Character Dialogue: Outer Dialogue, Inner Dialogue, Body Language, & Dialogue Tags

Character dialogue is one of the six essential story elements that isn't always needed but can really enhance a story when included in a short story or novel. Dialogue is more than just chit-chat or verbal communication, but it allows readers to know more about characters' fears, desires, inner worlds, motivations, and personalities within a fictional story aside from what role they play, what they do, or what physically look like on the surface. Most writers refer to character dialogue as verbal conversation between two of more characters, but for a shorter and broader definition, it's the expressions of characters. There are also two different types of dialogue, including outer dialogue and inner dialogue. Let's differentiate between the two of them, as well as how to write each of them properly below.

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WATCH THE EPISODE

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See episode 6 of season 3 of my Journey of a Christian Writer series, Character Dialogue: Outer Dialogue, Inner Dialogue, Body Language, & Dialogue Tags, or continue reading the blog post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgaWIbScaQs

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OUTER DIALOGUE

Outer dialogue is a written conversation in the external story world between two of more characters in a story, which is often surrounded by quotations marks. A written example of this type of dialogue is shown below from an excerpt of my debut Christian Romance novel, Eva's Promise between my two lead characters Andre and Eva Lucas and their phone call conversation in chapter two.

E.g. from Chapter 2 of Eva's Promise:

Eva's iPhone on the dresser rang, interrupting her muse. "Oh, hello?"

"Hey, it's me, Andre. I'm calling to let you know I've closed my clinic and I'm about to get to the parking lot."

Eva grinned and played with her damp, wavy, long hair. "Okay. So, how was work?"

"Perfect." Andre sighed and paused before making his next comment. "Emily came with her new kitten again."

Eva angled her head and turned down her mouth. "Aww...poor little girl."

(📌Note: In the bold red, you can see the verbal outer dialogue of my characters Andre and Eva, whereas the faded gray contains areas of "action beats" I placed in the scene.)

💡Tip #1: USE ACTION BEATS. To avoid writing "talking heads" or floating head syndrome in your scenes, include action beats into the narrative as shown in the above example to identify your speakers and distinguish one speaker from another. Action beats can consist of body language, such as facial expressions, or setting descriptions and details in a scene.

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INNER DIALOGUE

Inner dialogue is a character's internal monologue or thoughts. This type of dialogue explores the subconscious of story characters and can range from various different emotions of internal conflict, such as fears, hopes, worries, or desires. It's sometimes referred to as internal monologue because it's when a character talks to themselves within themselves. Below is an example of inner dialogue from chapter five of my novel Eva's Promise when Eva arrives at the hospital after her call from the police about her husband Andre's accident.

E.g. from Chapter 5 of Eva's Promise:

Hearing about her husband in surgery upset her stomach again. Had she sensed something would happen to Andre before he left home? Was her nausea a warning sign? Questions about Andre swam through her mind. What if he doesn't look the same? What if I don't recognize him? What if he's in a coma? Oh, no...what if he dies under the knife?

(📌Note: As you can see, Eva's anxious thoughts about her husband Andre are separated from the rest of the story narrative by being written in the red italics. The black text is the story narrative, and the faded gray is an action beat description.)

💡Tip #2: USE ITALICS OR QUOTATION MARKS. When writing inner dialogue or internal monologue, using italics or quotation marks allow writers to distinguish a character's internal thoughts from story narrative or verbal outer dialogue conversations.

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BODY LANGUAGE

Body language is nonverbal messages and communication through gestures, movements, mannerisms and other physical behaviors a person or animal communicates with others. For example, a man scratching his head, a woman waving her hand, or a boy pedaling on his bicycle. Writers can describe their characters' body language in many ways, such as facial expressions, posture, or through the five senses of sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. Action beats, discussed in the examples above, are also forms of body language. Below in the colored chart is a list of common types of body language with examples for each of them.

Facial Expressions	Body Movements	Physical Gestures	Touch	Space
Eyebrow raising, twitching the nose, blinking the eyes, frowning, smiling, gritting the teeth, licking the lips, fluttering eyelids, sniffing with nose, biting the lip, or rolling the eyes	Sitting, standing from a chair, bending knees or elbows, balling up fists, twiddling thumbs, twirling the arms, propping up legs, crossing the arms or legs, or rocking the hips	Pointing a finger, waving a hand, giving a thumb's up, giving a dismissive hand, nodding, shaking the head, giving an OK sign, shrugging, sighing, inhaling/exhaling or banging fist on table	Handshakes, patting on the back, running fingers through hair, hugging, kissing, cuddling a soft blanket or pillow, placing your hand on top someone else's	Distance between people, drawing closer, leaning forward, leaning backward, inching to or away

Using these and other types of body language, helps writers to create a balance with their dialogue and story pacing and allows them to bring their characters to life and show them rather than just tell about them to their readers. Body language can also be used to reveal character emotions and subtext in the story. Hence, this is the art of realistic fiction.

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DIALOGUE TAGS

Dialogue tags are phrase words at the beginning, middle, or end of dialogue that helps to identify the speaker or the tone of voice in a line of story dialogue. Some dialogue tags like said, added, replied, or stated are more neutral and some of the most common ones used by writers. Others are emotional or give distinctive tones, pitches, or actions, such as yelled, whined, chirped, grumbled, demanded, or whispered. Although dialogue tags are helpful to identify speakers, it's important to note writers shouldn't overuse these words, as this can slow the pacing of stories, and especially fast-paced action scenes. These tags are usually followed by a name of the speaker either before or after the tag. Preferably, I like to put character names before tags.

Below are examples of dialogue tags in the red bold text of some lines of dialogue:

"What time is it?" Luke said.

"Are you ready to go now?" John asked.

"Been ready. It's a quarter to five, and I don't want to be late for the meeting," Luke said.

"Fine by me. Let's hit the road," John replied.

💡Tip #3: USE SAID OFTEN. Readers pay more attention to the character dialogue rather than dialogue tags. Therefore, it's best to use "said" as much as possible and other dialogue tags sparingly. Avoid distracting readers or interrupting story pacing with fancy dialogue tags unless absolutely necessary for emphasis or distinction, as shown below.

"What time is it?" Luke asked.

"Are you ready to go now?" John said.

"Been ready," Luke snapped, "it's a quarter to five, and I don't want to be late for the meeting."

"Fine by me. Let's hit the road," John said.

 

(📌Note: Notice how the dialogue tag is placed in the middle of the dialogue for the second line of dialogue by Luke rather than the end. Remember, tags DO NOT always have to be placed at the end, but can break up dialogue with a pause, or be at the beginning of the line.)

💡Tip #4: WATCH YOUR QUESTIONS. Writers should be mindful and consider using "asked" or "questioned" sparingly, as this will already be implied to readers by the written question in character dialogue itself. Rather, writers can use action beats in place of these inquisitive dialogue tags, as shown in the example below.

E.g. John checked the time on his watch. "Are you ready to go now?"

CLOSING REMARKS:

Writers can take cool and clever approaches when it comes to writing character dialogue in a story or novel. By knowing the different types of dialogue and ways of expression, writers will have the tools to showcase their characters' deepest thoughts, feelings, and inner worlds to emotionally connect with their readers and create realistic, believable scenes. For more writing videos or tutorials, subscribe to my channel Journey of a Christian Writer series. Okay, that's it for this post. If you enjoyed it and found it helpful, please, give a (heart❤️), take part in the poll 🤔, and share your thoughts or comments 💬 below.) 

Happy Writing! 😊✍🏽💻

🤔Hey, writers, which type of character dialogue do you like writing the most?

• 🗣️Outer Dialogue
• 💭Inner Dialogue
• ☝️Body Language