: Re: How to give your characters enough dialogue? In my story, there are quite a lot of characters. It can be difficult for me to give them dialogue. For example, let's say that there are a five

@Nickens642

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I run into the exact same problem all the time. In my fantasy series, there are six main characters, not counting the antagonists. If I did count the (main) antagonists, there would be eight main characters. A lot. Sometimes when all my main characters are together, their conversations sound either too choppy or too planned, like they’re not even the ones talking. One way I fixed this is giving each of my main characters extremely distinct voices.
Example: one character has an accent.
Another character uses a lot of slang.
Another character is very formal.
Another character is always sarcastic and jokes around.
One character talks like me.
And my last character also talks like me because he happens to be the MC’s brother.
So if you have different voices for each of your characters, you will not have to use dialogue tags unless necessary, and your dialogue will seem less choppy.
Another way I fixed this is (if you haven’t already) getting to know my characters as actual people, not just figments of your imagination. Put your characters with the other characters and see what happens. Put them in difficult situations and see how they react. Get to know where they live, and how the people that live there talk. Do your research. A book without the proper research sucks.
I recently read a book that took place in London. The main characters were from London, their parents were from London, and they talked like they were from America. They’re names sounded like they were from India. It was extremely frustrating, so I just stopped reading the book.
Research is key. Weather your research your characters, dialogue, setting, names, accents, cause and effect, whatever.
(P.S. this site is great for research on how to write. I use it all the time.)

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