called a hook or a grabber.
I don’t want to close my eyes; it makes me feel awkward and exposed to be in a group of people with my eyes closed. Because of that, I keep my eyes open. The problem is when I keep my eyes open, I feel like some sort of horrible nonconformist rebel. I feel awkward with my eyes closed and I feel guilty if they are open. Either way, I just feel bad. Besides, half of the time when speakers tell audience members to close their eyes, they forget to tell us when we can open them. If you are wanting me to imagine a story, just tell me to imagine it, don’t make me close my eyes (rant over).
You should plan your opening to be intentional and with power. “Can everybody hear me” is a weak and uncertain statement and this is not the first impression you want to leave. Do a microphone check before the audience members arrive and have someone stand in different corners of the room to make sure you can be heard. Don’t waste your valuable speech time with questions that you should already know the answer to.
You should know that before you begin. Even if the presentations for the day are running over and you are the last speaker, you should ask the MC before you begin. Always plan your first words with power.
You should make your slides big, really big. Test out your slides in advance of your speech, walk all around the room and make sure you can read them. Have a friend check them out as well. You should know they are big enough because you planned for it and tested it.
People really hate having things taken away, not to mention that your audience may want to take notes on their devices. Chances are you are speaking to adults, let them determine if it is appropriate to have out their technology.
Stop apologizing! Stop making excuses! While these lines may be true, they just come of as excuses and can make the audience either feel like you don’t want to be there, or they just feel sorry for you.
Talking about your nervousness will make you more nervous and will make them look for signs of your nervousness. Just start your speech.
Do not start with hesitation. Plan the first words, memorize the first words, practice the first words. Do not start with “Ok, so um, now I’d like…” Plan strong and start strong.
Do Not Discuss Your Business with People Watching…Really! I Mean It! Many of us are giving and listening to presentations in an online format. I have attended numerous presentations this year through Zoom where I have to sit and watch while the organizers engage in personal small talk or deal with the details of the presentation. This is how the speech I recently attended began. “Donna, you are going to share your screen, right?” “Yes. I have my PowerPoint ready to go. Will you push “record” when I give the signal?” “Sure. Where did you say that button is again? Do you think we should wait five more minutes, I think we had more who were coming? Dave, what was the total we were expecting?” “Yeah, we had 116 sign up, but the reminders went out late so this may be all we have. We can give them a few more minutes to log on.” “Donna, How is your dog? Is she still struggling with her cone since her spay surgery? My dog never would wear the cone –she tore her stitches out and broke her wound open. It was terrible. Well, it looks like it is about time to begin, thank you everyone for coming.” If you are organizing an event online, hosting a speech online, giving a presentation online–please keep it professional. Most platforms will allow you to keep the audience in a waiting room until it is time to start. If you have a business to deal with, keep the audience out until you have everything ready to go. Once the audience is in the meeting, you should engage the audience in group-type small talk or you should just start the presentation. In professional settings, you should start the meeting on time. Why punish those who showed up on time to wait for those who aren’t there yet?
I asked my long-time friend, Bill Rogers, to write an excerpt to add to the book. I met Bill when he was the Chief Development Officer for a hospital in Northwest Arkansas and I met him again when he was reinventing himself as a college student getting a Master’s Degree in the theater. He would love to share a symbolic cup of coffee with you and give you advice about public speaking.
Perfect morning for a walk, isn’t it? Join me for a cup of coffee? Wonderful. Find us a table and I’ll get our coffee.
There you go; just like you like it. There’s nothing like a great cup of coffee on the patio of your neighborhood coffee shop, is there?
Now that you’re settled in your favorite chair, take a sip, and let that glorious caffeine kick in and do its stuff. Okay, let’s talk.
So, you were asking me about public speaking.
Well, let’s see. Where do we begin?
One of the first pieces of advice I ever received was to imagine that every member of your audience is sitting there in their underwear! Yeah, right. That never worked for me. I tried it once with a local civic group of community leaders both male and female. If the intent of that tidbit is to make you relax, it certainly didn’t work for me. It just made me more self-conscious…and more nervous. I not only got distracted, but I also lost my train of thought, I started sweating, and, of course, imagined myself standing there without clothes. Needless to say, that speech was a disaster and I’ve never used it again. I suggest you don’t either.
In the early days, I also relied very heavily on my typed-up speech. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that unless you find yourself reading it word for word as I did. Nothing is more boring nor puts an audience to sleep quicker than a speaker with their nose down reading a speech. There’s no connection and connection with your audience is key.
As you know, I love theatre and I’ve done a bit of acting over the years. Early on, I learned that the quicker I learned my lines, the more I could play, experiment, and shape my character. It relaxed me and gave me enormous freedom. It led me to find a mantra for myself: “With discipline comes freedom.” This freedom will allow you to improvise as your audience or situation dictates while still conveying the core message of your presentation. That discipline and its resulting freedom apply to public speaking of any kind and, I think, will serve you well.
Another old adage we’ve all heard is Aristotle’s advice. You know the one. No? Well, roughly, it’s to tell your audience what you’re going to say, say it, and then tell them what you just said. That’s the basic formula for public speaking. And it works as a good place to start.
However, effective speaking is much more and, to me, it starts with a story or even a simple sentence.
You know the feeling you get when you read the first sentence of a good book and it just reaches out and grabs you? That should be your goal with every presentation. One sentence to capture your audience’s attention. Something that causes them to lean forward. Something that sparks their imagination.
It doesn’t have to be all that profound either. It can be something very simple. A personal story that relates to your topic. A relevant fact or statistic that defines or illustrates the issue or subject matter at hand.
A couple of classics come to mind. The first is Alice Walker’s, “The Color of Purple.”
“You better not tell nobody but God.”
And the second one is from my favorite novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee.
“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm broken at the elbow.”
Both sentences hook you immediately. A few simple words speak volumes. After reading or hearing those words, you naturally lean in. You want to learn more. You want to find out what happens next. Every effective speech or presentation does the same thing.
Of course, make sure that the first and last thing you say to your audience is both relevant and appropriate. I share this out of an abundance of caution. I once worked for an internationally recognized and well-respected children’s research hospital and I was given the privilege to speak at a national educational convention. The room was filled wall to wall with teachers. I thought I’d be cute and add a little levity. I opened my presentation with this line, “You know, I’ve had nightmares like this…” Instead of the roars of laughter, I was expecting, a wave of silence ensued. Not only was the line not funny, but it was also wholly inappropriate and I immediately lost my audience. Not my best day. Learn from my mistakes.
Finally, let’s touch on the importance of approaching a speech as a conversation. You and I are sitting here enjoying our coffee and having a friendly, relaxed conversation. Strive for that every chance you get. You may not always have that luxury. Some speeches and presentations simply demand formality. But even in those cases, you can usually make it somewhat conversational. I always try to write my speeches in a conversational style. Like I’m talking to a friend…or trying to make a new one.
So, to recap: tell a story, learn your lines, hook your audience with a simple sentence, close with a question or call to action, use repetition, keep it conversational, treat your audience as a friend, and give yourself permission to relax.
Above all, be yourself. Allow yourself to be as relaxed as you are with those closest to you. If you’re relaxed, if you try to think of your audience as a friend, then, in most cases, they too will relax and they will root for you. Even if they disagree with what you are telling them, they will respect you and they will listen.
How about another cup?
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Advanced Public Speaking Copyright © 2021 by Lynn Meade is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
Storytelling is a great way to engage an audience-- but make sure your stories are relevant, not just riveting..
The value of storytelling in professional and executive communications is no secret. Inserting stories into your presentations humanizes you, creates magnetic engagement, and, ideally, memorably illustrates your point. An abundance of conferences, books, and articles are devoted to storytelling--so much so that if you don't have a story in your speech, you might want to reconsider speaking.
But telling a good story and sharing a story strategically are two different things. The first is designed to entertain--serving a minor objective at best, while the second is designed to illustrate your point--fulfilling a fundamental objective. What you want is an audience inspired to support you or take action. What you don't need is an audience merely thinking you're a great public speaker (unless your only objective is to get more public speaking gigs.)
If you include a story in your next presentation, consider five strategic ways to make that story matter.
In the context of a presentation, a story doesn't justify its own existence. Used most advantageously, the story is a powerful vehicle through which a meaningful point travels. Your goal is to make the story relevant, not just riveting.
Any true story can help propel a point--like a moment from your childhood, an eye-opening incident from your professional history, or an event you witnessed at a business location--but the key is connecting the interesting moment to an imperative message.
For example, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has been known to talk about an accident that left his father unable to work when Howard was a child and how that drives his interest in caring for Starbucks employees. Likewise, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh tells stories about his early days at the company , during which he recognized the value of building a corporate culture.
Both of these stories are deliberately designed to convey an important message or make a positive impression--not just to delight an audience or make the speaker more relatable.
The work of making your story relevant doesn't happen during the telling of the story; it happens after you tell the story, with critical connector lines like these:
"This story illustrates why we must..."
"This case study exemplifies the importance of..."
"This event proves what's possible if we..."
"This moment was pivotal in developing my appreciation for..."
These phrases put the story's point in virtual neon for the audience. Without these connectors, the story lacks a clear purpose.
At the end of the day--or a presentation--an audience that remembers your story but not your point is left with something amusing but not valuable. But an audience that remembers your point--even if they forget the story--is gifted with inspiring insight.
The best TED Talks are filled with stories--they virtually require it--but if you watch carefully, you'll spot these connector lines ("here's why I told you that story") expressed in various ways.
Of all the effective storytelling tips, these three are the most practical for presenters:
First, set the scene. Share the date and time of the day, the place (like a city or restaurant), and any necessary conditions, like weather or holiday seasons. These details help the audience visualize the story, which keeps them hooked.
Second, increase your volume. This helps the audience hang onto your words without straining to hear or understand, which can hinder their reception of the story and, consequently, your point.
Finally, embrace pausing. Pauses add suspense to the story but, more importantly, give your mind time to generate the right words and ideas to keep the story tight and precise.
The longer and more complicated a story is, the more likely it will bore or at least distract your audience , so keep it within one minute by omitting details that may be intriguing but pull attention away from your point instead of toward it. Speaking longer than one minute means you are performing, not presenting. As I sometimes say to my clients, "This isn't This American Life . Get in and get out of your story."
Humans connect with humans more effectively through relatable human feelings than recognizable events, so try to share a key learning, insight, or realization that sprung from the occasion. Sometimes that learning is your key point, and sometimes it leads to your key point, but unearthing and presenting it will make your story more personal and more valuable to the audience.
A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta
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One of the hardest things about public speaking is knowing how to start a speech. Your opening line is your first impression. It’s how you capture attention. It’s how you captivate the audience. So how do you make sure you nail it every time?
The best way to know how to open a speech is to look at what has worked in the past. When we examined the top speeches of all time and the most popular TED talks of all time, we found some interesting speaking patterns.
Time has identified the top 10 greatest speeches of all time. They are:
#1: Socrates – “Apology”
#2: Patrick Henry – “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”
#3: Frederick Douglass – “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery”
#4: Abraham Lincoln – “Gettysburg Address”
Opening Line: “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
#5: Susan B. Anthony – “Women’s Rights to the Suffrage”
#6: Winston Churchill – “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat”
#7: John F. Kennedy – “Inaugural Address”
Opening Line: “We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom — symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning — signifying renewal, as well as change.”
#8: Martin Luther King, Jr. – “I Have a Dream”
#9: Lyndon B. Johnson – “The American Promise”
#10: Ronald Reagan – “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate”
How do all of these historical greats start their speeches? Is there a difference between these and some of the more modern top TED talks?
Before we dive in, let’s recap with some critical do’s and don’ts when opening a speech:
Here are the opening lines to the top 10 Ted Talks of all time according to view count:
#1: Sir Ken Robinson – “Do schools kill creativity?” Opening Line: “Good morning. How are you? It’s been great, hasn’t it? I’ve been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, I’m leaving.”
#2: Amy Cuddy – “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are” Opening Line: “So I want to start by offering you a free, no-tech life hack, and all it requires of you is this: that you change your posture for two minutes.”
#3: Simon Sinek – “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”
#4: Brene Brown – “The Power of Vulnerability” Opening Line: “So, I’ll start with this: a couple years ago, an event planner called me because I was going to do a speaking event.”
#5: Mary Roach – “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm” Opening Line: “All right. I’m going to show you a couple of images from a very diverting paper in The Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine.”
#6: Julian Treasure – “How to Speak so that People Want to Listen” Opening Line: “The human voice: It’s the instrument we all play.”
#7: Jill Bolte Taylor – “My Stroke of Insight” Opening Line: “I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been diagnosed with a brain disorder: schizophrenia.”
#8: James Veitch – “This is What Happens When You Reply to Spam Email” Opening Line: “A few years ago, I got one of those spam emails.”
#9: Cameron Russell – “Looks Aren’t Everything; Believe Me, I’m a Model” Opening Line: “Hi. My name is Cameron Russell, and for the last little while, I’ve been a model.”
#10: Dan Pink – “The Puzzle of Motivation” Opening Line: “I need to make a confession at the outset here.”
What can we learn from these opening lines? There are some patterns that can help us. First, let’s start with what you shouldn’t do. Have you ever made one of these cardinal speaking sins?
Anything technical! This is a big mistake people make when they have not done a tech check ahead of time or are feeling nervous. Never start with these openers:
Your nervousness. Many people think it is vulnerable to start with how nervous they are about speaking — you can mention this later, but it should not be the first thing. Why? People will then only be looking for signs of your nervousness. Don’t start with:
A lackluster or non-believable nicety. It’s great to be grateful to the person who introduced you, but it’s not a great way to include the audience. It’s ok to thank the audience for being there—but do it at the end (not as your opening line). These are all too boring:
Boring, shmoring! I have an exception here if you can make it funny. Ken Robinson started with a nicety and then turned it into a joke. He said, “ “Good morning. How are you? It’s been great, hasn’t it? I’ve been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, I’m leaving.”
Get even more public speaking tips with our related resources:
A story. The absolute best way to start a presentation is with a story. There is nothing better to capture the imagination and attention of an audience. Try to use these speaking openers as fill-in-the-blanks for your speech.
In his talk, “The lies our culture tells us about what matters,” David Brooks started off with a great opening line AND a story. He said, “So, we all have bad seasons in life. And I had one in 2013. My marriage had just ended, and I was humiliated by that failed commitment.” Makes you want to watch right…
And if you need help on storytelling basics, be sure to check out some of my top 5 favorite speakers .
A BIG idea. Sometimes you want to share your big idea right up front. This can be helpful because it is intriguing and gets people clued in right away. All TED speakers try to integrate their big idea early.
I love how Stacy Smith starts off her talk with her big idea framed in an interesting way. She said, “Today, I want to tell you about a pressing social issue. Now, it’s not nuclear arms, it’s not immigration, and it’s not malaria. I’m here to talk about movies.”
Special Note: Be very careful to NOT deliver your one-liner by re-reading your title slide. You also want to position it as exciting and intriguing. For example, don’t say, “Today I am going to talk about body language.” Instead say, “Today I am going to teach you the single most important thing you can do to improve your charisma… and it starts with your body.”
A quirky one-liner. If you can use humor — do it! Humor or curiosity is a great way to start a speech on a high. You can get creative with these! Think of an interesting fact about you, your audience or your topic that can lead you into your content.
When I gave my TEDx London Talk I started off with a quirky one-liner that immediately got a few laughs. It was “Hi, I’m Vanessa and I am a recovering awkward person.” It worked so well it is also the first line of my book, Captivate .
II love the way Eve Ensler opens her speech with an interesting one-liner: “For a long time, there was me, and my body.”
This is a great tip from Conor Neill. He says that it is great to start with a question that the audience is asking themselves or would be very curious to know the answer to. This might be phrasing a pain point or worry for your audience.
See Cono Neill’s examples here:
Did you know…? Any interesting factoid or curiosity is bound to intrigue your audience. This is great if it leads into your content or a story. I like to start with did you know… Here are some that I use. You will have to fill in the blank for your audience:
Jamie Oliver does this amazingly in his TED Talk. He starts with this mind-blowing fact, “Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead through the food that they eat.”
Hopefully these opening lines will give you some ideas to use to open your speech.
Do you know how to end on a high? Leave a lasting impression in your presentation? Science tells us that the first and last parts of your presentations are the most important. Get our FREE download to get our closer guide.
20 thoughts on “how to start a speech: the best (and worst) speech openers”.
Love your material
didnt help me but still good stuff
Thank you Vanessa. I’ve been a public speaker for 25 years and I’m impressed with your content here. Thank you. Looking forward to a deep dive into more of your material. With gratitude.
Found these examples super informative. Can’t wait to mix match the examples to see which one will work best for my presentation!
I am preparing to make a presentation on Public Speaking and came across your article. This is very instructive and timely too.Many thanks.
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One of the biggest mistakes made by writers is how they use dialogue in their stories. Today, we are going to teach you how to write dialogue in a story using some easy and effective techniques. So, get ready to learn some of the best techniques and tips for writing dialogue!
There are two main reasons why good dialogue is so important in works of fiction. First, good dialogue helps keep the reader interested and engaged in the story. Second, it makes your work easier to write, read and understand. So, if you want to write dialogue that is interesting, engaging and easy to read, keep on reading. We will be teaching you the best techniques and tips for writing dialogue in a story.
Direct vs indirect dialogue, 20 tips for formatting dialogue in stories, step 1: use a dialogue outline, step 2: write down a script, step 3: edit & review your script, step 4: sprinkle in some narrative, step 5: format your dialogue, what is dialogue .
Dialogue is the spoken words that are spoken between the characters of a story. It is also known as the conversation between the characters. Dialogue is a vital part of a story. It is the vehicle of the characters’ thoughts and emotions. Good dialogue helps show the reader how the characters think and feel. It also helps the reader better understand what is happening in the story. Good dialogue should be interesting, informative and natural.
In a story, dialogue can be expressed internally as thoughts, or externally through conversations between characters. A character thinking to themself would be considered internal dialogue. Here there is no one else, just one character thinking or speaking to themselves:
Mary thought to herself, “what if I can do better…”
While two or more characters talking to each other in a scene would be an external dialogue:
“Watch out!” cried Sam. “What’s wrong with you?” laughed Kate.
In most cases, the words spoken by your character will be inside quotation marks. This is called direct dialogue. And then everything outside the quotation marks is called narrative:
“What do you want?” shrieked Penelope as she grabbed her notebooks. “Oh, nothing… Just checking if you needed anything,” sneered Peter as he tried to peek over at her notes.
Indirect dialogue is a summary of your dialogue. It lets the reader know that a conversation happened without repeating it exactly. For example:
She was still fuming from last night’s argument. After being called a liar and a thief, she had no choice but to leave home for good.
Direct dialogue is useful for quick conversations, while indirect dialogue is useful for summarising long pieces of dialogue. Which otherwise can get boring for the reader. Writers can combine both types of dialogue to increase tension and add drama to their stories.
Now you know some of the different types of dialogue in stories, let’s learn how to write dialogue in a story.
Here are the main tips to remember when formatting dialogue in stories or works of fiction:
Remember these rules, and you’ll be able to master dialogue writing in no time!
Dialogue is tricky. Follow these easy steps to write effective dialogue in your stories or works of fiction:
A dialogue outline is a draft of what your characters will say before you actually write the dialogue down. This draft can be in the form of notes or any scribblings about your planned dialogue. Using your overall book outline , you can pinpoint the areas where you expect to see the most dialogue used in your story. You can then plan out the conversation between characters in these areas.
A good thing about using a dialogue outline is that you can avoid your characters saying the same thing over and over again. You can also skim out any unnecessary dialogue scenes if you think they are unnecessary or pointless.
Here is an example of a dialogue outline for a story:
You even use a spreadsheet to outline your story’s dialogue scenes.
In this step, you will just write down what the characters are saying in full. Don’t worry too much about punctuation and the correct formatting of dialogue. The purpose of this step is to determine what the characters will actually say in the scene and whether this provides any interesting information to your readers.
Start by writing down the full script of your character’s conversations for each major dialogue scene in your story. Here is an example of a dialogue script for a story:
Review your script from the previous step, and think about how it can be shortened or made more interesting. You might think about changing a few words that the characters use to make it sound more natural. Normally the use of slang words and informal language is a great way to make dialogue between characters sound more natural. You might also think about replacing any names with nicknames that characters in a close relationship would use.
The script might also be too long with plenty of unnecessary details that can be removed or summarised as part of the narration in your story (or as indirect dialogue). Remember the purpose of dialogue is to give your story emotion and make your characters more realistic. At this point you might also want to refer back to your character profiles , to see if the script of each character matches their personality.
Once your script has been perfected, you can add some actions to make your dialogue feel more believable to readers. Action or narrative is the stuff that your characters are actually doing throughout or in between dialogue. For example, a character might be packing up their suitcase, as they are talking about their holiday plans. This ‘narrative’ is a great way to break up a long piece of dialogue which otherwise could become boring and tedious for readers.
You have now planned your dialogue for your story. The final step is to incorporate these dialogue scenes into your story. Remember to follow our formatting dialogue formatting rules explained above to create effective dialogue for your stories!
That’s all for today! We hope this post has taught you how to write dialogue in a story effectively. If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below!
Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.
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Short anecdotes for speeches are a fantastic way to end a presentation with a bang. These stories can be fiction, actual incidents from history, or even just funny stories from your own personal life. When you deliver them well, though, they have a lasting impact. I often use these short anecdotes for speeches when I’m trying to teach something meaningful to the audience. So, in most instances, speakers use these anecdotes in training sessions or motivational speeches.
The anecdotes themselves add entertainment and humor to a speech. But when you use the story to relay a greater message, they almost have a magic quality. When you tell an anecdote in a speech, spend time at the end tying the incident back to the main point of your presentation.
When my daughter graduated from High School, a local pastor delivered her commencement address. He used a well-known anecdote in a masterful way as the start of the commencement speech. Since he was a pastor, he told the story of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Being a professional speaker myself, I wondered exactly how he would tie that story to a graduation ceremony.
He went on to explain how many Christians might see a “Baptism” as the ending point. However, Jesus started his public ministry at his baptism. The pastor then shared with the graduating class that many of them are likely seeing the ceremony as the end of their schooling. In reality, though, commencement means the beginning. The speaker used the anecdote really well and inspired the graduating class with the short story.
So, I thought that it might be fun to just jot down a few of the most inspirational (or just funny) short anecdotes for speeches that I have come across in my career. Perhaps you can use them in your next presentation.
The parable of the pebbles.
Eventually, he saw in the distance what looked like an oasis. He moved as fast as he could to what could be his salvation. Just as darkness fell, he felt cool water on his sandal.
He dropped to his knees and began cupping water into his mouth with his palm thanking God that he had survived. Then, out of the darkness, he heard a big booming voice from heaven say, “Merchant! Reach down, pick up some stones, put them into your pocket, and in the morning you will be both glad and sad.”
Well, when a big booming voice from heaven tells you to do something, you tend to do it. So, he reached into the stream, picked up a few pebbles, and put them into his pocket. He then packed up his camel as fast as he could and took off.
When he felt like he was far enough away from the voice that he was safe, he made camp.
Laying under the stars, he finally realized that he had been pretty dehydrated. So, he convinced himself that he had just imagined the voice. When he woke the next morning, he felt something in his trouser pocket. He pulled the pebbles out of his pocket in amazement. They weren’t just ordinary pebbles. They were precious gems — diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, rubies… At that moment, he was both glad and sad.
