Dialogue Exercises - #2

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today we continue on our journey through dialogue exercises. If you missed post #1, please go back and take a gander here. If not, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

I'm not going to bore you all to tears with a repeat of what I said yesterday. Let's just dive on into the exercises!

Every exercise below calls for at least two pages of dialogue.

Exercise 4: Using dialogue to set mood.
Just like you can use dialogue to set a scene, you can also use it to set a mood. Stick two of your characters in a setting that will enhance the mood and let them discuss what they're seeing or feeling in the moment. For fun, try using a setting you'd never expect to see in your novel and let the dialogue flow. Focus on emotion and try to set the mood with speech rather than scene.

Exercise 5: Adding dialogue to action scenes.
Pull up an action scene you've written where there's little to no dialogue. Read it a couple of times and think about your character as you do. Recall their personality, habits, and opinions. Add no less than sixteen lines of dialogue that convey a few of those habits and opinions. Let their personality shine as you write.

Exercise 6: Increase the suspense with dialogue.
Every character has opinions. Write a scene in which two characters are going head-to-head over action items they believe will garner the desired resolution of the journey. Make it heated but use it to move your story along. Create conflict over something one deems appropriate and the other says will get everyone killed. Decide on an outcome.

Again, I hope you put at least one of these in your pocket and give it a try today. Come on back tomorrow for three more!

What exercises do you use to improve your written dialogue skills?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo