Griffith Writing Tip #7: Dialog is fun

Books with dialog are ten times livelier than those with long paragraphs and indirect quote. For example—

• Barry told her he didn't want to hear any more about it and stomped out of the room shouting that he was leaving and would never come back.

...is a lot more interesting like this:

• "I don't want to hear any more about it!" Barry turned and stomped out of the room. "I am leaving, and I am never coming back."

Some rules people sometimes forget when running dialog:

1. Start a new paragraph every time another speaker says something.
2. If the speech runs through several paragraphs, each of the paragraphs should have a beginning quote but not an ending (close) quote until the end of the last paragraph.
3. Watch your speech tags. Teach yourself to do without them.
4. Use contractions in speech.
5. Use "curly" quotes when typesetting dialog.
6. Keep speech crisp and to the point.
7. Don't burden yourself by describing where the person is, how the person is speaking, or the feelings conveyed. Let the words do that. Let the reader fill in the gaps.
   

If you struggle to come up with good conversation when you're writing a story, here's a source with some tips that may be helpful.

Whether you're writing a fictional work or delivering a technical presentation, dialog is a useful tool for adding interest and deepening the reader's comprehension of your topic or story.