He was glad that he picked a few pebbles up…
He was also very sad, though, that he hadn’t picked up more while he was there.
The parable of the pebbles is an analogy to training sessions. When we finish a training session without putting a lot of effort into the skill development, we will often be glad that we gained some skill. However, we can often look back and wish that we had worked a little harder so that we could have developed more.
However, he pulled out a bag of smaller pebbles like you would see in a fish tank, and poured them in as well. As he shook the jar, the smaller pebbles fell into the spaces between the large rocks. Again he asked, “So, is the jar full?” The group was more hesitant, now, though. So, they waited to see what he would pull out next.
Not to disappoint, he pulled out a bag of sand and poured it into the jar as well. “Now is the jar full?”
One of the high-achievers in the front row, learning his game said, “No, you can still pour water into the jar.”
Of course, he did.
The same woman in the front row then said, “I get it. The point is that no matter how busy our schedule is, you can always cram something else in, right?”
The consultant smiled at her and said, “Not exactly. My point is that the big items only fit into the jar at all because we put them in first. If you don’t focus on the big things like, spending time with your family and having a strong spiritual life, the little things will always seep in and take up all the space.”
Use the Rocks in a Jar Time Management parable to encourage people to focus on the most important things in life.
Finally, a vegetable farmer with a small cart came by. Seeing that the boulder was a great obstacle for his fellow merchants with wagons, he decided to try to move the bolder. He pushed and strained as fellow travelers watched. Eventually, he was able to clear the boulder from the roadway. As he went back to retrieve his cart, he noticed a money bag where the boulder had been. Inside was a dozen gold coins along with a note from the king thanking him.
You can use the Obstacle in Our Path Parable to show how every obstacle in our path is an opportunity for reward. However, most people see the obstacle and go the other way.
A troubled monk goes to his Abbott for guidance, and after listening intently, the Abbott asks the monk to join him on a walk. The arrive at a pond near the back of the monastery. The Abbott asks the monk to pick up a stone and toss it into the center of the pond. The monk complies. “Now,” said the Abbott, “as the ripples come closer to the shore, stick your finger in the water to try to stop them.” The monk tries, but as he sticks his finger in the water, the action just creates more ripples.
The confused monk looks at his mentor and says, “Abbott, I can’t. My actions just cause more ripples.”
The Abbott smiles, and says, “So, you cannot stop the ripples?”
“Correct,” said the monk.
“But could you have stopped yourself from tossing the stone into the pond in the first place”?”
This short anecdote has a ton of applications in a speech. I sometimes use it to show that often we spend a lot of time trying to mitigate a symptom versus fixing the actual problem causing the symptom. For instance, people will often come to my classes to reduce the number of times they say “uhhmm” in a speech or to avoid speaking too quickly. Those are just symptoms of nervousness, though. If you try to treat the symptom, it’s like trying to stop the ripples. However, if we help the presenter reduce the actual nervousness, the ripples go away altogether.
If you have a compelling story, anecdote, or parable that you like t0 use in your presentations, share it with us in the comments below. We will try to make this page a repository for great presentation anecdotes.
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Writing dialogue in a story requires us to step into the minds of our characters. When our characters speak, they should speak as fully developed human beings, complete with their own linguistic quirks and unique pronunciations.
Indeed, dialogue writing is essential to the art of storytelling . In real life, we learn about other people through their ideas and the words they use to express them. It is much the same for dialogue in fiction. Knowing how to write dialogue in a story will transform your character development , your prose style , and your story as a whole.
We’ve packed this article with dialogue writing tips and good examples of dialogue in a story. These tools will help your characters speak with their full uniqueness and complexity, while also helping you fully inhabit the people that populate your stories.
Let’s get into how to write dialogue effectively. First, what is dialogue in a story?
Indirect dialogue definition.
Dialogue writing exercises, how to format dialogue, what is dialogue in a story.
Dialogue refers to any direct communication from one or more characters in the text. This communication is almost always verbal, except for instances of inner dialogue, where the character is speaking to themselves.
Dialogue definition: Direct communication from one or more characters in the text.
In works of Fantasy or Science Fiction, characters might communicate with each other telepathically or through non-human means. This would also count as dialogue in a story.
The importance of dialogue in a story cannot be overstated. The words that characters speak act as windows into their psyches: we can learn lots about people by what they say, as well as what they omit.
Additionally, dialogue allows for the exchange of information, which will advance the story’s plot. Any story that involves conflict between two or more people must involve dialogue, or else the story will never reach its climax and resolution.
Inner dialogue is a form of communication in which a character speaks with themselves. This is, essentially, a form of monologue or soliloquy . Inner dialogue allows the reader to view the character’s thoughts as they happen, transcribing their doubts, ideas, and emotions onto the page.
Inner dialogue definition: a form of communication in which a character speaks with themselves.
Inner dialogue can also be a memory or reminiscence, even if the character is not consciously speaking to themselves. If the narrator shows us a memory that the character is currently thinking about, then that character is still offering something to the narrative by means of unspoken conversation.
It is not necessary for any story to have inner dialogue. However, if you plan to use dynamic characters in your writing, then it probably makes sense to show the reader what that character’s inner world looks like. Developing complex, three dimensional characters is essential to telling a good story, which requires us to have some sort of window into those characters’ minds.
Indirect dialogue is dialogue, summarized. It is not put in quotes or italics; rather, it neatly sums up what a character said, without going into detail.
Indirect dialogue definition: dialogued, summarized.
In other words, we don’t get to see how the character said something , we are only told what they said. This is useful for when the information is better summarized than told in excruciating details, because the narrator wants to get to the important dialogue, the dialogue that introduces new information or reveals important aspects of the character’s personality.
Haruki Murakami gives us a great example in Kafka on the Shore :
I tell her that I’m actually fifteen, in junior high, that I stole my father’s money and ran away from my home in Nakano Ward in Tokyo. That I’m staying in a hotel in Takamatsu and spending my days reading at a library. That all of a sudden I found myself collapsed outside a shrine, covered in blood. Everything. Well, almost everything. Not the important stuff I can’t talk about.
Every story needs dialogue. Unless you’re writing highly experimental fiction , your story will have main characters, and those characters will interact with the world and its other people.
That said, there’s no “correct” way to write dialogue. It all depends on who your characters are, the decisions they make, and how they interact with one another.
Nonetheless, good dialogue writing should do the following:
A close study in how to write dialogue requires a close study in characterization. Your characters reveal who they are through dialogue: by paying close attention to your characters’ word choice , you can clue your reader into their personality traits and hidden psyches.
Your characters will often reveal key aspects of their personality through dialogue.
One character who can’t stop characterizing himself is Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye . J. D. Salinger’s anti-hero could be psychoanalyzed for hours. Take, for example, this excerpt from Holden’s inner dialogue:
“Grand. There’s a word I really hate. It’s a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.”
What do we learn about Holden through this line? For starters, we learn that Holden is the type of person who analyzes and scrutinizes each word – just like writers do, perhaps. We also learn that Holden hates anything positive. Always a downer, Holden despises words of praise or grandeur, thinking the whole world is irresolvably flat, boring, and monotonous. He hates grandness almost as much as he hates phoniness, and both concepts are sure to make him sick.
Holden is a character who puts his entire personality on the page, and as readers, we can’t help but understand him – no matter how much we like him or hate him.
Dialogue is a great way to explore the setting of your story. When the setting is explored through dialogue writing, both the characters and the reader experience the world of the story at the same time, making the writing feel more intimate and immediate.
When the setting is explored through dialogue writing, the writing feels more intimate and immediate.
You might have your character wander through the streets of New York, as Theo does in The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Here’s an excerpt of inner dialogue:
“It was rainy, trees leafing out, spring deepening into summer; and the forlorn cry of horns on the street, the dank smell of the wet pavement had an electricity about it, a sense of crowds and static, lonely secretaries and fat guys with bags of carry-out, everywhere the ungainly sadness of creatures pushing and struggling to live.”
Notice Theo’s attention to detail, and the vibrant imagery he uses to capture the city’s energy. Of course, you might set the scene more simply, as Dorothy does when she says:
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
In only a few words, this line of dialogue advances not only the setting but also Dorothy’s characterization. She is innocent and operating from a limited frame of reference, and the setting could not be more different from her homely Kansas background.
Both methods of scene setting help advance the world that the reader is exploring. However, don’t explore the setting exclusively through dialogue. Characters are not objective observers of their world, so some information is better explained through narration since the narrator is (often) a more reliable voice.
Dialogue doesn’t just tell us about the story and the people inside it; good dialogue writing also advances the plot . We often need dialogue to reveal important details to the protagonist , and sometimes, an emotionally tense conversation will lead to the next event in the story.
At times, dialogue will advance the plot by offering a twist or revealing sudden information. We can all agree that the following lines of dialogue advanced the plot of Star Wars :
“Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.”
“He told me enough! He told me you killed him!”
“No. I am your father.”
And the following bit of dialogue catalyzed the plot of the entire Harry Potter series:
“You’re a wizard, Harry.”
The exchange of information is often what accelerates (0r resolves) a story’s conflict. Paying attention to word choice and the strategic revelation of information is key to using dialogue in a story.
Just like in real life, your characters don’t always say what they mean. Characters can lie, hint, suggest, confuse, conceal, and deceive. But one of the most powerful uses of dialogue writing is to foreshadow future events.
In Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet , Romeo foreshadows the death of both lovers when he exclaims to Juliet:
“Life were better ended by their hate, / Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.”
In saying he would rather die lovers than live in longing, Romeo unknowingly predicts what will soon happen in the play.
Foreshadowing is an important literary device that many fiction stories should utilize. Foreshadowing helps build suspense in the story, and it also underlines the important events that make your story worth reading. Don’t try to trick your readers, but definitely use foreshadowing to keep them reading.
Learn more about foreshadowing here:
Foreshadowing Definition: How to Use Foreshadowing in Your Fiction
We’ve talked about what dialogue writing should accomplish, but that doesn’t answer the question of how to write dialogue in a story. Let’s answer that question now—with some more dialogue writing examples in the mix.
Each character will have their own style of speaking, and will emphasize different things when they talk.
Your characters’ dialogue should be like thumbprints, because no two people are alike. Each character will have their own style of speaking, and will emphasize different things when they talk. You can make each character unique by altering the following elements of dialogue style:
You’ve already seen character differentiation from the previous quotes in this article. In this scene from The Catcher in the Rye , notice how differently Holden Caulfield speaks from the young woman he’s talking to—and just how much characterization is implied in their divergent voices:
“You don’t come from New York, do you?” I said finally. That’s all I could think of.
“Hollywood,” she said. Then she got up and went over to where she’d put her dress down, on the bed. “Ya got a hanger? I don’t want to get my dress all wrinkly. It’s brand-clean.”
“Sure,” I said right away. I was only too glad to get up and do something.
Aside from these two characters being different from one another, Holden speak differently than characters in other works of fiction. Can you imagine Holden Caulfield being Romeo in R&J ? He’d say something stupid, like “Juliet’s family are all phonies, but the funny thing is you can’t help but fall half in love with her.”
A more contemporary example comes from White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Every character in this novel is exceptionally well differentiated, even the minor characters—like Brother Ibrahim ad-Din Shukrallah, who appears only briefly towards the novel’s end. Here’s an excerpt:
“Look around you. And what do you see? What is the result of this so-called democracy, this so-called freedom, this so-called liberty ? Oppression, persecution, slaughter . Brothers, you can see it on national television every day, every evening, every night ! Chaos, disorder, confusion . They are not ashamed or embarrassed or self-conscious ! They don’t try to hide, to conceal, to disguise . They know as we know: the entire world is in a turmoil!”
Pay attention to the dialogue. What do you notice? What’s odd about the way he speaks? If you don’t notice it, the novel’s narrator gives us a hint:
“No one in the hall was going to admit it, but Brother Ibrahim ad-Din Shukrallah was no great speaker, when you got down to it. Even if you overlooked his habit of using three words where one would do, of emphasizing the last word of such triplets with his see-saw Caribbean inflections, even if you ignored these as everybody tried to, he was still physically disappointing.”
For more advice on characterization, check out our article on character development.
https://writers.com/character-development-definition
A common mistake writers often make when writing dialogue in a story: they use the same speaking style for that character throughout the entire story.
For example, if you have a character that tends to speak in wordy, roundabout sentences, you might think that every sentence of dialogue should be wordy and roundabout.
However, your character’s dialogue needs to take context into consideration. A wordy character probably won’t be so wordy if they’re being held at gunpoint, and their words might stammer or falter when talking to a crush. Or, in the case of Jane Eyre , the context might make your statement more powerful. Jane proclaims:
“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you—and full as much heart!”
As she lives in a society with strict gender roles, Jane’s statement—to a man, no less—is thrillingly bold and controversial for its time.
Your characters aren’t monotonous, they’re dynamic and fluid, so let them speak according to their surroundings.
If your characters just had a lengthy conversation, give them a page or two before they start speaking again. Dialogue is an important part of storytelling, but equally important is narration and description.
The following excerpt from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy has a great balance of dialogue (underlined) and narration.
“Are there any papers from the office?” asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, taking the telegram and seating himself at the looking-glass.
“On the table,” replied Matvey, glancing with inquiring sympathy at his master; and, after a short pause, he added with a sly smile, “ They’ve sent from the carriage-jobbers.”
Stepan Arkadyevitch made no reply, he merely glanced at Matvey in the looking-glass. In the glance, in which their eyes met in the looking-glass, it was clear that they understood one another. Stepan Arkadyevitch’s eyes asked: “Why do you tell me that? don’t you know?”
Matvey put his hands in his jacket pockets, thrust out one leg, and gazed silently, good-humoredly, with a faint smile, at his master.
“I told them to come on Sunday, and till then not to trouble you or themselves for nothing,” he said. He had obviously prepared the sentence beforehand.
You can see, in the above text, that about 1/3 of the writing is dialogue. This allows the reader to see the full scene while still viewing the conversation, making this an excellent balance of narration and dialogue writing.
Simply put: balance dialogue with your narrator’s voice, or else the reader might lose their attention, or else miss out on key information.
There are several different ways to format your dialogue, which we explain later in this article. For now, make sure you’re consistent with how you format your dialogue. If you choose to indent your characters’ speech, make sure every new exchange is indented. Inconsistent formatting will throw the reader out of the story, and it could also prevent your story from being published.
Just as important as the DOs, the DON’Ts of dialogue writing are just as important to crafting an effective story. Let’s further our discussion of how to write dialogue in a story: we’ll dive into what you shouldn’t do when writing dialogue, alongside some more dialogue examples.
When people talk, they don’t always talk linearly. People interrupt themselves, they change direction, they forget what they were talking about, they use pauses and “ums” and “ohs” and “ehs.” You can include a few of these verbal interjections from time to time, but don’t make your dialogue too true-to-life. Otherwise, the dialogue becomes hard to read, and the reader loses interest.
Let’s take a famous line from The Catcher in the Rye and fill it in with verbal interjections.
“I have a feeling that you are riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall. But I don’t honestly know what kind.”
With interjections:
Oh, man—I have a feeling, like, that you are riding for some kind of… a terrible, terrible fall. But, uh, I don’t honestly know what kind?
What do you think of the edited quote? The interjections make it much harder to read, much less personable, and honestly, they become kind of annoying. However, the quote with interjections is much more “true to life” than the original quote. Your characters don’t need to speak perfectly, but the dialogue needs to be enjoyable to read.
Dialogue tags are how your character expresses what they say. In the quote “‘You’re all phonies,’ Holden said,” the dialogue tag is “Holden said.”
Unique dialogue tags are fine to use on occasion. Your characters might yell, stammer, whisper, or even explode with words! However, don’t use these tags too frequently—the tag “said” is often perfectly fine. Notice how overused dialogue tags ruin the following conversation:
“How are you?” I stammered.
“Great! How are you?” she inquired.
“I’m hungry,” I announced.
“We should get lunch,” she blurted.
“I’m on a diet,” I cried.
“You poor thing,” she rejoined.
Sure, the conversation isn’t interesting to begin with, but the dialogue tags make this writing cringe-worthy. All of this dialogue can be described with “said” or “replied,” and many of these quotes don’t even need dialogue tags, because it’s clear who’s speaking each time.
This is doubly serious when dialogue tags are combined with adverbs : adjectives that modify the verbs themselves. Our intent with these adverbs is to intensify our writing, but what results is a strong case of diminishing returns. Let’s see an example:
“I don’t love you anymore,” she said.
“I don’t love you anymore,” she spat contemptuously.
Yikes! If your dialogue tags start distracting the reader, then your dialogue isn’t doing enough work on its own. The reader’s focus should be on the character’s statement, not on the way they delivered that statement. If she spoke those words with contempt, show the reader this in the dialogue itself, or even in the character’s body language.
Lastly: if you’re going to use a dialogue tag other than “said,” make sure the verb you use actually corresponds to dialogue. In other words, there needs to be a speaking verb before you describe some other sort of action.
Here’s an example of what NOT to do:
“I don’t love you anymore,” she stomped.
She might have stomped while saying that line, but “to stomp” is not a kind of communication.
The dialogue tag “said” is perfectly fine for most situations.
Everybody’s speech has a myriad of influences. Your characters’ way of speaking will be influenced by their parents, upbringing, schooling, socioeconomic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, and their own unique personality traits.
Of course, these personal backgrounds will influence your character’s dialogue. However, you shouldn’t let those traits overpower the character’s dialogue—otherwise, you’ll end up stereotyping.
Stereotyped characters are both glaringly obvious and embarrassing for the author. For example, J. K. Rowling didn’t do herself any favors by naming a character Cho Chang—both of which are Korean last names. Similarly, if all of your male characters are strong, charismatic, and loud, while all of your female characters are meek, helpless, and insecure, your writing will be both offensive and inaccurate to life.
Let’s explore this with two ways of writing a policeman.
“Don’t stand here,” said the policeman in front of the caution tape. “We need to keep this street clear.”
And here is lazy writing that takes no real interest in the character beyond one-dimensional surface traits:
“Move it along, folks, move it along,” said the policeman in front of the caution tape. “Nothing to see here.”
Neither policeman is going to win a dialogue award, but the second policeman doesn’t even seem like a real person . He’s written in unconsidered cliché: phrases we’ve all heard a thousand times, general ideas of what policemen tend to say.
Simply put, stereotyped dialogue is bad writing. Not only does it make your characters one-dimensional, it’s also offensive to whomever your characters resemble. If you’re going to be writing your characters from a careless, surface-level take, you might reconsider whether you want to write them at all.
What to do about this? The safest way to avoid stereotyping is to write using identities that you know both personally and intimately. If your writing takes you beyond those identities, then do your research: seek out, and truly work to internalize, a diverse array of input from people whose identities resemble those you’d like to write about.
For some writers, dialogue is the hardest part about writing fiction. It’s much easier to describe a character than to get in the character’s head, transcribing their thoughts into language.
If you feel like your characters aren’t saying the right things, or if the dialogue feels tricky to master, don’t get discouraged. Dialogue writing is difficult!
The following devices and exercises will help you master the art of writing dialogue in a story.
An important consideration for your characters is giving them distinct speech patterns. In real life, everyone talks differently; in fiction it’s much the same. The following devices will help you write dialogue in a story, as they offer ways to make your characters unique, compelling, and conversational.
Note: don’t try to use all nine of these devices for one character. Your dialogue should flow and feel consistent with the way people speak in real life, but if you overload your character’s speech with idioms, colloquialisms, proverbs, slang, and jargon, they won’t speak like anyone in the real world.
Use these devices as quirks for your characters. You can even use colloquialisms and vernacular to establish the setting, or use jargon to assign your character their occupation and social standing. Be wise, be strategic, and keep an ear for how people sound in real life.
Now, here’s how to write dialogue using 9 specific devices.
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that’s specific to a language, geographical region, and/or historical period. Mostly used in informal speech, colloquialisms will rarely show up in the boardroom or the courtroom, but they pop up all the time in casual conversation.
We often use colloquialisms without realizing it. Take, for example, the shopping cart. Someone in the U.S. Northeast might call it a “cart,” while someone in the South might call it a “buggy.”
In fact, colloquialisms abound in the history of the English language. When it rains but the sun is out, a native Floridian might call it a sunshower. A Wisconsinite will call a water fountain a “bubbler.” In the 1950s, a small child might have been called an “ankle-biter.” Nowadays, a New Yorker might describe cold weather as being “brick outside.” (Yes, brick.)
Colloquialisms help define a character’s geographic background and historical time period. They also help signify when the character feels comfortable and informal, versus when they are speaking in an uncomfortable or professional situation.
Vernacular refers to language that is simple and commonplace. When a character’s speech is unadorned and everyday, they are speaking in vernacular, using words that can be understood by every person in that character’s time period. (A colloquialism is often an example of vernacular.) For dialogue in a story, your characters will likely use vernacular, unless they try to avoid it at all costs.
The opposite of vernacular would be dialect, which is speech that is tailored to a specific setting, and is therefore not commonplace or universally understood. An example of vernacular is contrasted with dialect below.
A dialect is a type of speech reserved for a particular time period, geographical location, social class, group of people, or other specific setting. It is language that the entire population might not comprehend, as it uses words, phrases, and grammatical decisions that aren’t universally understood.
Here’s an example of modern day vernacular. The same sentence has been rewritten as though it were spoken by someone with a Southern dialect.
Vernacular: I am craving some coleslaw and a soft drink.
Southern Dialect: I’m fixin’ for some slaw and soda pop.
An English speaker who doesn’t hail from the American South may be tripped up by “fixing” and “slaw,” as those terms aren’t universally understood.
Do note: the words “coleslaw” and “soft drink” can also be considered dialects of other regions in the United States. However, these words will likely be understood across the nation.
A slang is a word or phrase that is not part of conventional language usage, but which is still used in everyday speech. Generally, younger generations coin slang words, as well as queer communities and communities of color. (Some of the terms below started in AAVE , or African American Vernacular English.) Those words then become dictionary entries when the word has circulated long enough in popular usage. Slang is a form of colloquialism, as well as a form of dialect, because slang terms are not universally understood and are often associated with a specific age group in a specific region.
Some recent examples of slang words and phrases include:
Jargon is a word or phrase that is specific to a profession or industry. Usually, a jargon word intentionally obfuscates the meaning of what it represents, as the word is meant to be understood solely by people within a certain profession.
Often, people let jargon slip from their tongues without realizing the word is inaccessible. For example, a doctor might tell their friend they have rhinitis, rather than a seasonal allergy. Or, someone well-versed in mid-century diner lingo might ask for “Adam and Eve on a raft” rather than “two poached eggs on toast.”
When it comes to dialogue in a story, the occasional use of jargon can help characterize someone through their profession. However, too much jargon usage will start to sound comical and inane, as most people don’t speak in jargon all the time.
An idiom is a phrase that is specifically understood by speakers of a certain language, and which has a figurative meaning that differs from its literal one. Idioms are incredibly hard to translate, because the meaning conveyed by the idiom does not appear within the words themselves.
For example, a common idiom in the United States is to say someone is “under the weather” when they’re feeling ill. No part of the phrase “under the weather” conveys a sense of sickness; at most, it might communicate that that person feels pushed down by the weather. But then, what weather? Could they be under “good” weather, too? These are questions that someone who doesn’t speak English natively will likely ask.
So, the literal meaning of “under the weather” is different from the figurative meaning, which is “ill.” Some other idioms in the English language include:
An idiom can also reveal regionality, as some idioms are only spoken in certain dialects. For example, when it rains while the sun is shining, a common idiom in the South is that “the devil is beating his wife.” This phrase is understood in other parts of the U.S. and might have its roots in folklore, but it is primarily spoken by people in the American South.
