Support for Indie Authors discussion

Swearing for some people is their natural way of talking. I've been around men and women who litter their speech with f bombs every time they open their mouths. It is a habitual way of speaking for them. When they don't use profanity, i'll ask them if something is wrong. I have a chacter like that. So it isn't always fear. They learned young how the men around them used it to appear tough. They embeaced the swearing until it became their normall

All the above advice is spot on and vey helpful. I would add that you should make sure your dialogue is necessary. Moves the plot forward, reveals character, and is engaging, and does double-duty.

Use action tags and inner thoughts alongside dialogue.
Dialogue tags are only needed every third or fifth line if only two characters are speaking.

Make sure each character has his/her own dialogue paragraph.

Character reactions with or without speech need their own paragraphs.

Don't be afraid to use white space. It is easier on the reader's eye and keeps dialogue clear, differentiating between speakers.

Make sure each piece of dialogue is true/unique to each character's personality. If you can pull that off, character tags become absolute.

Dialogue is fun to write and oftentimes your characters will go off on fantastic plot twists that you could not have anticipated. Have fun writing and let your characters loose!

Frances wrote: "Make sure each piece of dialogue is true/unique to each character's personality. If you can pull that off, character tags become absolute."

I wonder if you mean obsolete.

Potato potato lol

All the time swearing? Do you want to really be around those in a book? The only ones I found interesting were in L. A. Confidential. Not because of the swearing -- which was absent in the movie -- but because the story moved so fast.

No all caps for me; sounds gimmicky. :)

M.L. wrote: "All the time swearing? Do you want to really be around those in a book?"

The only book I've written where characters swear every time they open their mouths, those are the ones the main character isn't comfortable being around. Yes, it might drive off some readers, but everything we do can drive off readers. I was doing all I could to make poor Ben feel uncomfortable with these particular people.

M.L. wrote: "No all caps for me; sounds gimmicky."

It is. And you're not alone. I've seen people complain about Owen Meany for that reason, they couldn't get past the all caps. It bothered me a little at first, but after I got into the book I stopped noticing it. I believe John Irving did it as Owen thinks of himself as an instrument of God and there are a few things in his life that parallel Jesus, so the all caps was a bit of parody / mimicking Bibles that have Jesus' words all in red.

I honestly watch some movies that have deep emotional hooks and possibly play certain games. Then I read fiction with depth and learn how they go about arranging and typing the dialogue since you aren't writing a screenplay.

I'd outline the entire story and characters first. What drama or tragedy happens? Is there a love angle? Is it full of high octane action? Is it to creep people out with it's horror? It may sound like double the work but guarantee if you write whole storyline and cast first and then edit in dialogue based on the events you chose to right it'll be great.