What is a dialogue? How a dialogue is written? What are some sample dialogues?

A Dialogue

How dialogue is written? What are some sample dialogues? Why we need to write dialogues? All these questions have been addressed in this post.

Dialogue means a talk between two persons. It is the combination of two words “di” and “logue“. Di means “two” and logue means “talk”. Dialogue writing is a basic feature of drama writing. Dialogues are simply a conversation between two persons. The writes just what two characters say to each other.

For example, a simple dialogue between two persons is as:

A: What is the time?
B: It is nine O’clock.

Thus a dialogue is the exchange of words between the two persons. Dialogue writing enables the writer to gain a command of spoken English.

The principles of writing dialogue:

1. Dialogues are written in spoken expressions – not in a formal literary language
2. Dialogues include abbreviations such as won’t, can’t, I’m, it’s and I’ll etc.
3. The exclamations like Good Heavens!, Really!, How nice!, Well done!, Superb! etc are used.
4. Instead of complete sentences, use phrases and punctuation.
5. The characters in the dialogue should illustrate the contextual knowledge of their trade
6. Dialogue should not be lengthy – usually, 1500 words are good

Your dialogue should be: