Demon Dialogue

So my wonderful critique partners know that I don't like dialogue. I should be good at it since I talk a lot... wait a minute... maybe that's why I'm not good at it?? Do I talk so much that no one else can't get a word in edge wise? Crap! That might be it *blushes*, well now that everyone knows I'm a chatty cathy we might as well learn something else thats new!

Demon Dialogue, Dialogue Dilemmas, whatever you'd like to call it I'm bad at it. I figured what better of a way to get over this slump then to give myself some tips, along the way I might help my fellow friends along too!

1. Listen to how people talk (Don't be a stalker. That would be creepy.)
-- listening to the natural flow of speech should help the process along, watch expressions and actions it will help you understand how people interact.

2. Not exactly like real speech (yeah like that really makes sense.)
-- Here's where crap gets real confusing, not like real speech but it should be real speech. No wonder I can't write dialogue. Alfred Hitcock said that a good story was "life, with the dull parts taken out." So edit out filler words and words that don't help along the plot.

3. Don't give away too much crap at Once.
-- If you give all the good stuff away up front whose going to want to read the rest of the story? Let it unfold naturally, you don't have to discuss everything right at the beginning.

4. Action Rocks.
-- You don't want everyone to think that your MC is a total bore so make sure to give them a little attention by showing the world who they are. Break up the dialogue with physical details to help move the words along the paper.

5. Don't Go Crazy 'cuz you think you're good at it. You might suck.
--Trying to come up with different synonyms for "said" will take away from the awesomeness of your dialogue so don't get carried away with different forms of tagging.

6. Don't get all up in the biznass of today's slang.
--Don't be stupid. Don't use crap that you think is hot right now because later in life you'll realize along with the rest of the world exactly what it was to begin with... C-R-A-P.

For tips in more detail feel free to visit the following link.

Any fun tips you'd like to add? PS I'll be trying to make it over to all the blogs today but if you don't see me the writing bug has caught me so I'll be sure to get back to you!!