Creative Writing: Dialogue Assignment Overview
What is a dialogue?
Write a story that centers on a conversation between two or more characters. Your
story may be told in first (I), second (you), or third (he/she) person. Your story can be
fiction or non-fiction (autobiographical). Write in story, not script format. There are
no rules for how much dialogue should be in your story, but the dialogue you include
should be central and engaging.
How long should it be?
Most students’ papers will be between 2 and 5 pages typed, double-spaced, 12 pt Times
New Roman font. (Please make note of this as it is different from previous requirements.
How do I get an idea?
If you like, you can use characters that you have developed in a previous story—
perhaps some idea from a  Free Write Friday  exercise?!? Mine your free writes,
previous assignments, your wild imagination! Many these have the potential to be
expanded and deepened with dialogue. Develop a classic or traumatic family
moment. Create a dialogue between fairy tale characters. What happens after those
enemies get off the elevator? Expand your overheard dialogue or your entry in which
two characters want the same thing. Look at your “ideas for dialogues” handout.
How do I know which of my ideas are good ones?
Choose the character or situation that most interests you—not necessarily the one you
think is easiest to write. If you are learning about your character as you write, that
energy will translate into an interesting story.
What are hints for creating effective dialogue?
• Make sure that each character has a distinct voice.
• You might want to put the characters in a “crucible,” a situation from which it is
emotionally or physically difficult to escape (a broken elevator, a marriage, an
airplane.)
• The characters may have different motives/agendas. (e.g., a couple in which the
man was planning on breaking up while the woman was expecting a proposal.)
• The conversation has subtext (what the character says on the surface is different from
what is meant under the surface. (e.g., the couple making small talk after having
broken up.)
• Who has the most power switches through out the dialogue?
• Someone is different at the end of the dialogue than at the beginning.
• You weave in description of setting and physical action, which reveals character.
(After every three lines of dialogue is a rule of thumb.)
• You punctuate correctly, vary the placement of dialogue tags, and use “said” more
often that other descriptive words.
• You make the dialogue sound realistic by having the characters contradict, interrupt,
interject, pause, repeat, go on tangents, use slang, misunderstand.
CHECKLIST:
____ Name
____ Interesting Title
____ Typed 12 pt. Times New Roman
____ Double-spaced
____ Uses specific detail (“daffodil,” instead of “flower”)
____ Uses sense detail where it will enrich the story
_____ smell
_____ sounds
_____ taste
_____ how the body feels
_____ texture
_____ quality of the light
____ Uses effective/interesting verbs
____ Uses scenes
____ Slows down the most important moment
____ Character changes (or has the potential to change and doesn’t)
____ Begins at an engaging place
____ Ends in a satisfying way
____ Weaves in setting, context, description, physical action of characters
____ Paragraphs effectively
____ Characters have distinct voices
____ Uses some tools for interesting dialogue
____ subtext
____ power shifting
____ different agendas
____ a crucible
____ Dialogue sounds natural (contractions, repetition, interruptions, misunderstandings, random
tangents, pauses, moments of silence)
____ Grammar checked. Dialogue punctuated correctly.
____ Unnecessary adverbs, adjectives, repetition have been cut
____ Spell checked
____ Read out loud for rhythm and clarity
REMINDER FOR THE QUALITIES OF AN EXCELLENT PIECE:
(Also, evaluative criteria)
You have chosen a topic that interests, challenges, or amuses you emotionally and/or intellectually.
Your title captures your reader’s attention and informs the piece. Your writing has a focus; your
structure serves the purpose of your piece; your pacing is effective. Your writing voice is fresh, distinct,
and consistent. Where they enrich the story, you have used specific detail, sense detail, scenes, and
active verbs. Your opening engages; your ending satisfies. You have used paragraph breaks
intelligently. Something happens in your piece: either the character or reader is somehow different at
the end of the piece than at the beginning. The writing flows, and the reader is not distracted from your
content by grammatical issues.
Creative Writing: Some Ideas for Dialogues to Inspire YOU 
How do you think of an idea for a good dialogue, or find good dialogue from your
own life, or create interesting dialogue between characters you have already invented?
1.
Write a series of scenes, with dialogue, that take place over time and show
change in the characters’ relationship.
2.
Recreate an important conversation in your life.
3.
Recreate a “classic moment” conversation.
4.
Write about two characters on a first date. One character is trying to hide
something from the other.
5.
Take the character from a newspaper article and have that character have a
conversation with someone involved in the incident.
6.