A euphemism is the substitution of one word for another, more innocuous word. We often use euphemisms in place of words and phrases that are sexual, uncomfortable, or otherwise taboo.
For example, when someone dies, you might hear their family member say “they kicked the bucket.” Or, if someone were unemployed but didn’t want to say it, they might say they are “between jobs” or “searching for better opportunities.”
Euphemisms present something psychologically interesting to a person’s dialogue. We often use language to mask that which upsets us most but which we are unwilling to confront or communicate. A euphemism for death is intended to mask the pain of death; a euphemism about unemployment is intended to mask the shame of unemployment.
We might also use euphemisms to hide information from people we don’t trust. Let’s say you’re in an intimate relationship, and don’t want the person you’re conversing with to know about it. You might pull out your knowledge of Middle English and say you’re “giving a girl a green gown.” Or, you might simply say you’re rolling in the hay with someone, to communicate your relationship while also communicating you don’t want to talk about it.
Note: even “intimate relationship” is a bit of a euphemism!
In dialogue writing, use euphemisms as hints to your characters’ psyches. In speech, what is omitted often says more than what is included.
A proverb is a short, oft-repeated saying that bears a wise and powerful message. Proverbs are often based on common sense advice, but they use metaphors and symbols to convey that advice, prompting the listener to place themselves in the world of the proverb.
For example, a common English proverb is “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” This means that it’s better to take away modest gains than to sacrifice those gains for something that may be unobtainable. Sacrificing the bird in your hand for two birds which may be impossible to own is a risky endeavor.
When it comes to writing dialogue in a story, proverbs educate both the protagonist and the audience. A proverb will often be spoken by an elder or someone with relevant experience to help guide the protagonist. The story’s events might also be a reaction to that proverb, either fulfilling or complicating it. Finally, a proverb might characterize the speaker themselves, cluing the reader into the speaker’s beliefs. Not all stories have proverbs, but stories with wise characters often do.
A neologism is a coined word that describes something new. Some neologisms are coined by authors themselves—Shakespeare, for example, coined over 2,000 words, many of which we use today. “Baseless,” “footfall,” and “murkiest” come from The Tempest , just one of Shakespeare’s many plays and poems.
Nowadays, most neologisms describe advancements in technology, medicine, and society. “Doomscrolling,” for example, describes the act of consuming large quantities of negative news, often to the detriment of one’s mental health. The word was likely invented in 2018, due in part to the increased access to information that technology gives us.
Other modern day neologisms include:
Some neologisms are portmanteaus, which is a word made from two other words combined in both sound and meaning. For example, “smog” is a portmanteau of “smoke and fog,” and it’s a neologism only relevant to the Industrial Revolution and beyond.
Neologisms are not to be confused with grandiloquent words , which are invented words used for the sole purpose of sounding intelligent (and which have become enduring facets of modern English).
In dialogue writing, neologisms primarily help situate the reader in the story’s temporal setting. No one would use the word malware in the year 1920. Additionally, words like “crowdsourcing” are far more likely to be used by younger generations, and they signify a certain sense of tech savviness and modernity that not everyone has.
Finally, neologisms are fun! You might even invent some new words in your own writing, though a neologism should be elegant and relevant, without drawing too much attention to itself.
Of course, the best way to learn how to write dialogue in a story is to practice it yourself. Below are some dialogue writing exercises to try in your fiction.
All of us have a personal vocabulary, meaning that we tend to choose the same set of words to describe something, even though our vocabularies are much larger. For example, I have a tendency to use the word “scandalous” when describing something. I often use it ironically or as a compliment, which is a trait of word-usage associated with Millennials and older Gen Z kids. This word is a part of my personal vocabulary, and though I don’t say it constantly, I often use it when I can’t think of a better word.
Your characters are the same way! Writing out a personal vocabulary for your characters might jumpstart your dialogue writing, and it also gives you something to fall back on in your dialogue while still providing depth and character.
Coming back—once again—to Holden Caulfield, his personal vocabulary might include words like: phony , prostitute , goddam , miserable , lousy , jerk . These words and phrases are rare overall, but they’re exceedingly common in his own personal way of verbalizing his experience of the world.
Sometimes, you just need to generate dialogue until you come across the right line or turn-of-phrase. One way to do that is to write what your character would say in different situations.
On a separate document or piece of paper, write what would happen if your character was talking to different people or talking in different situations. For example, your character might:
Explore what your character would say in each of these (and other) different scenarios, and you might just trick your brain into writing the next sentence of your story.
Instead of writing your character in different settings, be your character in different settings. Think about what your character would think while you’re doing the laundry, driving to work, or paying the bills. This habit will help you approach this character’s dialogue, as you develop the ability to turn their personality on in your brain, like a switch!
(Hopefully, you’re never caught in a bank robbery. If you are, maybe your character can save you.)
We’ve covered how to write dialogue in a story, but not how to format dialogue. Dialogue formatting is a relatively minor concern for fiction writers, but it’s still important to format correctly. Otherwise, you’ll waste hours of your writing time trying to fix formatting errors, and you might prevent your stories from finding publication.
There are a few different ways to format dialogue; for each of these examples, we will reformat the sentence “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” said Chief Brody.
Most writers and publishers use standard quotation marks at the beginning and end of the dialogue.
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” said Chief Brody.
A comma always separates the dialogue from the speaker. In this case, the comma goes inside of the quotation marks. Periods, semicolons, and em dashes also go inside the quotation marks. If you’re writing in British English, some conventions place the dialogue punctuation outside of the quotation, but both ways are acceptable.
Another way some people format their dialogue is by italicizing instead of using quotation marks.
You’re gonna need a bigger boat, said Chief Brody.
In this instance, you would fit the comma within the italicized text, as you would any other punctuation in the dialogue. Only the quote is italicized; the speaker remains unitalicized. The drawback of this formatting is that your dialogue might be confused with the character’s inner dialogue, which should also be italicized.
Finally, your dialogue formatting can eschew the use of quotation marks and italics. In this case, you would indent any part of the text that is dialogue, and leave narration un-indented.
Suddenly, the shark loomed behind the orca.
This way of formatting makes it easier to write without worrying about punctuation marks, but be warned that most publishers will change that formatting before publication.
If your sentence starts with the dialogue tag, put a comma before the quotation mark. Do capitalize the first letter inside the quotation marks, as this is, grammatically, the start of a sentence.
Chief Brody said, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
And, if your dialogue spans multiple paragraphs, do not use the end-quote until the very end of the dialogue, but start each paragraph with a new start-quote.
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat. “A boat this size can’t handle a shark,” Chief Brody continued.
Great dialogue is the true test of whether you understand your characters or not. However, developing this skill takes a lot of time and practice. If you’re looking for more advice on how to write dialogue in a story, check out our online fiction writing courses for dialogue writing tips from the best instructors on the net!
10 comments.
This was very helpful: I’m a French Canadian, living here in the US for the past 28 years, very fluent in English and this article will help me to polish my stories telling. I love to write spending a lot of time doing so, whether it’s a story, an email, documentation in my field (I’m an IT guy) and I’m now more confident about my writing.
I’m so happy to hear that, Richard. Happy writing!
As an aspiring writer, this helped me a lot!
Great article! Nice job capturing so many elements and explaining things so well. I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
The only thing that puzzled me was in the following section (watch for the **):
If your sentence starts with the dialogue tag, put a comma before the quotation mark. **In this case, do not capitalize the first letter inside the quotation marks.**
Chief Brody said, “you’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
I’ve never seen that guidance before. I thought you were supposed to capitalize the first word of complete dialogue sentences regardless of speaker attribution placement. Might this be a mistake? Or a vestige from a previous edit?
You’re absolutely right–that bit of advice was written in error. The start of a new sentence of dialogue should always begin with a capital letter. I’ve updated the text accordingly. Many thanks for your comment!
[…] How to Write Dialogue in a Story […]
Thank you, Nicole! I’m so glad you found it helpful. Happy writing!
Directed here from somewhere else. A novice when it comes to fiction writing and the proper use of English. I fid dialogue my most difficult in writing. I am glad for this. I get most of the gist now.
I came across your website while doing some research for my writing students and I have to say this is one of the best resources I’ve found when it comes to writing dialogue. Thank you for taking the time to put together such a valuable resource and one which I’ll be passing on to my students.
Thank you again!
Really great advice. One thing I often do is get my students to ‘capture conversations’ so they can hear the cadence of real dialogue. Then we look at how to make it more powerful by taking out most if not all of the ‘um’s, ah’s’ and other interruptions or interjections. It has improved the quality of my students written dialogue immensely. 🙂
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Do you believe in life after hemingway.
Before you get excited: I have no problem with “Hills Like White Elephants.” In this classic story, Ernest Hemingway demonstrates a masterful, subtle use of dialogue—so much so that it has become, if not a totally clichéd, then at least a ubiquitous text in creative writing classrooms. I myself encountered it at least four times by the time I got to grad school—where I proceeded to teach it to my own Introduction to Creative Writing class. It’s the circle of life. This is only to say that I’m not immune—but I also know there are plenty of other stories with strong dialogue out there, and as another school year (such as it is, in 2021) gets going, they’re probably worth a look too. Just for fun, you know?
So I asked the Literary Hub staff to suggest some of their other favorite short stories that do cool things with dialogue, and I’ve collected a few of them here. Obviously this list is not exhaustive—among other things, we also shied away from some other tried-and-true dialogue-heavy classics, like “The Dead” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and “Steady Hands at Seattle General”—and of course these stories are mostly not doing the same thing as “Hills Like White Elephants,” but they’re all doing something interesting. Just in case you want to mix it up a little this year.
Sam Lipsyte, “ The Dungeon Master ,” from The Fun Parts
Sample Dialogue:
The Dungeon Master has detention. We wait at his house by the county road. The Dungeon Master’s little brother Marco puts out corn chips and orange soda.
Marco is a paladin. He fights for the glory of Christ. Marco has been many paladins since winter break. They are all named Valentine, and the Dungeon Master makes certain they die with the least possible amount of dignity.
It’s painful enough when he rolls the dice, announces that a drunken orc has unspooled some Valentine’s guts for sport. Worse are the silly accidents. One Valentine tripped on a floor plank and cracked his head on a mead bucket. He died of trauma in the stable.
“Take it!” the Dungeon Master said that time. Spit sprayed over the top of his laminated screen. “Eat your fate,” he said. “Your thread just got the snippo!”
The Dungeon Master has a secret language that we don’t quite understand. They say he’s been treated for it.
Whenever the Dungeon Master kills another Valentine, Marco runs off and cries to their father. Dr. Varelli nudges his son back into the study, sticks his bushy head in the door, says, “Play nice, my beautiful puppies.”
“Father,” the Dungeon Master will say, “stay the fuck out of my mind realm.”
“I honor your wish, my beauty.”
Dr. Varelli says things like that. It’s not a secret language, just an embarrassing one. Maybe that’s why his wife left him, left Marco and the Dungeon Master, too. It’s not a decent reason to leave, but as the Dungeon Master hopes to teach us, the world is not a decent place to live.
Danielle Evans, “ Virgins ,” from Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
“Look what Eddie gave me,” said Cindy, all friendly. She pulled a pink teddy bear out of her purse and squeezed its belly. It sang “You Are My Sunshine” in a vibrating robot voice.
“That’s nice,” said Jasmine, her voice so high that she sounded almost like the teddy bear. Cindy smiled and walked off with Eddie, swinging her hips back and forth.
“I don’t have a teddy bear neither,” said Eddie’s friend Tre, putting an arm around Jasmine. She pushed him off. Tre was the kind of boy my mother would have said to stay away from, but she said to stay away from all men.
“C’mon, Jasmine,” Tre said. “I lost my teddy bear, can I sleep with you tonight?”
