: Re: How to write natural-sounding dialogue? Writing dialogue for my novel has proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. It all seems clunky and unnatural. Any tips for writing natural

@Twilah982

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When it comes to dialogue, always remember, it is a way to characterize your characters. That is, part of what the reader understands about the nature of your character's comes from their dialogue (i.e., we infer traits about them through what they say and how they say it). That being said, how do you want your characters to be perceived by the reader? Are the characters highly educated? If so, then maybe craft their dialogue to be more academic and stringent when it comes to prescribed grammar rules. Are your characters from a specific subculture (e.g., South Boston vs. Up-state New York)? If so, then craft the structure of their dialogue to reflect how someone from that subculture might speak? As long as your dialogue conveys the same traits to the reader that you believe it conveys, then the dialogue is doing it's job (as far as the characterization part of it is concerned).

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