PREV: Level 3 - Lesson 1: Informing the Learner

NEXT: Level 3 - Lesson 3: Learner Decisions

Lesson information:

As you read the information below, look out for these learning points:

• Realistic dialogue should align with the character and situation, and should vary in speech patterns.
• To level up dialogue, read, listen, tailor to the experience, and read aloud.
• Why reading books, watching Youtube videos or just actively listening to people speak in public can help you become a better conversation author.

Writing Dialogue

→ Effective dialogue is what will make your experience come to life and feel real for your learner. Besides improving the learner experience, realistic dialogue will also help learners have a smoother transition to applying their skills in real world situations. The more you are able to mirror their real world experiences, the better!

Making it Feel Real

Realistic dialogue will align with the character (here’s where that character persona will come in handy!) and the situation. When you’re starting to write, consider the following:

• A person’s life and experiences will influence how they speak
• Examples:
• A high power New York-based attorney might speak in faster, shorter sentences than a farmer from the South
• An older or younger person might use idioms or slang terms that are specific to their generation
• A person with a higher level of formal education might use more formal language
• An excitable person might speak in more disjointed, rushed terms or use more hyperbole than someone who is laid back
• Try to reference real-world examples of how people similar to your character speak. Youtube can be a great resource for this!
• Try to avoid phonetically indicating a specific accent
• Neurally generated voices may not detect it or may mispronounce it
• Voice actors generally perform better when given a normally spelled line and asked to perform it in a given accent (if they are comfortable doing so)
• Be mindful, respectful, and intentional when writing in the voice of someone who is a different race, ethnicity, gender, age, economic class, or from a different region than you, as an author
• Whenever possible, work with a professional sensitivity reader or consult lived experience experts
• Remember there is a difference between “character” and “caricature”

• People rarely say exactly what they mean
• One of the most effective tricks as an author is to try to have a speaker convey an idea while speaking anything but what their actual opinion is
• No one-sided dialogue. Your learner has a goal in the conversation- all of your characters should have one too!
• Examples:
• A pharmaceutical representative who wants to sell a product + a doctor who wants to get the conversation over with so they can go enjoy lunch
• A supervisor who needs to give negative feedback + an employee who desperately wants to be promoted
• A new hire who wants to do a good job on their first day + a colleague who is training them and who is annoyed their friend got fired and is determined to annoy this new replacement
• If all characters shape their dialogue and interactions to align with the learner’s goal instead of their own, it is not only unrealistic- it is boring!

• Vary speech patterns
• Mix up what your character is doing- have a mix of questions, long monologues, short, pithy statements, and interjections
• This should be within what is realistic to the character above all else, but within that range, have variation!
• Sometimes shorter lines hit harder. Let a profound or emotionally charged line stand alone.

• Don’t adhere to correct grammar
• People almost always speak in contractions
• Do not → Don’t
• Going to → Gonna
• Cannot → Can’t
• Feeling true to the character is way more important than adhering to correct grammar rules

How Can I Level Up My Dialogue?

• Read!
• Notice what writers resonate with you.
• What speech patterns do they employ?
• How do their characters reveal information?
• Become a professional listener
• The next time you’re in a public place, be it a cafe, train station, etc, take a minute to listen to the people around you
• How do they speak?
• Is there anything that makes how they speak different from how you speak? Or different from how another person speaks?
• Read your writing aloud
• It may feel strange at first, but hearing a line aloud will often help you catch mistakes or awkward parts that you would have skimmed over while reading
• Tailor your dialogue to the experience
• When possible, spend time talking to your target audience of learners and/ or subject matter experts
• What are the things people talk about the most?
• What are the most challenging statements your learners will have to respond to?

📘

Mark this Lesson as ‘Completed’ in the Progress Tracker

Level 3 - Lesson 2: Writing Dialogue

Level 3 - Lesson 2: Writing Dialogue

Completed

…and then go to the next Lesson! 💪

Level 3 - Lesson 3: Learner Decisions

Level 3 - Lesson 3: Learner Decisions

Completed