All fiction is made up of a combination of narrative and dialogue. The narrative is not written with quotation marks, even though, technically, it's the narrator speaking to the reader. In a first person novel, the narrator is the main character and the sound of the book will be very personal and character specific. In a third person novel, the narrator will usually reflect the style of the main character, even though it is not the main character himself. Dialogue is the actual spoken conversations the characters have within the story. Dialogue is very important in writing for young people, particularly middle grade and young adult. Some readers will actively scan for dialogue before they begin reading because dialogue suggests that the characters are in charge of the story and that the story will be easier to read. However, dialogue isn't just endless chatter about nothing. Dialogue must serve to support and move the plot. Dialogue must be set inside the action of the story.

Good Dialogue/Bad Dialogue

Good dialogue must imitate but not duplicate real life conversation. Dialogue is how we would speak if we never hesitated, never lost our train of thought, and never engaged in pointless small talk. But good dialogue is casual and easy to read aloud. Good dialogue has clearly separate voices for each character. A discerning ear should be able to pick out who is speaking without the speech tag (the "he said" part) because each character should have different styles of speech. Good dialogue doesn't simply repeat the narrative but goes beyond narrative. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, so a good conversation should be more revealing than a whole page of narration.

GOOD DIALOGUE: As I grabbed the softball, the old man slammed his cane against the porch rail. "Get out of my yard."
NOT SO GOOD DIALOGUE: The old man bellowed at me to leave, "Get out of my yard."

Anatomy of a quote

The actual format of a quote can be tricky for some writers. We see dialogue in books and newspapers and magazines - but do we pay attention to the punctuation? Dialogue format can seem complicated, but once you get the "rules" down - it's not so tough.

Here are some recipes for dialogue:

[Quotation Mark] + Speech + [Comma, Exclamation Mark, or Question Mark] + [Quotation Mark] + Tag + [Period]
"I like you," Tom said.
"Stop it!" Lisa snapped.
"Stop What?" Tom asked.

Tag + [Comma] + [Quotation Mark] + Speech+ [End Mark] + [Quotation Mark]
Lisa whispered, "Stop saying that you love me."

[Narrative Action] + [Period] + [Quotation Mark] + Speech + [End Mark] + [Quotation Mark]
Tom frowned. "What's wrong with telling the truth?"

Narrative action are those bits of description or movement that hint at who is speaking but don't actually use speech words like "said" or "asked." Although there is no reason to make efforts to avoid the common speech tag -- he said or she said -- it is helpful to vary the speaker id with some action. This keeps the reader rooted in the moment and aware of surroundings, thus better able to imagine the scene. Narrative action can also be a nice way of breaking up the dull "he said" and "she said" patterns.

Look at this exchange using all narrative action - see how easy it is to identify the speakers? Clarity is essential in dialogue. If you make your reader guess at who is speaking, you'll pull attention away from the dialogue and onto the mechanics - that's always a bad idea.

"I don't think I'm going," Michael whispered.
"What?" Jenna stared at him.
"I think I am going to run away."
"That's it; you've finally lost your mind." Jenna stood and dusted off her rump. Then she stomped away.

It's important to know the difference between narrative action (which is not a mode of speech) and a speech tag. For example: "You're a dope." Joey laughed. (This is a bit of narrative action - NOT a speech tag. Laughter is not speech. Therefore the quote must end with a period, question mark or exclamation point and the narrative action must begin with a capital because with narrative action-quote combinations you are using two different sentences.)

A Litte More Format -- Really It Will Be Okay

Certain grammatical and punctuation conventions must be observed when writing dialogue (oh no…grammar and punctuation…eeeek). Whenever you change speakers, you change paragraphs. Hence, the following is wrong:

"Dad," Billy said, poking the back of the newspaper that covered his dad's face. "Yeah," Dad grumbled. "What?" "I thought we might go to the park." Billy tugged at the paper. "You said we would go today."

Each person needs his own paragraph - like this:

"Dad," Billy said, poking the back of the newspaper that covered his dad's face.
"Yeah," Dad grumbled. "What?"
"I thought we might go to the park." Billy tugged at the paper. "You said we would go today."

Each bit of spoken dialogue is enclosed in quotation marks, and set off from the speech tag with a comma. The speech tag begins with a lower case (unless you're using a name as the first word in the tag) and ends with a period. Thoughts are usually not enclosed in quotes but are part of the narration. They may be set off with italics or simply identified with a tag line.

You are such a twit burger, Jenny thought. "I don't mind helping," Jenny lied, her jaw aching from the fake smile. "I'm really glad you asked.

To write the best dialogue for young people, it is a good idea to listen to young people talk. Although you want to avoid using trendy slang, the general pacing and content of "kid speak" doesn't change as much as you might think. Kid speech is casual and the pacing of it is usually a bit staccato with short sentences and lots of movement during the dialogue. Familiarizing yourself with basic pacing and conversational content should help you write convincing dialogue for any age group. Just beware that your kids don't end up speaking like college professors. And remember, kids don't make a lot of declarations about feelings, rules, and personal morality - so those ideas are best explored through thoughts and actions. Don't let your characters all start sounding like their own moms.