Unit 6: Dialogue Project

Dialogue refers to written conversations between characters in novels, short stories and scripts. For dialogue to occur, two or more characters must talk with one another to further a story. Actors for commercials, movies and television shows use written dialogue to perform their characters. This makes dialogue useful for leisure activities like reading, informational training videos or marketing materials.

How to write a dialogue
Consider these steps that you can take for how to write a dialogue:

1. Determine the reason for the dialogue
It's often helpful to first determine why you're adding dialogue to a piece of writing. Think about whether the dialogue enhances the story by developing character relationships or backgrounds, advancing the action of the plot or revealing information to your audience. You may place your dialogue strategically throughout your piece to ensure an even flow from narration, action and character voice. Remember to only include dialogue if necessary and avoid dialogue that adds little to your written work.
Related: How To Write a Video Script in 7 Simple Steps

2. Decide which characters are speaking
There must be at least two characters having a conversation for a dialogue to exist. Understanding the goal of the conversation can help you decide which characters are speaking, what they're saying and why they're saying it. Once you've decided on the characters in your dialogue, remember to think about their voice and how they might deliver information with their personality and style of speech. To keep your audience's attention, try to add only a few characters to a conversation to improve readability and make it clear which character is speaking.
Related: How To Become a Writer in 7 Steps

3. Use quotation marks to start and end spoken dialogue
Quotation marks are the standard punctuation for communicating written dialogue in novels and short stories. If you're writing one of these pieces, use quotation marks at the start and end of a character's speech to set their dialogue apart from the rest of the text. Using quotation marks effectively improves the clarity of a written piece by separating a character's speech from the narrative text and helping a reader keep their place in your story.
Example of proper quotation mark usage: "This is the best salad I've ever tasted," Charles said.
Related: How To Punctuate Dialogue (With Examples)

4. Create a new paragraph for each speaker
Every time a different character speaks, it's important to start and indent a new paragraph. This helps you and your readers understand who is speaking and makes your story or script look more visually appealing and easy to read. Separating each character's speech may avoid confusion about what each character is saying, which can be useful in stories with characters who have conflicting values, roles or levels of information.
Example of multiple speakers: "I want to go on a picnic," Karla said, "but I don't want to go alone."
"Why don't we go together?" Jenna replied.
Karla said, "I'd like that."

5. Write the dialogue
Within your quotation marks, you can write the dialogue between your characters. Consider the reason you're adding it to your story and which characters are speaking the words as you write. Since dialogue is a conversation, the style in which you write it may sound different from the narrative parts of your story or script. Adjust your style based on the setting, characters' personalities and your goal. For example, if your goal is to show two characters meeting for the first time, their conversation may be more formal than if they had been friends for a long time.

Implementation of the above mentioned dalogue assignments on Google Docs.