Go through your dialogue line by line and check that...
❑ It's always clear who's speaking.
❑ The conversation develops the story.
❑ The conversation develops the characters.
❑ The conversation introduces new information.
❑ The conversation achieves its purpose.
❑ What the character is saying actually makes sense and means something.
❑ The character speaks for a reason.
❑ The reader can understand what the character is trying to communicate.
❑ The characters speak in a way that is appropriate to their role.
❑ The characters use vocabulary appropriate to their role.
❑ The character is using the correct form of address.
❑ You use a variety of speech tags.
❑ The speech tags make sense and don't sound contrived.
❑ The speech tags aren't repetitious.
❑ The speech tags are appropriate to your chosen point of view.
❑ The speech tags are in the correct tense.
❑ The formatting of direct speech is consistent.
❑ The formatting of indirect speech is consistent.
❑ The formatting of thoughts is consistent.
❑ The characters use (appropriate) body language.
❑ The characters convey subtext through word choice.
❑ The characters convey subtext through pauses, hesitations, and interruptions.
❑ The characters convey subtext through rhetoric.
❑ The characters are purposeful in the way they stay on topic, or change the subject.
❑ The characters hint at things left unsaid.
❑ The characters convey the full extent of their emotions.
❑ The characters react to each other's tone and delivery.
❑ The characters always react to what was said before.
❑ The arguments are convincing.
❑ It's clear what each character is arguing.
❑ The outcome of the argument is clear (even if a consensus is deferred).
❑ Both the characters and the reader remain aware of the setting of the conversation.
❑ Both the characters and the reader remain aware of the context of the conversation.
❑ The characters get equal time to speak unless there is a reason for an imbalance.
❑ It's possible to determine the characters' relations to each other through their speech.
❑ It's clear to the reader if characters misunderstand each other or talk at cross purposes.
❑ The pace of the conversation is appropriate to the scene.
❑ The conversation contains something memorable.
YOU ARE READING
writing 4 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜: WRITING ADVICE TO MAKE YOU A BETTER WRITER
Non-FictionWriting is hard. Being a writer is even harder. But with "Writing 4 Writers," you CAN become a better writer. Every time I sit down to write, I reference this collection of writing advice from a variety of blogs, writers, and YouTubers: Jenna Moreci...
