#writingaction

Personally, I think writing a dialogue is the most hardest task in the story. Many of our chapters might contain dope dialogues but mostly we can go a whole chapter without dialogue like ‘They said nothing throughout the chapter’. But come to think of it, dialogues ensure the reader that the story is moving on, that there is some sort of development in the characters. In short, dialogues will make your story leap forward and so sound like the characters are working for their goals. 

But the real task is writing the right dialogue that would suit the situation and wouldn’t sound like you gave away too much information. Here are some of the rules that might help writers when they’re stuck on a dialogue in a scene. 

1) Read 

The first key to writing a perfect dialogue script is to read. Usually when I’m stuck on a dialogue, I would randomly open up one of my old books and observe how other writer’s wrote a conversation between two characters. If it doesn’t work for you, you can go for a movie. Watch a movie, drama or just sit next to two people talking or debating. Observe their actions and pauses, how they stop at a point or stutter or how often they use a phrase. 

2) Cut out extra scenes

It often gets tedious for a writer when they’re stuck in a chapter without dialogues - which usually happens when their chapter is overloaded with important descriptions. You can cut out a chapter or let the characters speak as descriptions. For example: 

Character A (to character B): ” Looks like someone long abandoned this house, there’s dust everywhere”. 

It’s a simple example but just to explain that the other character can speak about the associated person, place or plan if you’re looking forward to decrease the descriptions. 

3) Provide a unique voice to your characters 

By providing a unique voice to your characters, not only does it create a diverse cast but also excites the reader when they naturally know who’s speaking. An easy way of using this rule is by removing the speaker’s name or pronoun (she said, he said) and let the reader know who’s speaking on their own. 

“You can’t just give away your coin collection!” 

“They’re taking up way too much space, I don’t need them anyways” 

“But you spend your entire childhood collecting these?” 

In the above example, we know that there’s a conversation going on between character A and Character B. When you’re writing a dialogue scene with more than two characters, you can’t use the above rule as it can make the reader confused with who’s talking. In those situations where more than two are conversating, you can go for names and pronouns. 

4) Say your dialogues out loud 

If you feel like one of your dialogue or the complete conversation doesn’t make sense, say your dialogues out loud. It can help the dialogue sound more smooth and real and may provide a natural flow to the conversation as you write. 

5) Keep it real

‘Keep it real’ which is one of the writing rules you may hear very often. Now what does it mean to ‘keep it real’ while writing a dialogue?. If two characters are meeting up in the scene, cut off greetings (they make the scene sound uninteresting and dull). Remember who the character is talking to and so change their tones in accordance, for example the reader would use a much lighter tone with their parents or elders or a rough tone when they’re around their friends, colleagues or enemies.

 Cut out small talks or pointless things a person would say in real life. Many times people stutter half way through what they’re saying or stop mid way in a conversation but avoid adding that in your book and cut out extra information which isn’t important for the development of your character.

6) Actually write 

You have to write to get started with the dialogues haha. Goodluck with that. 

In writing, we are allowed a “creative freedom” where not everything we write has to be realistic to how it actually would happen in real life. We can have a hero walk away with an explosion directly behind him, we can have him somehow never have to reload his gun, and we can have him be hit by a car and roll over it, and just keep running. They are common action movie scenes that many viewers don’t even blink at, but there is another one that is missing here, and it is one that can be found in almost every genre ever:

The hero getting knocked out.

Most commonly, the hero is hit over the head with something, and wakes up hours later somewhere else. In action movies, the hero awakes as if he were simply sleeping, and is able to use that (somehow uninjured) brain to think up the perfect escape.

The “knock over the head” is seen as a quick way to capture even the toughest of fighters, so often so fans can worry for them and wonder how the hero will escape.

In real life, he would likely be dead, or in extreme need of medical care. If you are knocked out for under a minute, a checkup is recommended. Over a minute, and you are supposed to be seen at an emergency care hospital for dangers such as internal bleeding of the brain.

That is just a single minute, and many fiction heroes are out for hours.

Even being if knocked out that long somehow does not kill you, you are still going to have some effects. Concussions are not fun, and can cause several symptoms; including light sensitivity, and more.

Concussion Symptoms 🔹Headache or “pressure” in head. 🔹Nausea or vomiting. 🔹Balance problems or dizziness, or double or blurry vision. 🔹Bothered by light or noise. 🔹Feeling sluggish, hazy, foggy, or groggy. 🔹Confusion, or concentration or memory problems. 🔹Just not “feeling right,” or “feeling down”. csc.gov

So what can you do? You could still have the main character hit over the head, and disoriented. Then, they can be tied up and blindfolded and still brought to where you need them to be. From then on, the hero trying to fight despite injuries raises the risks for the hero, making it more thrilling for the reader.

Now, before you say “what about chloroform?” Sadly, friend, that is also partially a movie myth.

Scientists estimate that it would probably take around 5 minutes for an adult person to become unconscious from breathing though a cloth with chloroform on it. technology.org

In movies, the hero is snuck up on from behind, and a white cloth is pressed over their nose and mouth. Within seconds, they drop, and are out for however long the bad guy needs.

In real life, with how long it can take chloroform to hit, you would have o overpower the hero first(which is an option you could go with). In that fight, unless the baddie is wearing a mask, they are in as much danger of breathing the chloroform as the hero.