Dialogue Mistakes New Writers Make ❌ Avoid These Cringeworthy Cliches!!

what's up my friend Abby here and welcome back to writer's life Wednesdays where we come together to help you make your story matter and make your author dreams come true are you struggling to write dialogue that feels realistic and emotional do you find your characters just coming out and saying everything that they're feeling which makes your dialogue sound flat and dry and predictable or maybe you feel like all your characters sound the same in their dialogue and nobody has a distinct Voice or difference in their personality in the way they talk if you're struggling with any of these things you clicked on the Right video today we are going to explore the do's and don'ts of writing dialogue common mistakes that many writers make and how to avoid these mistakes and write dialogue that feels fresh and engaging and will immerse your reader in your story dialogue is one of those things that if you get it wrong it can pull your reader out of the story completely because they start thinking these characters don't even sound like real people nobody would say that this character wouldn't say that this doesn't feel real you want to avoid that you want your dialogue to feel real like you're just watching real people interact with each other you want to feel emotionally engaged in what's being said and what's not being said so that's what we're going to cover in today's video the biggest cringiest mistakes to avoid with dialogue and what to do instead to make your dialogue Dynamite grab a notebook and let's get started why does your story matter good question what if I told you that there's a science behind every great story I don't just teach you how to write I teach you how to change the world with your story and make your author dreams come true okay number one mistake to avoid don't make your characters say exactly what they're feeling all the time I also like to call this conflict dumping in dialogue this is the number one biggest mistake that will instantly make your dialogue feel flat unengaging and lacking emotion characters who just come right out and say exactly how they're feeling and exactly what they're dealing with as if they are objective observers of themselves subtext is the golden rule for writing realistic compelling amazing dialogue and subtext can basically be described as showing us what the character is feeling rather than telling us it's what makes dialogue feel subtle and realistic and mind-blowingly good subtext can be tricky to get the hang of because we as the writer can see through the mask that our character is hiding behind we know what the character is secretly dealing with but that doesn't mean they're going to reveal what they're secretly dealing with remember everyone filters what they say through their personal beliefs and opinions this means we often don't say what we want to say we don't objectively observe events as they are we interpret events and other people's decisions and then form our own opinions and then decide which opinions we're going to share based on what we hope to achieve by sharing those opinions and even then the opinions we share can change very much depending on our current emotional state and the response that we hope to evoke from the other person in other words there is a lot to consider with subtext it's very complex but let's keep it simple I'm all about keeping things simple so I want to show you some real examples of this so you can get a feel for what it looks like what what the mistake looks like and what the solution looks like so let's say you have two characters Violet and Kent let's say violet is suspicious that Kent cheated on a test but he doesn't want to admit it and I wrote this dialogue in script format so there are no real dialogue tags we're going to add those in later but first let's just look at a conversation between these two characters if they were to just come right out and say exactly how they're feeling Violet I think you cheated on that test Kent your grades have been terrible lately and now you have a perfect score Kent how dare you say that I didn't cheat Violet then why are you acting so suspicious I have proof you cheated I found the paper in your backpack Kent okay fine you're right I cheated violet why Kent because my father expects me to succeed academically and I didn't want to disappoint him again I'm tired of always being the family disappointment I think that's why I felt the need to cheat so that I can measure up to my father's image of success and feel worthy of his love [Applause] it sounds terrible because that's not how real people talk is there internal conflict there for the characters yes but it's all on the surface it's all very obvious because Ken is like just saying exactly what his fatal flaw is and people don't talk like this people cannot objectively observe themselves and identify their conflicts and childhood traumas and issues and deepest insecurities and misbeliefs about the world that's why there are a such thing as therapists so if your character is starting to sound like their own therapist chances are you need to go back and rewrite this dialogue do use subtext to show the characters emotions and beliefs through their dialogue when you're about to write a line of dialogue that you want to use to show your reader what your character is feeling and struggling with ask yourself how can I convey what they're feeling without them coming right out and saying it also consider your character's personality and their emotional reaction to what's being said to what they're being confronted with are they the type who withdraws from conflict and becomes in communicative are they prone to angry outbursts when they feel attacked or do they laugh and try to charm their way out of an uncomfortable situation depending on the nature of your dialogue and what's going on in your story this will fluctuate a lot but you have to consider emotional responses and you have to consider the fact that every character's emotional response is going to be different but start with your characters personality and their beliefs start there what's their personality what are their beliefs about the world what is the response that they would have emotionally to this scenario so let's go back to our dialogue between violent and Kent and see if we can make it better I'm going to guess that Kent is a deeply insecure kid so he puts on this mask of Charisma and confidence