Inland Empire (Hybrid): Writing Incredible Dialogue

Writing Incredible Dialogue

By Jenny Margotta

Writing dialogue can be so much fun—and so much work. When it’s done correctly, it individualizes your characters and adds a delightful layer to your stories. When it’s done incorrectly . . . well, let’s not go there.

Dialogue should sound as if the reader is listening to real people having actual conversations. People speak in partial sentences and contractions. They break all the rules of proper grammar and sentence structure. They flavor their speech with regional dialects, acronyms, foreign words, and their own personal idioms.

My tips for writing incredible dialogue will help you master the art of writing believable, character-establishing dialogue that will take your story to the next level.

Jenny Margotta is an author and professional editor. As an editor, Jenny has edited over 140 full-length books and numerous short stories in a wide variety of genres. She has also formatted over 60 books and has designed more than 50 book covers. She freelances for Stories to Tell Books, a small publishing house on the East Coast, and works closely with the High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club, as well as various independent authors across the country. She assists writers through every step of the writing process from concept to putting words on a page to holding a printed book in their hands.

As an author her portfolio includes technical articles and in-house publications written during her years in the corporate world, as well as opinion pieces, award-winning short stories, two fantasy-adventure novels, and a poignant novel about the emotional journey of a woman suffering the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease. Jenny has also taught classes on a number of writing-related topics at local high schools, the Federal Correction Center, and branches within the California Writers Club.

Jenny can be contacted at jennymargotta@mail.com.