Imagine a conversation you WISH you had and make it happen on paper. (One
student met her uncle in heaven and got to tell him her regrets; one had a
conversation with a grandparent who had been in the Holocaust.)
7.
Write a conversation in which one character agrees with everything the other
character says.
8.
Write a conversation in which one character disagrees with everything the other
character says.
9.
Write a conversation in which one character is being sarcastic, but the other
character doesn’t realize it.
10.
Write a conversation in which the characters misunderstand each other but don’t
realize it at first.
11.
Write a conversation in which one character is trying to keep a secret from
another character.
12.
Write a conversation in which someone gets caught in a lie.
13.
Write a conversation in which someone is not technically lying, but is
intentionally being misleading.
14.
Write a conversation in which something that has been under the surface for a
long time finally gets said.
15.
Write a dialogue in which both characters say the opposite of what they really
mean.
16.
Write a dialogue in which one character is apologizing, but doesn’t really mean
it. Begin the dialogue with “I’m sorry, but . . . “
17.
skip.
18.
Grab some lines of “overheard dialogue” from your spying exercise or from
another moment. Create a fictional character and scene in which the characters
speak those lines.
19.
Write a dialogue in which one character is trying to manipulate another into
giving something that character doesn’t want to give.
20.
Write a dialogue in which the characters are talking about an important topic but
never directly say what the topic is.
21.
Write a dialogue in which the characters are treating a serious subject lightly.
22.
Write a dialogue in which the characters are treating a light subject seriously.
23.
Write a dialogue in which one character is asking questions and the other
answers. The character asking the questions doesn’t really want the answers, but
wants something else.
24.
Write a dialogue in which one character uses slang that the other character
doesn’t understand.
25.
Write a dialogue in which two characters are talking about a ______they have
caused but never say it directly.
26.
Write a dialogue in which two characters are trying to avoid talking about a
_______they have just caused.
27.
Two characters are in a dangerous setting. Each has half of something that is no
good without the other half. Neither wants to give up his/her half.
28.
Write a dialogue in which one character wants to stay and one wants to go.
DIALOGUE TECHNICALITIES
(Extremely important in the proofreading stage!)
Please note, #s marked with an * require ACTION…
1.
Every time a new speaker speaks, begin a new paragraph. Indent that paragraph!
Put quotation marks around the spoken words.
“Only five weeks until graduation,” he said, jumping up and down.
“Yay. Happy for you. I’m a junior and I have four AP tests in the
next two weeks, so just chill on the celebrating, would ya?”
*2.
In the following lines of dialogue, underline the capital letters and circle
punctuation marks:
“Go to prom with me,” he ordered.
“Are you going to prom?” he asked.
She asked, “Will you go to prom with me?”
“Will you go to prom with me?” She handed her a bouquet of roses.
“Will you, my love,” he begged, “please, please go to prom with me?”
*3.
Put commas around direct address, or interjections. In the following lines
of dialogue, circle the commas and underline the direct address or
interjection.
“Mom, can I go out tonight?”
“Can I go out tonight, Mom?”
“As I was saying, Mom, I want to go out tonight.”
“Man, that was scary.”
“Hey Dude, what’s up?”
“I’ll be back by midnight, okay?”
4.
Spelling: OK is preferred. O.K. and okay are acceptable. Ok and ok are
incorrect.
5.
When including description with dialogue, keep the description in the paragraph
with the speaker to whom it refers.
CORRECT:
Andrea saw Darien walking across the quad and waved him over.
Hey, buddy,” she said. “Where ya been?”
He shook his head and then answered, “Like you don’t know.”
INCORRECT:
Andrea saw Darien walking across the quad and waved him over.
Hey, buddy,” she said. “Where ya been?” He shook his head and
then answered,
“Like you don’t know.”
6.
If only two people are talking, and it is clear who is speaking, you don’t need
speaker tags after every line.
“Hey!”
“Hey, what’s up? What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you, of course. Don’t you know I am your biggest fan?”
7.
In general said is a more sophisticated speaker tag than words such as chortled,
emoted, gulped, sighed. You might think said is too repetitive, but readers read it like
a period—the eye just skims over it. Use another word only if it is important
and readers can’t infer from the context. He whispered.
8.
In general, in speaker tags, avoid adverbs. She said wistfully. He chuckled
obnoxiously. She sighed dramatically. Write the dialogue well enough that we get the
emotion from context. You can have some descriptive sentences stand alone. “I
still miss him,” she said. She sighed dramatically.