and when he feels attacked he gets really defensive maybe he's in any gram three that could also help me to dig down to the emotional root behind his misbelief that he needs to perform well academically in order to be worthy of Love Violet did you cheat on that test Kent Kent with a forced laugh what are you kidding me why would I need to cheat violet I don't know because your grades have been well haltingly kind of terrible lately and you heard what Mr Lang said nobody has ever gotten a perfect score on that test Kent flashes her a convincing smile well I guess there's a first time for everything Violet steps closer lowering her voice so nobody else hears Kent I found the paper in your backpack Kent surprised and a little defensive what were you doing snooping through my backpack violet I needed an eraser I wasn't snooping Kent turns away a muscle ticking in his jaw he's been caught and he knows there is no getting out of it violet I'm not going to tell your dad if that's what you're afraid of Kent defensively I'm not afraid of him I'm sick of him I'm sick of watching him congratulate my brothers on everything they do telling them how proud he is of them and meanwhile I just he shakes his head frustrated and ashamed of himself you don't know what it's like violet so just keep your nose out of it okay as you can see the emotional tone of this scene is now a lot different but it feels more natural for Kent to deny the accusation than get defensive and then say something that reveals a little bit about his internal conflict without coming right out and stating what his fatal flaw is we fully understand from this dialogue that he doesn't feel like he measures up and that he feels like his father isn't proud of him and he needs to cheat in order to achieve something it's what Kent doesn't say the subtext that makes us realize something's happening below the surface here number two big mistake of dialogue don't make all your characters sound the same this is especially true and glaringly bad when the characters all speak with perfect grammar most people do not use perfect grammar when they speak we all have very different vocabularies depending on where we live where we grew up who we grew up around what we do for a living where we hang out who we hang out with take all these things into account when you are creating a voice for your character maybe some characters will speak with better grammar and punctuation and sound more academically perfect than other characters maybe you have a character who's like a 50 year old English Professor he's going to sound a lot different than a 16 year old high school kid this is one of those things that really sticks out to me when I'm reading and it's cringe-worthy because it's like I can't believe that these are real people it's just hard for me to imagine them saying the things they're saying they can't sell those lines they don't sound like individual people they all sound like the author trying to sound like a good writer do give your characters distinct voices and different perspectives what makes your character unique from every other character in the story how old are they how has their community that they've grown up in influenced the way that they think and speak and see the world around them even if these differences are subtle make sure you are showing these differences through their dialogue before we continue on to mistake number three I first want to quickly interrupt myself to tell you guys about a super special live training that I'm going to be hosting this weekend diving even deeper into the topic of dialogue if you want to take your dialogue to the next level and learn my seven tried and true techniques for writing Dynamite dialogue you don't want to miss this special live training happening this Sunday in this live training we're going to dive deeper into dialogue I'm going to share with you the life-changing techniques and methods that have helped me to take my dialogue to the next level and make it addictive compelling realistic and emotional in this training you will learn how to effortlessly leave your characters motivations and fears into their dialogue my secret hack for keeping character voice consistent throughout a story how to strip down wordy dialogue tags for the most powerful Pros my super simple trick for making all your dialogue sound natural and realistic how to make every line of dialogue matter to the heart of your story and my favorite way to step into the shoes of your character and sound like them without even trying this training is every valuable lesson I've ever learned about dialogue packed into a super valuable teaching that I guarantee you will take boring dialogue and turn it into Dynamite turn it into something that will keep your reader up past their bedtime turning Pages this training is happening this Sunday October 1st at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time I hope to see you there you can click the link below to save your spot and if you can't make it to the live stream don't worry you will be able to watch the replay as many times as you want no exaggeration these techniques have literally changed my writing they've changed my life and I'm going to share things on this live training that I have never shared anywhere else so click the link below to save your spot and I hope to see you there this Sunday okay let's continue with the mistakes number three don't overuse description in dialogue tags this one's specific to novel writers or anybody writing with Pros if you're a screenwriter you won't be encountering this but if you're writing dialogue tags you want to avoid too much description description can slow the pacing way down in a way that makes your story put down a bowl what happens is we start skipping tags all together I do this all the time when I'm reading and I I encounter a scene that has way too many dialogue tags way too much description between the conversation I will just literally start skipping that part just skip to the good stuff you probably do this too without even realizing you're doing it because the way our brain works is we are here for the conversation right we're hearing this conversation happening in our minds we're seeing it happen like a movie and when the pacing gets slowed down our brain is like skipping to the need to know information okay where are the important parts where's the good stuff let me show you an example of what I mean let's go back to our scene of violet