At the heart of every story is its main character. And whether that character is inanimate or not, there is always always some exchange of conversation throughout the story.

This compositional risk is one of the most common of all. It only requires a minimum of one character, and a voice of some kind. Authors utilize this risk to develop characters, set the scene, as well as move the story along. The dialogue in a story is crucial to making the reader believe  in what is happening. Without such a thing, the story might come off as bland that the characters might be flat. There is risk in both using and not using dialogues.

They are also incredibly hard to craft. The author needs to know just what the character is like, and almost has to treat them as a good friend. It is very easy to get carried away in a story and let it roam where ever it wants to go, however that is not always the best for the story as a whole. Writers have to pay close attention to not only what the character is saying, but what they are not saying.

Body language, another form of dialogue or conversation, allows for the author to “show not tell” things about the story such as mood, appearance, and thoughts on any given subject. What is not said can also be used to move the story along– perhaps a character is avoiding saying something and there: plot.

Dialogue is much more than it seems to the regular reader. It’s a gateway into the mind of not only the writer, but also the character. It makes the story more believable as well as lets the reader dive right into the midst of it.

 

This has been an LPSA.