6 Levels of Dialogue Every Writer MUST Master

Bookfox Academy (all 11 of my courses):

Timeline:
0:00 Intro
0:13 Foundations of Dialogue
1:30 Plot Based Dialogue
4:01 Character Voice
8:59 Wit
12:54 3 Types of Dialogue
17:20 Subtext

[capitanspoiler]

"Wisdom has been chasing you, but you've proven to be faster"

[TheArbiterOfWorlds]

I just wanted to say how refreshing it is to see writing instruction that actually is focused on the strengths that novels can offer and isn't just screenwriting advice repurposed for novelists.

[johnhughes]

I think it is also important to know which characters will use subtext. Some characters will be very direct in what they say, others will be subtle enough to talk around the edges of what they mean.

[BidwellRunner]

A quirk of Japanese writing is that they use three writing systems, hiragana (ひらがな), katakana (カタカナ), and kanji (漢字), and how much of each that a character speaks in tells you about the character. Hiragana and katakana are very simple and are learned in 1st grade, while around 2, 000 kanji characters are taught up until the end of highschool, and usually college educated people know around 4, 500 kanji.

In writing, young children, dog characters, etc often speak in just hiragana. Very educated or pretentious characters might speak using many obscure kanji characters. A character might use katakana because it is more "cool" and "slangy". There's a ton of variation and flexibility in when to use each, and it lets you differentiate characters without even changing what they are saying, just how it is written.

[zhadebarnet]

British, and I have NEVER seen the commas outside the quote marks

[johanullen]

Hey. I've only watched the first 90 seconds of the video but felt I had to comment. Even level 1, "the most basic stuff" is not trivial. I've kinda figured this out on my own, over a long time struggling with a good way to format dialogue, but having it detailed in this manner is very helpful. Don't underestimate the ignorance of the beginner.

[celestial-lwtd]

I wish more people knew your channel. This is genuinely so helpful, and more aspiring writers (and actual authors themselves!) need to be enlightened to this information. Keep doing what you do, you're solidifying inchoate versions of a dream into an actual goal out here. Thank you! <3

[aSnailCyclopsNamedSteve]

Indirect and summary dialogue are telling, direct is showing. Everyone for the last 50 years has been saying, 'show, don't tell' and so, few know how to tell. Erle Stanley Gardner is good at using both to keep a fast pace in Perry Mason stories. The main aim of mixing telling and showing is to maintain pace, as far as I have gotten. There are probably more purposes.

I would say witty dialogue is harder than subtext. You have to enjoy playing with words for the former. The latter is just a matter of editing with a purpose. Write a normal dialogue and when you go back to edit it, decide what not to say directly. You do have to give both speakers their own goals, esp. goals that clash. Thus, character A wants character B to do something but does not want to be responsible for forcing them to do it. Character B wants an excuse, like a direct order. Edit your dialogue with that in mind and subtext is easy. You simply need to find the right reason to have them avoid saying something AND make it realistic. The latter you do on the next editing pass. Mark each character's words in a different colour and read them as one text. That will help you to achieve consistency, which is oddly missing in the criteria.

[Audiblenod]

I just finished Pride & Prejudice and Direct/Indirect/Summary was all over that book. Jane Austin gear-shifted through all three like she was a rally driver. Moving from direct to indirect based off of who was speaking and what information was conveyed. Summary was for catching up the reader or for reiterating what was already said or written.

[TranslatorTuber]

Unfortunately, you showed the wrong David Mitchell. David Mitchell, the comedian, did not write Cloud Atlas. David Mitchell, the writer, did.

[scaper]

Level 1 "I got this, why do I need to know this?" Bro I'm always gaslighting myself into being unable to tell how punctuation is supposed to work. It's harder than you think.

[evanwoodward]

As someone who is guilty of overusing direct dialogue, this video has given me much to think about. I need to use more summary dialogue as too much dialogue can kill pacing. Amazing video, it’s taught me to rethink how I write.

[mighty_spirit]

Hey Bookfox! I just wanted to say that you seem to have been on a roll recently and to keep it up! I've been loving it.

[MLTHGAY]

4:27 its also a good idea to make long time friends sound similar, because people can influence eachothers vocabularies. They're friends for a reason, they are alike in some way.

[KazeKamiFooDjinn]

Cool! Can I add level seven? Quantum subtext. It's when the meaning of a monologue or a section of dialogue can be taken in one, two, or more different ways, and the story unfolds differently for different readers depending on their life experiences and knowledge base. It's when the reader also becomes a writer in the story they're reading.

[insquadwetrust]

Bookfox I love these videos, they're so high quality, thank you! I've been binging these vids instead of writing LMAO

[xbjrrtc]

This channel is quickly becoming part of my daily routine

[rascalap]

Oops! 9:51 - not that David Mitchell!! 😂 That’s the British comedian, not the author…

[evastrgar]

Finally someone made video about dialogue (in detail)

[brettsteinbook]

another thing Hills like white elephants does well is the characters talking across each other instead of directly answering each other. They have reasonable misunderstandings. When they do get direct, they get defensive like real people. it creates the atmosphere of tension, worry and conflict in the scene. this is a verbal fight scene with circling, back and forth, parries, dodging, lunges... great example of good dialogue.