and Kent talking to each other and let's add in some dialogue tags way too many of them Violet narrowed her eyes regarding Kent with suspicion for a long moment did you cheat on that test Kent he responded with a laugh that sounded somewhat forced what are you kidding me why would I need to cheat Violet didn't know how to begin how to say it in a way that wouldn't hurt his feelings or make him defensive I don't know because your grades have been well she trailed off her voice halting and quiet she didn't want to have this conversation but there was no avoiding it now your grades have been kind of terrible lately and you heard what Mr Lang said nobody has ever gotten a perfect score on that test Kent flashed her one of his classic unruffled Smiles the smile he gave everyone with a side of flattery and easy charm well I guess there's a first time for everything Violet stepped closer lowering her voice to a hushed murmur so nobody else could hear Kent I found the paper in your backpack Kent turned to face her a spark of defensiveness flickering in his eyes the look was equal parts surprise and guilt what were you doing snooping through my backpack he growled every muscle in his body wound tight I needed an eraser Violet explained nervously picking at her fingernail I wasn't snooping Kent turned away a muscle ticking in his jaw but Violet wouldn't back down from this conversation and she made that clear by the way she stood her ground waiting for an explanation when a long silence passed between them and it became obvious that Kent wasn't going to explain Violet spoke again I'm not going to tell your dad she said gently if that's what you're afraid of I'm not afraid of him Kent fired back his voice hardening I'm sick of him I'm sick of watching him congratulate my brothers on everything they do telling them how proud he is of them and meanwhile I just he shook his head and violet could see an unmistakable glint of frustration and remorse holding Court in his eyes you don't know what it's like violet so just keep your nose out of it okay talk about slowing down the dialogue if that was an actual scene in a book I was reading you better believe I would be skipping through most of those dialogue tags to get to the good stuff but Abby what about all the nuances of emotion all the body language we can still have all those things without editorializing every single moment for the reader we can still show them the emotion of the scene with a little bit of body language without telling them every single time someone bats an eyelash or picks at their fingernails do keep your dialogue fast paced and to the point remember my Golden Rule of pacing you see everything happening at the pace at which you read which means if you want your reader to see this scene happening in their mind like a movie it's going to be difficult for them to watch that if you're slowing us down so much with all these unnecessary descriptions in the dialogue tags your readers are to feel like they're watching it in slow motion so let's take that same scene and try stripping it down to the most powerful punchy dialogue tags Violet narrowed her eyes did you cheat on that test Kent his laugh came out sounding forced what are you kidding me why would I need to cheat I don't know because your grades have been well kind of terrible lately and you heard what Mr Lang said nobody has ever gotten a perfect score on that test Kent flash turn unruffled smile well I guess there's a first time for everything Kent Violet stepped closer lowering her voice so nobody else could hear found the paper in your backpack he Whirled to face her what were you doing snooping through my backpack I needed an eraser I wasn't snooping Kent turned away a muscle ticking in his jaw I'm not going to tell your dad if that's what you're afraid of I'm not afraid of him can't fire back I'm sick of him I'm sick of watching him congratulate my brothers on everything they do telling them how proud he is of them and meanwhile I just he shook his head an unmistakable glint of frustration and regret clashing in his eyes you don't know what it's like violet so just keep your nose out of it okay much better much shorter but see how we still have the emotions in the body language and the subtlety the undertones without slowing down the scene I invite you to practice this with your own writing take a scene with dialogue that's a little bit too wordy maybe a little bit too descriptive and see if you can strip it down to be just as Punchy but twice as fast in some cases a line of description might be able to come out completely and it doesn't even change the tone of the scene but remember practice makes perfect the more you practice writing dialogue and rewriting dialogue the better you'll get so boom those are the top three biggest mistakes cringe-worthy things to avoid when writing dialogue if you want to take your dialogue to that next level you don't want to miss my live training happening this Sunday where I'm going to share my seven best tried and true techniques for writing Dynamite dialogue these are things I use every single day in my writing they have saved my life many times and I can't wait to share them with you that training is happening on Sunday October 1st at 1 pm Eastern Standard Time I hope to see you there if you can't make it to the live stream don't worry you can still watch the replay as many times as you want and when you sign up to patreon to join this live training you also unlock my entire Archive of previous live trainings which is over 15 hours of in-depth value-packed teaching on writing and Publishing so click the link below this video save your spot at the live training get access to all those other previous live trainings and I can't wait to see you this Sunday when we will dive even deeper into the topic of dialogue smash that like button if you liked this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every single Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community until next week my friend Rock on [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 259,991

Keywords: how to write dialogue, dialogue mistakes writers make, writing dialogue, how to write dialog, dos and don'ts of dialogue, how to write conversations, dialogue writing, good dialogue examples, bad dialogue examples, reacting to bad dialogue, writing tips, writing advice, how to write a book, how to write a novel

Id: -e5Y2yH7RhQ

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023