"Dialogue: A Way to Talk it Out With Style!"

[Rezanta 373]

So, before you guys smite me and hang me for how late this is, I gotta ask, "Is there such thing as a time frame?"

 

Wait, who's talking? Who's being asked, what is going on?!

 

Hey folks! Rez here with a continuation of character developing. This time, we'll be talking about dialogue, and using the character's personality within their words. For the sake of this example, I'll be using my gambler, Lek, and a demon named Anicor. I'll list the main aspects of their personality below.

 

Lek's Personality: Optimistic, Level-headed, Out going.

 

Anicor's Personality: Shy, Quirky, Energetic.

 

When a character talks, they need to have a target person/thing they're talking to. You can't leave this open unless there's a continuation of the dialogue between two characters. For example.

 

"Hi, bob," Jack said.

"Hello," Bob responded.

"How's your day?"

"Good."

 

With the example above, the first two lines show who's talking. Leaving either of those open allow for utter confusion to set in. It could be thought that Jack continued without a response, or that somebody outside of his target was responding. Also, something else that wasn't in those lines was emotion. You must convey the character's feelings, whether it is based off of their current mood, feeling of the topic, or even their personality taking over. If you don't, your game, story, or other projects will be really dull, and most will look for a new game to play. Now, there is one exception, and I've seen few pull this off. You can have a monotone-talking person be the center of a joke or some plots, but don't have them be the main focus of your game. Voices in voice acting know this rule all too well, if present, and I'm sure you've heard/read monotone language before. Reading your sentence out loud to yourself is a good way to listen for emotion, and that's where syntax--structure of the sentence and overall flow, basically--takes place. Following this, one last thing I wish to point out here is word choice. Words also help reflect emotion and give a three dimensional aspect to characters. For example:

 

"Hey, man. I just wanted to let you know how stoked I am for the game! I hope you remember how vivid your mom's determination was about you taking me. I'll be there around eight."

 

Vivid is a hard word to use, but if pulled off correctly, it gives a great amount of emotion, in addition to giving a better structure to your sentence/line. Determination is an emotion in its own right. Stoked is another example of emotion that takes the place of the word excited. Adding variety keeps people interested in what they're reading.

 

Now, the moment you folks might have already wanted me to get to... Interactions.

 

"Lek, w-what's a flower?" Anicor hid herself behind Lek as she pointed at the rather strange flower in a pot.

"I didn't expect you to shiver at the sight of a fragile being. It's a plant, like grass. For the most part, they're harmless, but there are a few exceptions. Some of Scalvose's flowers, like the Phenostar and the Quiriblit, are quite harmful to some species of life," Lek moved away from Anicor, leaving her in "sight" of the flower. "Go on, touch it. It's a perfectly harmless dandelion."

"What if I'm a-allergic?" she slowly stepped forward, flinching as she quickly jabbed her finger into the flower's center. She withdrew it to find her finger covered in a yellow powder, which caused her to well up in fear and start hyperventilating.

"Calm down! It's just pollen!" Lek grabbed her, hugging her tightly to a chair for her to sit on. With Lek's help, she slowly regained a calm demeanor.

"What is this p-p-powdery stuff?" she sniffed at it, sneezing after a couple seconds passed.

"As I said, it's pollen. It's how flowers reproduce," Lek smiled, his eyes shining with enjoyment.

 

With the example above, you can tell how Anicor is by nature, and how Lek responds to her actions and words. Anicor's nervous personality shines throughout the whole segment, and while Lek's mental opinions aren't stated, you can pick up a bit of it from his words and actions. You can also see how he feels about her, to an extent.

 

This pretty much sums up this section of the tutorial. Part three will be focusing on relationships and external/internal factors on life, which will help shape the character into (possibly) somebody you can be yourself. (You'll understand what I mean... Don't worry!)

[lonequeso 1,921]

 

When a character talks, they need to have a target person/thing they're talking to. You can't leave this open unless there's a continuation of the dialogue between two characters. For example.

 

"Hi, bob," Jack said.

"Hello," Bob responded.

"How's your day?"

"Good."

 

With the example above, the first two lines show who's talking. Leaving either of those open allow for utter confusion to set in.

 

There's always exceptions. 

 

Lonequeso looks over at Rezanta.

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

Rezanta stares blanky.

"Dont'cha hear me? Helllooo?"

 

Who is talking is inferred. I never liked adding *,lonequeso said/rezanta replied* over and over. There's only so many ways to say it and it gets pretty boring. if you have a lot of dialogue, it will come up a lot so it's always nice to change things up. 

 

 

With the example above, the first two lines show who's talking. Leaving either of those open allow for utter confusion to set in.

[Rezanta 373]

 

 

When a character talks, they need to have a target person/thing they're talking to. You can't leave this open unless there's a continuation of the dialogue between two characters. For example.

 

"Hi, bob," Jack said.

"Hello," Bob responded.

"How's your day?"

"Good."

 

With the example above, the first two lines show who's talking. Leaving either of those open allow for utter confusion to set in.

 

There's always exceptions. 

 

Lonequeso looks over at Rezanta.

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

Rezanta stares blanky.

"Dont'cha hear me? Helllooo?"

 

Who is talking is inferred. I never liked adding *,lonequeso said/rezanta replied* over and over. There's only so many ways to say it and it gets pretty boring. if you have a lot of dialogue, it will come up a lot so it's always nice to change things up. 

 

 

With the example above, the first two lines show who's talking. Leaving either of those open allow for utter confusion to set in.

 

Fair enough. I probably should reword it a bit, but I mainly go off the teachings passed down to me, the opinions of people who read my work, and also in terms of the books I read.

[lonequeso 1,921]

The way you have it is fine for the basics. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk