Dialogue is a useful tool for developing your characters and moving your plot forward. Dialogue can help you establish the backstory, and it can reveal important plot details that the reader may not know about yet. Dialogue is great for ratcheting up the tension between characters. Dialogue can also establish the mood.

Dialogue is defined as a literary technique that writers use to depict a conversation between two or more people. Quotation marks are used with quoting from source as well as to mark dialogue in an essay but the conventions around the two change. As such, it is important to know the difference between the two.

Dialogue also helps the writer reveal character traits. The main character in a personal narrative is the author, but the author’s interaction with others is also an important part of the story. The dialogue also conveys the characters’ emotions and shows how people interact with one another.

How to Format Dialogue in a Story

1. Use Quotation Marks to Indicate Spoken Word.
2. Dialogue Tags Stay Outside the Quotation Marks.
3. Use a Separate Sentence for Actions That Happen Before or After the Dialogue.
4. Use Single Quotes When Quoting Something Within the Dialogue.
5. Use a New Paragraph to Indicate a New Speaker.

conversation between two or more persons. the conversation between characters in a novel, drama, etc. an exchange of ideas or opinions on a particular issue, especially a political or religious issue, with a view to reaching an amicable agreement or settlement.

Dialogue should be enclosed within quotation marks. Each new line of dialogue is indented, and a new paragraph should be started every time a new person is speaking. It should be concise. Long, wordy passages of dialogue might seem like a good way to get information across, but they can be tedious for the reader.