Jasmine looked at Tre like he was stupid. Michael put an arm around each of our shoulders and kissed us both on the cheek, me first, then Jasmine.
“You know these are my girls,” he said to Tre. “Leave ’em alone.”
His friends mostly left me alone anyway, because they knew I wasn’t good for anything but a little kissing. But I was glad he’d included me. Michael nodded good-bye as he and his friends walked toward their movie. Eddie and Cindy stayed there, kissing, like that’s what they had paid admission for. I grabbed Jasmine’s hand and pulled her toward the ticket counter.
“That’s nasty,” I said. “She looks nasty all up on him in public like that.”
“No one ever bought me a singing teddy bear,” said Jasmine. “Probably no one ever will buy me a singing teddy bear.”
“I’ll buy you a singing teddy bear, stupid,” I said.
“Shut up,” she said. She’d been sucking on her bottom lip so hard she’d sucked the lipstick off it, and her lips were two different colors. “Don’t you ever want to matter to somebody?”
“I matter to you. And Michael.”
Jasmine clicked her tongue. “Say Michael had to shoot either you or that Italian chick who’s letting him hit it right now. Who do you think he would save?”
“Why does he have to shoot somebody?” I said.
“He just does.”
“Well, he’d save me then. She’s just a girl who’s fucking him.”
“And you’re just a girl who isn’t,” Jasmine said. “That’s your problem, Erica. You don’t understand adult relationships.”
“Where are there adults?” I asked, turning in circles with my hand to my forehead like a sea captain looking for land.
“You’re right,” she said. “I’m tired of these little boys. Next weekend we’re going to the city. We’re gonna find some real niggas who know how to treat us.”
That was not the idea I meant for Jasmine to have.
Ottessa Moshfegh, “ The Beach Boy ,” from Homesick for Another World
The friends wanted to know what the prostitutes had looked like, how they’d dressed, what they’d said. They wanted details.
“They looked like normal people,” Marcia said, shrugging. “You know, just young, poor people, locals. But they were very complimentary. They kept saying, ‘Hello, nice people. Massage? Nice massage for nice people?’ ”
“Little did they know!” John joked, furrowing his eyebrows like a maniac. The friends laughed.
“We’d read about it in the guidebook,” Marcia said. “You’re not supposed to acknowledge them at all. You don’t even look them in the eye. If you do, they’ll never leave you alone. The beach boys. The male prostitutes, I mean. It’s sad,” she added. “Tragic. And, really, one wonders how anybody can starve in a place like that. There was food everywhere. Fruit on every tree. I just don’t understand it. And the city was rife with garbage. Rife! ” she proclaimed. She put down her fork. “Wouldn’t you say, hon?”
“I wouldn’t say ‘rife,’ ” John answered, wiping the corners of his mouth with his cloth napkin. “Fragrant, more like.”
The waiter collected the unfinished plates of pasta, then returned and took their orders of cheesecake and pie and decaffeinated coffee. John was quiet. He scrolled through photos on his cell phone, looking for a picture he’d taken of a monkey seated on the head of a Virgin Mary statue. The statue was painted in bright colors, and its nose was chipped, showing the white, chalky plaster under the paint. The monkey was black and skinny, with wide-spaced, neurotic eyes. Its tail curled under Mary’s chin. John turned the screen of his phone toward the table.
“This little guy,” he said.
“Aw!” the friends cried. They wanted to know, “Were the monkeys feral? Were they smelly? Are the people Catholic? Are they all very religious there?”
“Catholic,” Marcia said, nodding. “And the monkeys were everywhere. Cute but very sneaky. One of them stole John’s pen right out of his pocket.” She rattled off whatever facts she could remember from the nature tour they’d taken. “I think there are laws about eating the monkeys. I’m not so sure. They all spoke English,” she repeated, “but sometimes it was hard to understand them. The guides, I mean, not the monkeys.” She chuckled.
“The monkeys spoke Russian, naturally,” John said, and put away his phone.
Sarah Gerard, “ The Killer ,” from Guernica
They paid the bill and left, gathering on the sidewalk.
Nathan said to them, “We live down the beach. Come over.”
Amy tried to decline. Benjamin held her by the elbow. She allowed him to lead her, and by the time they reached the sand behind the Pelican, she’d managed to free herself, and catch up with Carol.
They walked the waterline.
“There is another option if you don’t want to kill them yourself,” Carol told her. Then, turning to Nathan: “We can put them in touch with Chance.”
Nathan fell into step with them. He draped an arm around his wife’s waist.
“Is Chance an exterminator?” said Amy.
“I hesitate to tell you more about our relationship,” Nathan joked. “I don’t talk God or politics in mixed company.”
“I’m a registered Democrat,” said Benjamin.
“He comes out and shoots the iguanas, then disposes of the carcasses,” said Carol. “He charges a reasonable fee.”
Nathan smiled.
“He actually became somewhat notorious when he posted some pictures of one of his hunts on Facebook recently,” Carol continued. “He can guarantee up to one hundred iguanas in a single hunt. He had them all laid out in rows with their legs bound, and huge plastic bins of dead lizards, rooms and hallways full of them. Then these happy white men in t-shirts with the sleeves cut off, posing.”
“You can imagine,” said Nathan.
“Thousands of shares. People calling him a murderer.”
“He’s doing our community a service, really.”
They climbed a narrow path worn into the sea grass. It led to the screened-in pool of a stone lanai furnished in rattan. Nathan went behind the bar with his phone to his ear. He fixed their drinks out of earshot. Carol invited them to sit on a loveseat. She offered them each a cigarette. They declined.
“I suppose you know too much about the consequences of smoking.” She lit the cigarette and drew out the motion of removing it from her mouth. A slip of smoke hovered between her lips. “My father was a pack-a-day smoker until he died at ninety-two. I figure I’m immune.”
“I’m not sure that would stand up to peer review,” said Benjamin.
“You’re right. Too emotional.”
Kevin Barry, “ Fjord of Killary ,” from Dark Lies the Island
So I bought an old hotel on the fjord of Killary. It was set hard by the harbor wall, with Mweelrea Mountain across the water, and disgracefully gray skies above. It rained two hundred and eighty-seven days of the year, and the locals were given to magnificent mood swings. On the night in question, the rain was particularly violent—it came down like handfuls of nails flung hard and fast by a seriously riled sky god. I was at this point eight months in the place and about convinced that it would be the death of me.
“It’s end-of-the-fucking-world stuff out there,” I said.
The chorus of locals in the hotel’s lounge bar, as always, ignored me. I was a fretful blow-in, by their mark, and simply not cut out for tough, gnarly, West of Ireland living. They were listening, instead, to John Murphy, our alcoholic funeral director.
“I’ll bury anythin’ that fuckin’ moves,” he said.
“Bastards, suicides, tinkers,” he said.
“I couldn’t give a fuckin’ monkey’s,” he said.
Behind the bar: the Guinness tap, the Smithwicks tap, the lager taps, the line of optics, the neatly stacked rows of glasses, and a high stool that sat by a wee slit of window that had a view across the water toward Mweelrea. The iodine tang of kelp hung in the air always, and put me in mind of embalming fluid. Bill Knott looked vaguely from his Bushmills toward the water.
“Highish, all right,” he said. “But now what’d we be talkin’ about for Belmullet, would you say? Off a slow road?”
The primary interest of these people’s lives, it often seemed, was how far one place was from another, and how long it might take to complete the journey, given the state of the roads. Bill had been in haulage as a young man and considered himself expert.
“I don’t know, Bill,” I said.
“Would we say an hour twenty if you weren’t tailbacked out of Newport?”
“I said I really don’t fucking well know, Bill.”
“There are those’ll say you’d do it in an hour.” He sipped, delicately. “But you’d want to be grease fuckin’ lightnin’ coming up from Westport direction, wouldn’t you?”
“We could be swimming it yet, Bill.”
Toni Cade Bambara, “ The Lesson ,” from Gorilla, My Love
“Will you look at this sailboat, please,” say Flyboy, cuttin her off and pointin to the thing like it was his. So once again we tumble all over each other to gaze at this magnificent thing in the toy store which is just big enough to maybe sail two kittens across the pond if you strap them to the posts tight. We all start reciting the price tag like we in assembly. “Hand-crafted sailboat of fiberglass at one thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars.”
“Unbelievable,” I hear myself say and am really stunned. I read it again for myself just in case the group recitation put me in a trance. Same thing. For some reason this pisses me off. We look at Miss Moore and she lookin at us, waiting for I dunno what.
“Who’d pay all that when you can buy a sailboat set for a quarter at Pop’s, a tube of glue for a dime, and a ball of string for eight cents? It must have a motor and a whole lot else besides,” I say. “My sailboat cost me about fifty cents.”
“But will it take water?” say Mercedes with her smart ass.
“Took mine to Alley Pond Park once,” say Flyboy. “String broke. Lost it. Pity.”
“Sailed mine in Central Park and it keeled over and sank. Had to ask my father for another dollar.”
“And you got the strap,” laugh Big Butt. “The jerk didn’t even have a string on it. My old man wailed on his behind.”
Little Q.T. was staring hard at the sailboat and you could see he wanted it bad. But he too little and somebody’d just take it from him. So what the hell.
“This boat for kids, Miss Moore?”
“Parents silly to buy something like that just to get all broke up,” say Rosie Giraffe.
“That much money it should last forever,” I figure.
“My father’d buy it for me if I wanted it.”
“Your father, my ass,” say Rosie Giraffe getting a chance to finally push Mercedes.
“Must be rich people shop here,” say Q.T.
“You are a very bright boy,” say Flyboy. “What was your first clue?” And he rap him on the head with the back of his knuckles, since Q.T. the only one he could get away with. Though Q.T. liable to come up behind you years later and get his licks in when you half expect it.
Ali Smith, “ The Child ,” from The First Person and Other Stories
You’re a really rubbish driver, a voice said from the back of the car. I could do better than that, and I can’t even drive. Are you for instance representative of all women drivers, or is it just you among all women who’s so rubbish at driving?
It was the child speaking. But it spoke with so surprisingly charming a little voice that it made me want to laugh, a voice as young and clear as a series of ringing bells arranged into a pretty melody. It said the complicated words, representative and for instance, with an innocence that sounded ancient, centuries old, and at the same time as if it had only just discovered their meaning and was trying out their usage and I was privileged to be present when it did.
I slewed the car over to the side of the motorway, switched the engine off and leaned over the front seat into the back. The child still lay there helpless, rolled up in the tartan blanket, held in place by it inside the seatbelt. It didn’t look old enough to be able to speak. It looked barely a year old.
It’s terrible. Asylum seekers come here and take all our jobs and all our benefits, it said preternaturally, sweetly. They should all be sent back to where they come from.
There was a slight endearing lisp on the “s” sounds in the words asylum and seekers and jobs and benefits and sent.
What? I said.
Can’t you hear? Cloth in your ears? it said. The real terrorists are people who aren’t properly English. They will sneak into football stadiums and blow up innocent Christian people supporting innocent English teams.
The words slipped out of its ruby-red mouth. I could just see the glint of its little coming-through teeth.
It said: The pound is our rightful heritage. We deserve our heritage. Women shouldn’t work if they’re going to have babies. Women shouldn’t work at all. It’s not the natural order of things. And as for gay weddings. Don’t make me laugh.
Then it laughed, blondly, beautifully, as if only for me. Its big blue eyes were open and looking straight up at me as if I were the most delightful thing it had ever seen.
I was enchanted. I laughed back.
ZZ Packer, “The Ant of the Self,” from Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
My father just got a DUI—again—though that didn’t stop him from asking for the keys. When I didn’t give them up, he sighed and shook his head as though I withheld keys from him daily. “C’mon, Spurge,” he’d said. “The pigs aren’t even looking.”
