy said for the twelfth time.  His friends continued to encourage him.

"It's okay, man.  She adores you," one friend said.

"Yes but I am so nervous," Jeremy replied.  He repeated this several more times before the moment finally came.

This is another way to emphasize your repetition without being annoying and redundant.  Description is very helpful to explain how many times the words have been said.  The words "again" and "once more" are your best friends.

But, if your dialogue is less repetition and more just things that people are saying that are important to your story, consider this example to help you out:

Option 2 - Valuable information in a few paragraphs.

"I am so nervous," Jeremy said.

"We know, man," one of his friends said.  "But you know what, it'll be okay.  She adores you."

His friends continued to encourage him as the moment slowly approached.  They said things like "you are a great guy" and "you know she has a massive crush on you already" to help boost his esteem.

See this last paragraph?  Instead of making these quotes individualized and having to give them all speech tags and their own paragraphs and assign them to special people, you can just list things that people might have said, or just summarize what a conversation was about by just saying that they gave words of encouragement to him.  This keeps you from having to come up with a conversation that lasts thirty minutes, and your readers will greatly appreciate it.

Speech Tags

What the heck is a speech tag?  Speech tags are those little phrases ("he said", "she replied", "Bob asked") before, after, or during a quotation that tell you who is speaking.  They can be inverted (such as "replied Anna" vs. "Anna replied" to spice up your writing, and they can be used in unique ways.

So, first of all, I'm going to give you a short list of examples of speech tags you can use:

Said

Replied

Asked

Yelled

Giggled

Growled

Exclaimed

Muttered

Pleaded

Promised

Denied

Snorted

Whispered

(You can Google endless lists of these if you're ever too stumped.  But the less common your speech tags, the cooler your story.)

Speech Tags: When Are They Necessary?

Now, speech tags are not always necessary.  If you have a conversation that lasts a few lines without any supporting description, you can leave off the speech tags for a couple of quotations just because you don't really need them (but make sure you identify the characters for a couple of speech tags first before you leave anything off).  Just make sure it's still clear who is speaking.  You can improve the clarity by including people's names within quotations.

Sometimes you can leave off speech tags just because they aren't necessary, but it's also a good way to show that two characters are bickering (that's another thing--make sure you use speech tags if more than two characters are speaking.  Now if three are speaking and two characters have a couple of lines to themselves, then it's fine to leave off speech tags, but if you have a consistent conversation with more than two people, just use speech tags.)

"You know that you aren't supposed to be digging in the cookie jar when Mommy isn't here!" Tom shouted at his sister, Annie.

"I DON'T CARE, TOM, I DO WHAT I WANT!" she screamed back.

"THEN I AM GONNA TELL HER!" 

"DO IT!"

"I will.  You just watch, Annie.  I will!"

See?  Were you confused, or did you know exactly who was speaking?  You were able to avoid the exhaustion of reading too many speech tags without being confused about who is speaking.

Speech Tags: Vagueness

You can leave off speech tags at the beginning of a story/chapter/scene in your story if you are trying to be intentionally vague.  This allows your story to hold suspense, to keep your reader from knowing what's going on until later:

"Okay, I've got it.  Where do I put it?"

"Just throw it in the river."

"Are you serious, right here?"

"Uh, yeah.  Where else would we put it, the woods?"

"Well, no."

"Okay, now hurry.  I don't like being out here; there's too many bugs."

They carefully released the pet fish into the water, and it swam away happily.

"There," one of them said.  "Now we can finally get rid of that fish tank and put something more useful on that table."

You thought they were throwing out a dead body, didn't you?  Gotcha!  Nah, they were just releasing a pet fish back into the wild.  The lack of speech tags makes you unsure of what is going on.  I didn't say, "the criminal said nervously" or "whispered the murderer" to clue you in on who was talking.

Speech Tags: Introducing Your Characters Within Dialogue

The previous section on vagueness leads me to this section on introducing characters within your dialogue.  To do this, you do not say people's names in your speech tags until they are spoken.  Either that, or you don't use speech tags at all until names are spoken.  So, so show you how that works, I'll use the previous example like so.

"Okay, I've got it. Where do I put it?"

"Just throw it in the river."

"Are you serious, Donovan?  Right here?"

"Uh, yeah. Where else would we put it, the woods?" Donovan said with sass.

"Well, no."

"Okay, now hurry up, Carl.  I don't like being out here; there's too many bugs."

They carefully released the pet fish into the water, and it swam away happily.

"There," Carl said. "Now we can finally get rid of that fish tank and put something more useful on that table."

Ta-da!  You just introduced two characters within your dialogue.

Speech Tags: Pronouns vs. Proper Nouns

A common mistake writers make when using speech tags is that they use a character's name too often.  They keep saying "Fred asked", "said Fred", "Fred called", "cried Fred", but they forget that pronouns exist and they can use the word "he".  So here's a good tip to follow: Once you say someone's name, you can use 3-5 pronouns for them before you say their name again.  Here's an example:

Fred climbed up the hill, huffing and puffing.  His sister was taking the lead to her secret hideout, but he was having trouble catching up.  

"Goodness, do you ever rest?" he called after her.  Either she didn't hear him, or she didn't care to acknowledge his comment.

Fred finally reached the top, gasping for air.

The above example uses a pronoun for Fred 5 times before you see his name again.  It still flows just fine, and you aren't tired of reading the name "Fred", but you aren't tired of reading pronouns, either.

