I Can't Stop Thinking About Henry's Chapter And Firstprince Living Their Best Domestic Life😭

Writing Tips; Dialogue

Does your dialogue fall flat, or feel thin and strange? Does it feel like your characters are talking like robots? Do your conversations sound repetitive and monotone? We’ve all been there. It’s a very common occurrence amongst writers. Here are some of my favorite ways to avoid the monotone robot characters and add life and movement into your dialogue!

In this post, we’re going to have an example sentence that changes as I talk about different additions. Here it is in its naked, base form: “I know it’s real I saw it,” Nico said.

Now, let’s hop into making it lively, shall we?

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1) PUNCTUATION

Commas and punctuation are your best friends! Use them. Use the crap out of them. Many people will say commas can’t go here and they can’t go there, but I say, in dialogue, it doesn’t matter. If you want your character to pause but you don’t want to use an ellipsis because it feels too long, use a comma. Put them wherever you want. Wherever your character pauses. If your character is rambling or talking really fast, take them out. It’s your dialogue. Use any and all punctuation to bedazzle up your lines. There is never too many or too little of anything if you want it that way, folks.

Keep in mind, punctuation can change the whole feeling of your sentence and the way your readers imagine your character talking. For example, your punctuation should differ between an excited and a sad line.

Here is the example sentence, punctuated in two different ways. “I know it’s real, I saw it!” Nico said. “I know it’s real… I saw it,” Nico said.

Can you see how just the change in punctuation changes the way you imagine him saying it? Really hone in on how your character is speaking and punctuate it to show that. (Keep in mind that this is your story and your character. You don’t have to obey punctuation rules and writing stereotypes, your story obeys you.) Put whatever punctuation you want there. Use thirty commas in your sentence. Use an ellipsis after every word. If it makes your character sound how you want them to sound, go for it, friends!

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2) ITALICS

Some people hate reading over-italicized works, but that’s their own preference. Italics is a great way to add interest, movement, and a characters natural inflection into your dialogue. (I freaking love italics.) Italics helps readers understand what the character is focused on, and how they’re speaking. Again, people will say not to use it too much or only to use it so many times in a paragraph… but the key here is still to write it how you like it. Italics can make your sentences sound more human and more authentic.

Here is our pair of examples, now with punctuation and italics. “I know it’s real, I saw it!” Nico said. “I know it’s real… I saw it,” Nico said.

Take a minute and read through the example dialogue, imagining each word italicized one by one. Pay attention to the meaning and context it gives it. (For example, if the ‘I’ at the beginning is in italics — I know it’s real — that could imply that he’s talking to someone who doesn’t know or believe whatever he’s talking about is real.)

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3) DIALOGUE TAGS

Tags. Tags, tags, tags! Tags are so important! Tags are brilliant for clarifying and identifying exactly how your character is speaking and how they intend for the statement to come across. If you ignore every other tip in this post, don’t ignore the tag! There are so many different words you could use instead of said that give life and context to your lines. Muttered, mumbled, yelled, shouted, exclaimed, whined, groaned, whispered, and a ton ton ton more. Use these to your advantage, like an outline for your dialogue. The tag is undoubtedly the easiest way to make your lines come across the way you want them to.

Here’s the examples with different tags! “I know it’s real, I saw it!” Nico defended. “I know it’s real… I saw it,” Nico mumbled.

Don’t be afraid to move your tag around, either! Sometimes, in order to make your conversations less repetitive, moving your tags are nice. You can put them at the beginning, middle, or end! (Middle tags are my favorite, I use them a whole, whole lot…)

Here’s the example sentence with a tag at the beginning and middle. Nico growled: “I know it’s real, I saw it!” “I know it’s real…” Nico muttered. “I saw it.”

Don’t forget, tags don’t always have to be how they’re speaking. It can also be what they’re doing or how they’re acting, which can be just as telling as other tags. (I use action tags sooooooo much. Action tags in the middle of dialogue is my jam.)

The example sentences with action tags: Nico crossed his arms, huffing deeply. “I know it’s real, I saw it!” “I know it’s real…” Nico averted his gaze, staring down at his shoes instead. “I saw it.”

Or, you can mix them both! An action tag plus how they’re speaking for maximum impact and description.

Here’s the example sentence with both! Nico rolled his eyes, hissing: “I know it’s real, I saw it!” “I know it’s real…” Nico uttered, poorly stifling a shudder. “I saw it.”

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4) DESCRIPTION

Describing the way your character looks, moves, speaks, etc etc before and after the line can further help your readers know how they feel about what they’re saying. This is especially important if the character is not the main character and doesn’t have internal dialogue. Body language can explain things voices can’t or won’t. You can explore putting these descriptions before the line, after the line, in the tag, or after the tag. Whatever you prefer!