He’s the only person I know who still calls cops “pigs,” a holdover from what he refers to as his Black Panther days, when “the brothers” raked their globes of hair with black-fisted Afro picks, then left them stuck there like javelins. When, as he tells it, he and Huey P. Newton would meet in basements and wear leather jackets and stick it to whitey. Having given me investment advice, he now watches the world outside the Honda a little too jubilantly. I take the curve around the city, past the backsides of chain restaurants and malls, office parks and the shitty Louisville zoo.
“That’s your future,” he says winding down from his rant. “Sound investments.”
“Maybe you should ask the pigs for your bail money back,” I say. “We could invest that.”
“You keep getting money from debate, we could invest.”
When most people talk about investing, they mean stocks or bonds or mutual funds. What my father means is his friend Splo’s cockfighting arena, or some dude who goes door to door selling exercise equipment that does all the exercise for you. He’d invested in a woman who tried selling African cichlids to pet shops, but all she’d done was dye ordinary goldfish so they looked tropical. “Didn’t you just win some cash?” he asks. “From debate?”
“Bail,” I say. “I used it to pay your bail.”
He’s quiet for a while. I wait for him to stumble out a thanks. I wait for him to promise to pay me back with money he knows he’ll never have. Finally he sighs and says, “Most investors buy low and sell high. Know why they do that?” With my father there are not only trick questions, but trick answers. Before I can respond, I hear his voice, loud and naked. “I axed you, ‘Do you know why they do that?'” He’s shaking my arm as if trying to wake me. “You answer me when I ask you something.”
I twist my arm from his grasp to show I’m not afraid. We swerve out of our lane. Cars behind us swerve as well, then zoom around us and pull ahead as if we are a rock in a stream.
“Do you know who this is ?” he says. “Do you know who you’re talking to ?”
I haven’t been talking to anyone, but I keep this to myself.
Jhumpa Lahiri, “ A Temporary Matter ,” from Interpreter of Maladies
The microwave had just beeped when the lights went out, and the music disappeared.
“Perfect timing,” Shoba said.
“All I could find were birthday candles.” He lit up the ivy, keeping the rest of the candles and a book of matches by his plate.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, running a finger along the stem of her wineglass. “It looks lovely.”
In the dimness, he knew how she sat, a bit forward in her chair, ankles crossed against the lowest rung, left elbow on the table. During his search for the candles, Shukumar had found a bottle of wine in a crate he had thought was empty. He clamped the bottle between his knees while he turned in the corkscrew. He worried about spilling, and so he picked up the glasses and held them close to his lap while he filled them. They served themselves, stirring the rice with their forks, squinting as they extracted bay leaves and cloves from the stew.
Every few minutes Shukumar lit a few more birthday candles and drove them into the soil of the pot.
“It’s like India,” Shoba said, watching him tend his makeshift candelabra. “Sometimes the current disappears for hours at a stretch. I once had to attend an entire rice ceremony in the dark. The baby just cried and cried. It must have been so hot.”
Their baby had never cried, Shukumar considered. Their baby would never have a rice ceremony, even though Shoba had already made the guest list, and decided on which of her three brothers she was going to ask to feed the child its first taste of solid food, at six months if it was a boy, seven if it was a girl.
“Are you hot?” he asked her. He pushed the blazing ivy pot to the other end of the table, closer to the piles of books and mail, making it even more difficult for them to see each other. He was suddenly irritated that he couldn’t go upstairs and sit in front of the computer.
“No. It’s delicious,” she said, tapping her plate with her fork. “It really is.”
He refilled the wine in her glass. She thanked him.
They weren’t like this before. Now he had to struggle to say something that interested her, something that made her look up from her plate, or from her proofreading files. Eventually he gave up trying to amuse her. He learned not to mind the silences.
“I remember during power failures at my grandmother’s house, we all had to say something,” Shoba continued. He could barely see her face, but from her tone he knew her eyes were narrowed, as if trying to focus on a distant object. It was a habit of hers.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. A little poem. A joke. A fact about the world. For some reason my relatives always wanted me to tell them the names of my friends in America. I don’t know why the information was so interesting to them. The last time I saw my aunt she asked after four girls I went to elementary school with in Tucson. I barely remember them now.”
Shukumar hadn’t spent as much time in India as Shoba had. His parents, who settled in New Hampshire, used to go back without him. The first time he’d gone as an infant he’d nearly died of amoebic dysentery. His father, a nervous type, was afraid to take him again, in case something were to happen, and left him with his aunt and uncle in Concord. As a teenager he preferred sailing camp or scooping ice cream during the summers to going to Calcutta. It wasn’t until after his father died, in his last year of college, that the country began to interest him, and he studied its history from course books as if it were any other subject. He wished now that he had his own childhood story of India.
“Let’s do that,” she said suddenly.
“Say something to each other in the dark.”
“Like what? I don’t know any jokes.”
“No, no jokes.” She thought for a minute. “How about telling each other something we’ve never told before.”
Grace Paley, “ My Father Addresses Me on the Facts of Old Age ,” from Here and Somewhere Else
My father had decided to teach me how to grow old. I said O.K. My children didn’t think it was such a great idea. If I knew how, they thought, I might do so too easily. No, no, I said, it’s for later, years from now. And, besides, if I get it right it might be helpful to you kids in time to come.
They said, Really?
My father wanted to begin as soon as possible. For God’s sake, he said, you can talk to the kids later. Now, listen to me, send them out to play. You are so distractable.
We should probably begin at the beginning, he said. Change. First there is change, which nobody likes—even men. You’d be surprised. You can do little things—putting cream on the corners of your mouth, also the heels of your feet. But here is the main thing. Oh, I wish your mother was alive—not that she had time—
But Pa, I said, Mama never knew anything about cream. I did not say she was famous for not taking care.
Forget it, he said sadly. But I must mention squinting. don’t squint. Wear your glasses. Look at your aunt, so beautiful once. I know someone has said men don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses, but that’s an idea for a foolish person. There are many handsome women who are not exactly twenty-twenty.
Please sit down, he said. Be patient. The main thing is this—when you get up in the morning you must take your heart in your two hands. You must do this every morning.
That’s a metaphor, right?
Metaphor? No, no, you can do this. In the morning, do a few little exercises for the joints, not too much. Then put your hands like a cup over and under the heart. Under the breast. He said tactfully. It’s probably easier for a man. Then talk softly, don’t yell. Under your ribs, push a little. When you wake up, you must do this massage. I mean pat, stroke a little, don’t be ashamed. Very likely no one will be watching. Then you must talk to your heart.
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Last Updated: December 23, 2023 Fact Checked
This article was co-authored by Diya Chaudhuri, PhD . Diya Chaudhuri holds a PhD in Creative Writing (specializing in Poetry) from Georgia State University. She has over 5 years of experience as a writing tutor and instructor for both the University of Florida and Georgia State University. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 453,714 times.
Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, satire or drama, writing the dialogue may have its challenges. The parts of a story where characters speak stand out from the other elements of a story, starting with the quotation marks that are nearly universally applied. Here are some of the most common and established steps for making sure that your story looks right when you have to figure out how to properly format dialogue.
To format dialogue in a story, insert a paragraph break and indent every time a new speaker starts talking. Then, put what they’re saying inside a set of double quotation marks. If you're using a dialogue tag, like "She said" or "He asked," follow it with a comma if it comes before the dialogue or a period if it comes after. Also, remember to put periods, question marks, and exclamation points inside the quotation marks. For more tips from our Creative Writing co-author, like how to write good, convincing dialogue, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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The case, one of several this term on how the First Amendment applies to technology platforms, was dismissed on the ground that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue.
By Adam Liptak
Reporting from Washington
The Supreme Court handed the Biden administration a major practical victory on Wednesday, rejecting a Republican challenge that sought to prevent the government from contacting social media platforms to combat what it said was misinformation.
The court ruled that the states and users who had challenged those interactions had not suffered the sort of direct injury that gave them standing to sue.
The decision, by a 6-to-3 vote, left for another day fundamental questions about what limits the First Amendment imposes on the government’s power to influence the technology companies that are the main gatekeepers of information in the internet era.
The case arose from a barrage of communications from administration officials urging platforms to take down posts on topics like the coronavirus vaccine and claims of election fraud. The attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, both Republicans, sued, along with three doctors, the owner of a right-wing website that frequently traffics in conspiracy theories and an activist concerned that Facebook had suppressed her posts on the supposed side effects of the coronavirus vaccine.
“The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants’ conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the yearslong communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social media platforms, about different topics,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority. “This court’s standing doctrine prevents us from exercising such general legal oversight of the other branches of government.”
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, dissented.
“For months,” Justice Alito wrote, “high-ranking government officials placed unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans’ free speech. Because the court unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to the First Amendment, I respectfully dissent.”
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Gov. Gavin Newsom took on “delusional California bashers” and lauded the state’s economic prowess and inclusive values in an unorthodox State of the State speech that he shared in a video Tuesday on social media.
Repeating familiar tropes of past political speeches, Newsom cast the state as a force of light against dark conservative forces. He boasted about California’s work to protect civil rights and attacked Republicans in other states for “telling a woman she’s not in charge of her own body.”
“Our values and our way of life are the antidote to the poisonous populism of the right, and to the fear and anxiety that so many people are feeling today,” Newsom said. “People across the globe, they look to California and see what’s possible, and how we can live together and advance together and prosper together across every conceivable and imaginable difference.”
The prerecorded address marks the fourth year in a row that Newsom has broken the California tradition of the governor delivering the annual address to lawmakers at the state Capitol.
His GOP foes said the decision to reject the conventional setting again is an example of Newsom’s lack of commitment to the job as he expands his national profile.
“The governor has no respect for this institution,” said Assemblymember James Gallagher (R-Yuba City). “This governor acts like he’s too busy to do things that he’s supposed to do. He’s obviously able to do it in person.”
Newsom’s aides defended the governor, pointing out that the California Constitution only requires him to submit a written letter to the Legislature. Newsom invited lawmakers to a private reception at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento on Monday evening.
Prior governors have used the speech, which has been historically delivered in January, to outline their policy agenda for the year to lawmakers from both houses and political parties in the Assembly chamber. The typical address offers an opportunity to show deference to lawmakers, by appearing in person on their floor, and to gather their support for the work ahead.
But critics of the address call it a tired ritual in an era of one-party rule and say the value of the speech has been usurped by the budget, which has become the governor’s main avenue to drive policy change.
Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for sweeping mental health reforms to generate billions for behavioral health facilities throughout California.
March 19, 2023
Newsom, who dislikes reading off teleprompters because of his dyslexia, has not delivered the State of the State in the Capitol since 2020. Newsom’s address was streamed the following year from an empty Dodger Stadium , a mass COVID-19 vaccination site where the number of seats offered a symbolic representation of the California lives lost in the pandemic at the time.
The governor in 2022 spoke from the headquarters of the California Natural Resources Agency in Sacramento, a 21-story environmentally friendly glass tower blocks from the Capitol, and promised gas rebates to taxpayers. Newsom declined to give a speech last year and instead opted for a statewide press tour, where he sprinkled policy announcements at stops from Sacramento to San Diego .
The governor’s office said Newsom wanted to deliver the speech in the chamber this year and struggled to find a date that worked with the Legislature.
The speech was initially slated for March 13. The address was rescheduled after Newsom’s bond measure to fund mental health services, Proposition 1, remained too close to call for two weeks after the March 5 primary election . His speech was rewritten with a plan to deliver it on March 18 and then delayed again.
Despite the confidence he projected about Proposition 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ballot measure on California’s mental health services is leading narrowly.
March 15, 2024
Debates over how to solve California’s $46.8-billion budget deficit heated up the following month and continued until last week. Now lawmakers and the governor are staring down an impending deadline to qualify measures on the November ballot and negotiating with interest groups to rescind the initiatives they oppose.
Democratic Sen. Steve Glazer of Orinda was unfazed by Newsom’s nontraditional approach to the speech, saying simply that “we are in changing times,” and he respects the governor’s choice in how he delivers his message.
