What makes you stick with a story after the first 3–5 chapters?

[lizzyrose]

What are your favorite ways to make dialogue feel natural and engaging? Any tricks for keeping conversations interesting without slowing down the story?

 

[Tsuru]

Things is, people are kinda tired of the "exagerated/acting" vibes that anime/jp industry got.
And that is why Kazuma of Konosuba (anticliche)(like Deadpool) is liked.

Because there is this smoothless and natural vibes to it.
Also not sure if you know, but humans, when act, voluntarily or involuntarily, "fake" it. Some more obvious than others. (goal of acting being to reduce that)
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What you should do, isnt to think "this character will say that or this bc plot need it"
but more like "what will this character say in this situation OR what would I(the author) say if i was in his-her shoes"

Kinda like the seiyuu of kazuma ad-libed : yes yes kazuma-desu (the joke when others call kazuma ! kazuma!)(it wasnt in script at all but purely inserted by the voice actor)

So or you insert yourself in the character to think what they would say so it feels natural
or you ask your friend to do it for you.
Basically its like the self-insert method of acting. But likewise, be cautious of not being able to "get out".

-------------------------
Example :

What people want or crave, is the NORMAL BRAIN person like in this video:

NOT the retarded characters just here for the "plot".
Basically natural = normality.

 

[Arakun10809]

I don't think as I write dialogue, mainly because if I think too much, it doesn't sound natural. Much like a normal conversation, you don't think too much, unless something puzzling comes up. You only slow down there. Dialogue is kind of like a game of table tennis you want to keep hitting the ball back to the other end, and so on. If you think too much, you'll miss the ball, or it will fly over the other player. In some cases, it may accidentally hit the other player, which is where you realize you swung a bit much (or way too much). And these accidents happen, and then you kind of wing it from there and learn from your mistakes. Same thing with making characters talk to each other: a game of back and forth that will have hiccups (or may result in something explosive).

 

[code_sike]

Things is, people are kinda tired of the "exagerated/acting" vibes that anime/jp industry got.
And that is why Kazuma of Konosuba (anticliche)(like Deadpool) is liked.

Because there is this smoothless and natural vibes to it.
Also not sure if you know, but humans, when act, voluntarily or involuntarily, "fake" it. Some more obvious than others. (goal of acting being to reduce that)
----------------

What you should do, isnt to think "this character will say that or this bc plot need it"
but more like "what will this character say in this situation OR what would I(the author) say if i was in his-her shoes"

Kinda like the seiyuu of kazuma ad-libed : yes yes kazuma-desu (the joke when others call kazuma ! kazuma!)(it wasnt in script at all but purely inserted by the voice actor)

So or you insert yourself in the character to think what they would say so it feels natural
or you ask your friend to do it for you.
Basically its like the self-insert method of acting. But likewise, be cautious of not being able to "get out".

-------------------------
Example :

What people want or crave, is the NORMAL BRAIN person like in this video:

NOT the retarded characters just here for the "plot".
Basically natural = normality.

Wait, this is really good. Integrating this organically into plot-heavy scenes might be hard, but for anything in-between it definitely makes the characters feel more nuanced. Trying to balance real-feeling interactions with 'i need this to be brought up in conversation for x effect' is something a lot of new authors like me struggle with. especially when you have a story ready and a one minded approach to it.

also, love konosuba!

 

[Eldoria]

What are your favorite ways to make dialogue feel natural and engaging? Any tricks for keeping conversations interesting without slowing down the story?

Tricks for Building the Living Dialogue​

The first trick is to imagine the conversation as real dialogue, put yourself in the character's shoes, empathize with your character. What would you say in that situation?

The second trick, is to use body language to deepen the meaning of the conversation. In the real world, almost every conversation is usually accompanied by body language, even if it's just a nod or a smile.

The third trick, use subtext: say less, give more meaning. For example, if you disagree with the opponent's dialogue, instead of arguing with him for three giant paragraphs, you can respond "up to you" in a high tone while looking away (meaning you are tired of arguing and disagreeing with the opponent's comment).

The fourth trick, is to use the atmosphere as an extension of subtle tension in the dialogue. For example, if you are interrogating a criminal, use a dim room, a square table, two chairs facing each other, handcuffs, a black-covered book, a black pen, to build subtle tension during the conversation.

The fifth trick, is using the character's unique voice to identify who is speaking.

The sixth trick, uses subtle emotions to define the character's emotions and avoid raw emotions (emotions that are directly given by the narrator, such as happy, sad, etc). You can use dialogue, action, body language, psychological reactions, and atmosphere to build subtle emotions in your characters in the conversation.

A final (optional) trick: reduce dialogue tags only where possible to minimize distractions outside the dialogue.

Good luck!

 

[CharlesEBrown]

What are your favorite ways to make dialogue feel natural and engaging? Any tricks for keeping conversations interesting without slowing down the story?

Misleading thread title but...

To answer the question - consume a variety of media and not just one type. See what works and what doesn't, and try to balance.

I have some scenes with a lot of light banter - characters who know each other well tossing jibes back and forth for example. The models I try to follow for this are screenwriters like Amy Paladino (The Gilmore Girls) and David Mamet (tons of plays and several movies... most with pretty raw language). Writers who excel at rapid-fire, staccato delivery of lines.

I have some scenes which are straight up inspired by the comic books of the silver and bronze age (late fifties through mid-eighties - though some, like the various Spider-Man titles, or anything written by the late Peter A. David, continued this well into the modern age ... and the Marvel Cinematic Universe calls back to this era quite well), with characters taunting each other while fighting or engaging in strenuous action (action films of the 80s also did this quite well, come to think of it, with two of the best examples being The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension and Big Trouble in Little China).

Other times I use the dialogue to provide exposition and explain world-building elements. Sometimes I borrow from System stories for this (e.g. My Vampire System, Solo Leveling, even J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Iron Man movies also filled this role before he became The Vision), sometimes from "school" stories (Dumbledore served this purpose a lot in the Harry Potter books, as do Gandalf and Aslan).

 

[Bimbanana]

"Engagement" definitely.

What makes the story engaging?
Either the plot/stakes, the characters, the worldbuilding, the dialogues, the prose, the cliffhanger.
Well, its much better if all of those are present