How to Create Dialogue

Once a writer creates a character worth reading about, both the author and the reader usually want to know more. What does the character think about? What are his or her challenges? Hopes? Fears?

The best way to find out about a character is to talk with him or her. In writing, the conversation between characters is called "dialogue."

Writers follow rules in creating dialogue, not just to make their lives more complicated, but instead, to make the conversation (dialogue) easier for their readers to understand.

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Rules for Writing Dialogue

Without rules, a dialogue might end up like this:

Are you going? I don’t know. Who else is going? No idea. Maybe I should go. I don’t have anything better to do. I might have to go if my mother makes me. Who knows, it might not be so bad. It might even be fun if I can go with a friend. Do you think Harry wants to go too?

There are many different ways this conversation could be revised to become a conversation that makes sense. Here is one possible way:

“Are you going?” Ron asked.

“I don’t know. Who else is going?” replied Hermione.

Ron shook his head and muttered, “No idea.”

“Maybe I should go. I don’t have anything better to do,” Hermione added.

“I might have to go if my mother makes me.”

“Who knows, Ron, it might not be so bad. It might even be fun if I can go with a friend.”

"Do you think Harry wants to go too?"

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Punctuation is Important!

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Other Useful Rules for Punctuating Dialogue

Periods and commas should go inside ending quotation marks.

Examples:
Ron commented, “Harry, Professor Snape really dislikes you.”

“I know,” Harry said, “Professor Snape always insults me.”

Question marks and exclamation points should go inside the quotation marks if the material inside is a question or an exclamation. Otherwise, they go outside.

Examples:
Hermione complained, “How are we supposed to learn anything if the teacher refuses to give us homework each night?”

“Did you hear Mr. Weasley screaming into the telephone, 'Hello! Hello!'?

Set off an explanatory speaker's tag with commas.
Quotation marks go around each part of a divided quote.

Example:

"I'd love to see Hagrid," said Hermione, "but I have to do my homework."

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Rules for Punctuating Dialogue

Make sure the conversation makes sense. Since people don’t always speak in complete sentences, dialogue often contains incomplete sentences. Still, it is important that your reader correctly understands the message intended by your speakers.
Start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. Whether or not you clarify things by using explanatory speaker's tags such as “Harry shouted” or “Professor McGonagall exclaimed,” you must start a new paragraph each and every time the speaker changes.

Use quotation marks in direct quotations to indicate that a person’s exact words are being quoted.
Example of a Direct Quotation: Professor Snape remarked, “Mr. Potter, you have made many serious mistakes in carrying out the lab experiment.”

Do not use quotation marks in an indirect quotation since the person’s exact words are not being quoted.
Example of an Indirect Quotation: Professor Snape complained to Harry Potter that he had made many serious mistakes in carrying out the lab experiment.

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The Significance of Quotation Marks

Some scholars believe that quotation marks began in ancient Greek texts as two curved lines that represented the lips of a person speaking. One curved line was placed at the beginning, as if the writer were saying, “I’m telling you something someone else said.” The other curved line came at the end, to say, “I’ve finished writing the words that came out of the other person’s mouth.”

Whether or not this story of the origin is true, the idea of the two curved lines representing lips makes sense since quotation marks should be placed before the first word of a quote and after the punctuation that follows the last word.

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