For one member of an earlier generation of lawmakers, though, Newsom’s video message came off like a snub.
“I hope it’s the last time it ever happens,” said Rusty Areias, who was a Democratic assemblyman in the 1980s and ’90s.
“It’s one of the things that members always look forward to. I understand the governor is very busy. I understand that there are national and international issues that are probably more important, but it is a tradition that in my mind is worth maintaining.”
In his address, Newsom touted his administration’s work to lessen homelessness and crime, two policy areas in which he’s most politically vulnerable.
“When it comes to America’s homeless problem, California’s detractors have similarly offered nothing but rhetoric, moaning and casting blame,” Newsom said. “No state, by the way, has done as much as California in addressing this pernicious problem of homelessness plaguing cities and towns.”
He pushed back on a narrative that California is “defunding the police,” saying the state is recruiting 1,000 California Highway Patrol officers and passing retail theft reforms this year.
In a lighter moment, he described the state as a “weird, wild, free-spirited” creative haven, home to the heavy metal band Metallica and rapper Kendrick Lamar and a place that invented “the popsicle, blue jeans and Barbie.”
Newsom’s speech alluded to the November presidential election, which he referred to as “another extraordinary moment in history — for California, for the country, and for the world.” He compared the moment to an “anxious” time in 1939, when then-California Gov. Culbert Olson in his inaugural address warned about the “the destruction of democracy” as fascism spread throughout Europe.
“We are presented with a choice between a society that embraces our values and a world darkened by division and discrimination,” Newsom said. “The economic prosperity, health, safety and freedom that we enjoy are under assault. Forces are threatening the very foundation of California’s success — our pluralism, our innovative spirit, and our diversity.”
Newsom is expected to travel to Atlanta this week to attend the presidential debate on Thursday as a surrogate for President Biden. The governor, who has built a reputation as a Democrat unafraid of taking the fight to Republicans, was invited by the Biden campaign to participate in media interviews before and after the debate to support the president and the party.
The governor used the speech to attack conservatives nationally over reproductive rights, an issue Democrats have tried to capitalize on in the election.
“When it comes to reproductive rights, their lies are designed to control,” Newsom said. “Their draconian policies are driving women to flee across state lines, as fugitives from laws written by men more than a hundred years ago. Some even go so far as to force victims of assault to give birth to their rapist’s babies.”
Sacramento Bureau Chief Laurel Rosenhall and staff writer Anabel Sosa contributed to this report.
June 26, 2024
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Taryn Luna covers Gov. Gavin Newsom and California politics in Sacramento for the Los Angeles Times.
June 29, 2024
World & Nation
First Lady Jill Biden gave President Joe Biden a warm welcome as he stepped on stage at an Atlanta hotel after Thursday night's debate − despite his performance sparking concerns about his candidacy .
"Didn't the president do a great job? Yes!" said Jill Biden to supporters who gathered at the hotel after Joe stepped on stage. After a brief pause, the crowd starting chanting "four more years!" before Jill joined in on the chant.
"Joe you did such a great job," she went on. "You answered every question, you knew all the facts." Then she turned to the crowd to ask, "And what did Trump do?"
"Lie!" they all shouted in unison.
Other reactions to the first debate were mostly negative. Here's a look at what people are saying.
Reporters for USA TODAY's network partners interviewed swing-state residents shortly after the debate ended to see how they thought each candidate fared.
A voter in Nevada compared President Joe Biden’s performance to elder abuse.
A voter in Georgia was so disgusted with what he was hearing from the Democratic incumbent and former President Donald Trump that he quit watching, walked to a liquor store and bought a six-pack of beer.
Another voter in Wisconsin called it “a painful experience.”
Morning show anchors had a variety of reactions Friday morning to what happened on stage Thursday night.
"The president struggled with answers...Trump struggled with the truth," "Good Morning America" host George Stephanopoulos said Friday morning at the opening of the show.
Pres. Biden and former Pres. Trump go head-to-head and trade personal attacks in first debate. @rachelvscott reports. https://t.co/ld2zv1VO9B pic.twitter.com/USbMbiObPu — Good Morning America (@GMA) June 28, 2024
"Both presumptive nominees were hoping to shake off concerns about their age and their fitness for office, but President Biden failed to land any knockout blows, and his stumbling performance is raising a lot of alarm bells for many Democrats this morning," "CBS Mornings" host Gayle King said.
"His struggles drew attention away from a blizzard of false claims from Donald Trump," "CBS News" Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes said in the post-debate report.
Both candidates are facing criticism after last night’s presidential debate, with Democratic lawmakers using words like “disappointing” and “painful” to describe President Biden’s performance. Some are now openly questioning whether it’s too late to replace him. pic.twitter.com/GgUkKtLAnM — CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) June 28, 2024
"Today" kicked off their Friday morning show with reactions and analysis to the debate with anchors from "NBC Nightly News" and "Meet the Press."
"President Biden's struggles in some ways overshadowing the multiple lies and grievances from former President Trump as both candidates now look ahead to rallies today in states they hope to win," "Sunday NBC Nightly News" anchor Hallie Jackson told hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie.
Contributing: Michael Collins, Melissa Cruz, Christina Avery, Fernando Cervantes Jr., Sabine Martin, Kerria Weaver, Laura Schulte, Matthew Rink, Chris Ullery, Mark Robison, Emily DeLetter & Karissa Waddick; USA TODAY
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at [email protected].
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Key Takeaways. Narrative speeches are a powerful way to share stories and ideas. They use personal experiences or creative tales to make messages memorable.; Effective narrative speeches require careful planning, from choosing the right topic to organizing thoughts in an engaging way.; Using descriptive language, vivid details, and expressive tone can help bring your story to life for listeners.
125 examples of narrative speech topics: - 40 'first' experiences, - 40 tell-a-story topics, - 35 personal story ideas. How to best use this page. Choosing the right narrative speech topic. How to get from topic to speech (with a printable speech outline to download) A definition of the word 'narrative'. A personal story is a powerful story.
1.Begin with your audience. You need to know who they are, what their likes and dislikes are, to get an idea of what you can, and can't share with them. The treatment or how you tell your story will vary between audiences, just as humor does. What is funny to one group may not be to another.
I've also got two pages of tell-a-personal-story speech topic suggestions that are perfect for honing skills. (If you're looking for suitable topics for the Toastmasters Level 3 Storytelling project, do check these out.) 125 narrative speech topics-This page includes a free printable narrative speech outline. 60 vocal variety and body language ...
Stories Help the Audience Become Emotionally Engaged. "Emotions are the condiments of speech," according to speech coach Nancy Duarte. They add spice and flavor to your talk. Emotions such as passion, vulnerability, excitement, and fear are particularly powerful.
7. Before you deliver the story, practice, practice and practice again - but don't memorize it. It's natural to feel nerves before sharing a story aloud. Become very familiar with your story ...
The following template can be used in more formal storytelling situations, where you are telling a story uninterrupted for an audience, often as a portion of a speech. As with any template, you might not need this tool; in fact, if it interferes with you being authentic, please disregard! That said, if it helps you get unstuck or get the ideas ...
In this post, which is adapted from the TED Masterclass app and his book, Anderson discusses how we can learn to use storytelling to elevate our speeches, presentations and talks. The best evidence from archaeology and anthropology suggests the human mind evolved with storytelling. About a million years ago our hominid ancestors began gaining ...
The biggest public speaking secret that I know is that you can do the exact same thing in your speeches. When you share stories of your successes, your audience lives vicariously through your stories. I remember growing up hearing the phrase, "Experience is the best teacher." After being a business owner for 20 plus years now, I realize how ...
After the Quest, the other fundamental stories are: Stranger in a Strange Land, Love Story, Rags to Riches, and Revenge. The way to think about these stories is as thematic ideas that you invoke as you go through your speech. You might do it with a specific reference to a particular, well-known Quest story, like the Holy Grail, the Wizard of Oz ...
Evokes a sense of empathy in them. Deciphers the importance of learning new lessons and gaining wisdom. Finally, your audience sees the value of your product or service. 2. Rags to Riches. We all love listening to success stories, especially when the protagonist has struggled from the depth of despair.
Narrative Speech Topics. Narrative speech topics list with public speaking ideas for a storytelling training I have categorized them in: Your Events, Life Lessons, Personal Experiences, Rituals and Your Identity. The main point is that you are talking about yourself. Your thoughts, feelings, ideas, views, opinions and events are the leading ...
Idea Number 6: Use character dialogue (with a quick narration set-up) in order to shorten your stories and pump life into them. There's far too much narration in many stories. Dialogue will shorten your stories. Idea Number 7: Don't just establish a conflict, escalate it. Idea Number 8: Don't be the Guru of your own story.
Story Capturing the audience through the story is one of the most powerful ways to start a speech. A story engages the brain in powerful ways and causes the audience's brains to sync with the speakers. A well-told story will allow the audience to "see" things in their mind's eye and to join the speaker's emotions.
If you include a story in your next presentation, consider five strategic ways to make that story matter. 1. Pick stories that prove, illustrate, or at least introduce your point. In the context ...
How to Format Dialogue in a Story. Formatting dialogue can be tricky, but consistency and familiarity with convention are essential to proficient writing. Use these nine formatting rules to structure your dialogue on the page. 1. Use Quotation Marks to Indicate Spoken Word. Whenever someone is speaking, their words should be enclosed in double ...
Opening Lines of the Top 10 Greatest Speeches of All Time. #1: Socrates - "Apology". "How you, men of Athens, have been affected by my accusers. I do not know.". #2: Patrick Henry - "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death". "Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope.".
Internal vs External Dialogue. Direct vs Indirect Dialogue. 20 Tips For Formatting Dialogue in Stories. How to Write Dialogue in 5 Steps. Step 1: Use a Dialogue Outline. Step 2: Write down a script. Step 3: Edit & review your script. Step 4: Sprinkle in some narrative. Step 5: Format your dialogue.
When You Use an Anecdote in a Speech, Tie the Story to the Greater Meaning of Your Presentation. The anecdotes themselves add entertainment and humor to a speech. But when you use the story to relay a greater message, they almost have a magic quality. When you tell an anecdote in a speech, spend time at the end tying the incident back to the ...
Writing dialogue in a story requires us to step into the minds of our characters. When our characters speak, they should speak as fully developed human beings, complete with their own linguistic quirks and unique pronunciations. Indeed, dialogue writing is essential to the art of storytelling. In real life, we learn about other people through ...
A slip of smoke hovered between her lips. "My father was a pack-a-day smoker until he died at ninety-two. I figure I'm immune.". "I'm not sure that would stand up to peer review," said Benjamin. "You're right. Too emotional.". *. Kevin Barry, " Fjord of Killary ," from Dark Lies the Island. Sample Dialogue:
3. Vary the placement of your dialogue tags. Instead of starting every dialogue sentence with "Evgeny said," "Laura said," or "Sujata said," try placing some dialogue tags at the end of sentences. Place dialogue tags in the middle of a sentence, interrupting the sentence, to change the pacing of your sentence. Because you have to ...
75-minute weekly classes are offered over a period of 6 weeks. Each week a special lesson is taught by the SpeechStory coordinator, followed by assigned speeches given by the students. Students are coached to run their own SpeechStory sessions through a prescribed in-person meeting format, which includes feedback and evaluations.
President Joe Biden addressed concerns over his age while speaking at a rally in North Carolina the day after a shaky debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
The case arose from a barrage of communications from Biden administration officials urging platforms to take down posts on topics like the coronavirus vaccine and claims of election fraud.
Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered his State of the State speech in a pre-recorded video shared on social media. The address is typically delivered live before California lawmakers.
First Lady Jill Biden gave President Joe Biden a warm welcome as he stepped on stage at an Atlanta hotel after Thursday's night debate.
In a speech to roughly 600 Environmental Protection Agency employees, Administrator Michael Regan, seen in 2021, recounted how the Trump administration hobbled the agency and how the Biden ...