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Q&A How can I accurately represent young adult dialogue?

Dialogue is not realistic. Human being speak very tediously and brokenly. What makes dialogue authentic is not the vocabulary or diction but the motivation. What does this person say, based on who ...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:48Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26565
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:03:03Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26565
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:03:03Z (almost 5 years ago)
Dialogue is not realistic. Human being speak very tediously and brokenly. What makes dialogue authentic is not the vocabulary or diction but the motivation. What does this person say, based on who they are, what they want, what they are trying to conceal, and what they want people to think of them.

It is not that you can't convey certain elements of the tone of realistic speech, but it will only be certain notes, just enough to call realistic speech patterns to the reader's mind. What is far more important is to remember that every character presents a mask to the other characters, and their speech is designed to maintain that mask. What they choose to say, not how they say it, is the real key to authentic dialogue.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-07T06:01:27Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 3