Here’s the sentence with descriptive sentences with it. I did one before the line & tag and one in the middle! He was practically fuming, his eyebrows knitted so closely together they looked like a single strip of hair. His eyes were flicking between his friends like he was trying to determine if they were joking, blue irises blurred with a rage-fueled haze. Nico finally rolled his eyes, hissing: “I know it’s real, I saw it!” “I know it’s real…” Nico uttered, poorly stifling a shudder. His eyes never left the floor, and he looked smaller, younger as he spoke. His breaths weren’t exactly even, but they weren’t too quick, either. “I saw it.”

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Look at those two very different scenarios we got out of the same base line! This is the power you hold, folks, the power to un-bland your dialogue and make it into something intense and memorable for your readers! The power to make it portray exactly what you want it to portray! No more worrying how your readers took that line, because you set in stone how it was presented.

Remember, making a paragraph like that for every line might get tiring or repetitive to read. Sometimes tags alone are good enough in fast-paced or long conversations, and sometimes, if the dialogue makes it clear who is speaking, the line can suffice by itself!

If you have any writing tip requests, drop them in my inbox!

where it all began….

this was the first rwrb art i ever made - tbh i thought it was a one-off and i never intended to post more art but as u can prob tell these lovesick homosexuals have taken over my life

Wrap me in your skin and bones, yeah, you're electrical

Oh, I'm gonna lose control, yeah, as you pull me close

Wrap me in your skin and bones, yeah, you're electrical

Oh, I'm gonna lose control

But I don't wanna stop, yeah, I just need to see

If your love's the truth or the spirit of deceit

No, I don't wanna talk, baby, give it all to me

There's honey drippin' from your teeth

First firstprince from me! ❤️🤍💙

Shoot Your Shot, Alex/Henry. M, 4.2k

Jimmy raises his eyebrows in anticipation. “First celebrity crush?”

As usual, Alex’s mouth is moving before his mind can catch up.

“Oh,” he gestures, like this is both obvious and the easiest question he’s ever been asked. “Prince Henry.”

You mentioned the ao3 author curse in one of your asks and I’ve never heard of this before? I am now super curious if you could maybe elaborate?

Oh BOY anon! Welcome welcome, this is a fun one.

You ever see one of those posts floating around, either here or on other social media, that's just a compilation of the most unhinged AO3 author's notes you've ever seen? The ones that are like "sorry this chapter is a day later than normal! My house was flooded and my fish died and my grandfather was struck by lightning three times in a row so I had to finish editing this in the hospital overnight. Please forgive me, next week will be back to our regular schedule!"

That's the AO3 author curse. It's not an always thing. It's not even a most of the time thing. But sometimes life goes to absolute shit, and sometimes that happens when you're in the middle of posting a fic, and sometimes you end up being incredibly apologetic about schedule slippage on writing that you are doing in your spare time for free while you're having to deal with Actual Real World Stuff and explaining why the schedule slippage occurred in the author's notes that makes your life sound completely batshit.

A couple of examples:

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CRACK

sideblog for weird or unhinged ao3 screenshots and quotes >:D feel free to send/submit yr own

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Im the one who just egged your house

starting a collection

(Me: I haven't yet had anything happen while posting, but while co-writing a fic with @ships-to-sail that was literally set in the afterlife and all about grief and the impact we have on the people we leave behind I had multiple family members/family friends die, which was uhhhhhhhhh not conducive to writing that particular subject matter lmao)

Two parallel universes: one where Arthur Fox has never been sick, so he and his family lived happily ever after, and our universe where Arthur Fox died from cancer. We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Because it was, you know. It was the best. Arthur Fox and his family and the days that never came.

rwrb fic: i offer you explanations of yourself

Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor

Summary: AU. Fresh off a frustrating Grindr interaction, Alex heads to Texas to do legal work at the border for three months. While he’s gone, June and Nora meet Henry and Pez and become friends, making Alex feel a little replaced. Things get worse before they get better, because when he finally meets Henry, Alex realizes it’s not the first time they’ve crossed paths. Told through texts, lists, emails sent and unsent and even a GrubHub order, this is the story of how Alex and Henry get from a bad second impression to maybe the rest of their lives.

Read on Ao3 HERE

hey next time i tell you i want to try exploring my newfound bisexuality remind me to go to a bar or a party or a midnight showing of the mummy at the sunshine but NOT GRINDR irl chaos demon i did warn you that grindr might be going into the deep end real fast, alejandro, but like spirit the stallion of the cimarron, your desire to figure out if liam’s drunk rambling was right could not be tamed irl chaos demon what happened?? i sent a picture of my face to this guy i’d been talking to for like a week, who i thought i was hitting it off with and he fucking ghosted me

When you hold me, it holds me together.

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😢🥹