Dialogue is making characters talk or think. There are two types:
- Inner dialogue- when characters are thinking
- Outer dialogue- when characters are speaking out loud
When using inner dialogue you can italicize the thoughts, like in the example below:
Shelly swiped the last cookie from her sister’s hand and stuffed it crumbling into her mouth. How did she do that? Amanda thought.
When using outer dialogue, use quotations and commas like in the example below:
Shelly swiped the last cookie from her sister’s hand and stuffed it crumbling into her mouth. Amanda yelled, “Why did you do that?”
Dialogue is an excellent way to develop your characters. Thoughts, words and actions of the characters reveal who the characters are to readers.
Shelly is sneaky, maybe even selfish and loves cookies. Amanda loves cookies too and has slower reflexes than her sister. She also wants to know how her sister was able to outwit her but would never admit that to her sister.