Now this 3-5 rule is something that you can bend a little during certain situations if you see fit (say, if you want to use pronouns 6 times), but it's a good guide if you don't know for sure.

Pronouns do become a little more complicated when you have multiple characters speaking/doing things at the same time, especially if there's more than one boy or girl.

Fred climbed up the hill, huffing and puffing. His sister was taking the lead to her secret hideout, but he was having trouble catching up.

"Jeez, do you ever exercise?" his friend, Ryder, shouted from the top of the hill.

"Not enough, apparently," Fred replied.

"Goodness, do you ever rest?" he called after his sister. Either she didn't hear him, or she didn't care to acknowledge his comment.

Fred finally reached the top, gasping for air.

Typically, you'd restart with saying Fred's name once you introduce another character of the same gender, just to prevent any confusion.  But if the two male characters in this story keep talking for a while where names and pronouns are more difficult, consider leaving off a few speech tags like I mentioned earlier.  And it's not the end of the world if you use "he" and "him" for both of them at the same time; just read over it and see if it's still clear who you're talking about.

Speech Tags: Using Actions as Speech Tags

If you don't want to use speech tags as much, you can still identify the speaker by putting an action before or after dialogue.  See here in bold:

"One more lap, Tyrone!" Jeannette called behind her as she jogged.  "You're hanging behind."

Tyrone was panting heavily.  "Thanks, I didn't notice." 

"I appreciate your sarcasm," she replied, "but you can't win a race running like a turtle."

"Ever hear the story, the Tortoise and the Hare?" he asked.

"It's a fictional story!"

"With an important message!"

"Yeah, well, this time the hare won."  Jeanette finished her final lap.  She stood there, waiting patiently for Tyrone to arrive.

Even though there's not a to-the-definition speech tag in some places, you still know who is speaking.  That way, you can save your "he said, she said" for later.  And it gives your story more variety.

Grammar and Dialogue

And finally, here are some grammar tips and common mistakes when writing dialogue.  

Thinking: Italics or Quotation Marks?

When a character is thinking something as opposed to saying it aloud, writers have two different ways to show it.  While neither option is wrong (it's your choice what you use), I will show you both and tell you my preference.

To spare you the confusion, I won't italicize these examples.

Option 1 - Quotation Marks

"Wow, he's cute!" she thought.  "I hope he talks to me."

Option 2 - Italics

Wow, he's cute! she thought.  I hope he talks to me.

I prefer option 2 because readers are less likely to confuse it with spoken dialogue.  Also, since option 1 is the same formatting as spoken dialogue, you'd have to use speech tags with it every time so the reader knows that it's not actually said aloud.  Option 2 allows you to leave off speech tags if you'd like, which is helpful if you show a characters thoughts between spoken dialogue.

Quotation Marks: " vs '

I live in the USA, where the primary quotation marks are " instead of '.  But, in some other countries (like the UK), they primarily use ', so this grammar section would be a little different for them.  But, putting that aside, I'll show you how we use both symbols for dialogue in my country.

Like afore-mentioned, the " symbol is the primary quotation mark symbol.  So, you'd use it every time there's dialogue.

"Hello, Dad." 

But the ' symbol is used for dialogue within dialogue, like when a character is quoting another character:

"He always told me, 'Don't be afraid to show the world who you truly are.'"

That's just a little simple grammar rule you may or may not have known about, so there you go!

Capitalization and Punctuation with Speech Tags

When do you say "he said." instead of "He said,"?  You're about to find out.

Despite the punctuation within your quotation, the speech tag is still pretty much part of the same sentence.  That means that it is lowercase if it follows the quotation:

"Yes!" he said enthusiastically.

Here's how it would look if you placed the speech tag before the quotation:

He said, "Yes!"  He was enthusiastic.

The quote is still a part of the sentence, so you use a comma after "said" to lead into the quote as opposed to a period or nothing at all.

There are two ways to write nowadays.  You can use two spaces after your sentences, or only one:

There are two ways to write nowadays.  This is using two spaces.

There are two ways to write nowadays. This is using one space.

I like two leave two spaces in between sentences (although I've noticed that some websites and softwares like to correct my writing to one space so I have to go back and fix it...Wattpad does this to me, but it's only the first time I save a story, not any saves after that.)  Both are grammatically correct.  If you look back at the history of grammar, it used to be one space, then they changed the rule to two, then they just pretty much said that it's your preference.  When I was taught to type, I was told to use two spaces, so that's just what I do by habit, and I like it a little better just because I'm biased like that.  It was originally changed to make the sentences look a little more separate to make reading a little more easier and to flow better; I feel like it works.

If you use only one space, this next section doesn't matter to you, because it will look the same either way.  But if you use two spaces, here's when to use one space as opposed to two spaces (and vice versa) when writing your dialogue.

If you use a speech tag after your quote, it'll always be one space:

"Yes!" he said enthusiastically.

But, if you don't use a speech tag, but instead say something else (such as using an action instead, like I said earlier), then it will be two spaces, because they are separate sentences.

"Yes!"  He said this with enthusiasm.

Or...

"Yes!"  There was a look of enthusiasm on his face.

The first example is worded slightly different so that it isn't quite a speech tag, so it counts as a separate sentence.  The second example has a different sentence altogether, so it's definitely a separate sentence.  Both of these receive two spaces in between the dialogue instead of two.

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Well, that's all I've got for you guys today.  Comment if this helped, and let me know if you have any questions or more ideas for future chapters!