Use dialogue to reveal character

Oct 13, 2025 by wbrum.org 140 views

Revising for Narrative Action: A Guide to Enhancing Your Storytelling Skills

As a writer, revising your narrative is a crucial step in the writing process. It's an opportunity to refine your ideas, strengthen your characters, and add depth to your story. In this lesson, we'll explore various narrative techniques that can help you take your writing to the next level. We'll discuss the importance of dialogue, character thoughts, and other techniques that can elevate your narrative.

Narrative techniques are the tools that writers use to convey their story and engage their readers. These techniques can include:

Dialogue: The conversation between characters that reveals their personalities, relationships, and motivations.
Character thoughts: The inner monologue of a character that provides insight into their thoughts, feelings, and intentions.
Description: The use of sensory details to create a vivid picture of the setting, characters, and events.
Imagery: The use of language to create powerful and evocative images in the reader's mind.
Symbolism: The use of objects, colors, or other elements to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Dialogue is a crucial element of any narrative. It allows readers to hear the voices of your characters, learn about their relationships, and understand their motivations. When revising your narrative, consider the following tips for adding dialogue:

Use dialogue to reveal character: Dialogue should reveal the personality, background, and motivations of your characters. Avoid using dialogue as a way to info-dump exposition or backstory.
Vary dialogue styles: Each character should have a unique dialogue style that reflects their personality, background, and motivations.
Use subtext: Subtext refers to the underlying emotions or motivations that a character is not expressing openly. Use subtext to add depth and complexity to your characters' dialogue.
Avoid info-dumping: Avoid using dialogue as a way to info-dump exposition or backstory. Instead, use dialogue to reveal information gradually and naturally.

Character thoughts are a powerful tool for revealing a character's inner world. When revising your narrative, consider the following tips for adding character thoughts:

Use character thoughts to reveal character: Character thoughts should reveal the personality, background, and motivations of your characters. Avoid using character thoughts as a way to info-dump exposition or backstory.
Vary character thoughts: Each character should have a unique thought process that reflects their personality, background, and motivations.
Use character thoughts to create tension: Character thoughts can be used to create tension and conflict within a character. This can be especially useful in creating suspense or drama.
Avoid overusing character thoughts: While character thoughts can be a powerful tool, avoid overusing them. Too many character thoughts can make a narrative feel clunky or overly introspective.

Description and imagery are essential elements of any narrative. When revising your narrative, consider the following tips for using description and imagery:

Use sensory details: Use sensory details such as sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures to create a vivid picture of the setting, characters, and events.
Vary description styles: Each scene or setting should have a unique description style that reflects the tone and mood of the narrative.
Use description to create atmosphere: Description can be used to create a specific atmosphere or mood. Use description to set the tone for a scene or setting.
Avoid overusing description: While description is essential, avoid overusing it. Too much description can make a narrative feel slow or overly detailed.

Symbolism is a powerful tool for adding depth and complexity to your narrative. When revising your narrative, consider the following tips for using symbolism:

Use symbols to represent abstract ideas: Symbols can be used to represent abstract ideas or concepts such as hope, love, or redemption.
Vary symbol meanings: Each symbol should have a unique meaning that reflects the tone and mood of the narrative.
Use symbols to create connections: Symbols can be used to create connections between characters, settings, and events.
Avoid overusing symbolism: While symbolism is a powerful tool, avoid overusing it. Too much symbolism can make a narrative feel overly complex or confusing.

Revising your narrative is a crucial step in the writing process. By incorporating narrative techniques such as dialogue, character thoughts, description, imagery, and symbolism, you can add depth, complexity, and engagement to your story. Remember to use these techniques to reveal character, create tension, and set the tone for your narrative. With practice and patience, you can become a master of narrative techniques and create stories that captivate and inspire your readers.

The Elements of Style: A classic writing guide that provides tips and advice on writing style, grammar, and syntax.
The Writer's Journey: A comprehensive guide to writing fiction that covers topics such as character development, plot structure, and pacing.
The Art of Description: A guide to writing descriptive passages that provides tips and advice on using sensory details to create vivid descriptions.

Add dialogue to a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and add dialogue to reveal character, create tension, and advance the plot.
Add character thoughts to a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and add character thoughts to reveal character, create tension, and advance the plot.
Use description and imagery to enhance a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and use description and imagery to create a vivid picture of the setting, characters, and events.
Use symbolism to add depth to a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and use symbolism to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Revising for Narrative Action: A Q&A Guide

A: The purpose of revising your narrative is to refine your ideas, strengthen your characters, and add depth to your story. Revising allows you to take a closer look at your writing, identify areas for improvement, and make changes to enhance the overall quality of your narrative.

A: Some common mistakes to avoid when revising your narrative include:

Overediting: Avoid overediting your work, as this can lead to a loss of momentum and a sense of stagnation.
Info-dumping: Avoid info-dumping exposition or backstory through dialogue or character thoughts.
Lack of consistency: Ensure that your narrative is consistent in terms of tone, style, and pacing.
Lack of character development: Ensure that your characters are well-developed and consistent in their actions and motivations.

A: To add dialogue to your narrative, consider the following tips:

Use dialogue to reveal character: Dialogue should reveal the personality, background, and motivations of your characters.
Vary dialogue styles: Each character should have a unique dialogue style that reflects their personality, background, and motivations.
Use subtext: Subtext refers to the underlying emotions or motivations that a character is not expressing openly.
Avoid info-dumping: Avoid using dialogue as a way to info-dump exposition or backstory.

A: To add character thoughts to your narrative, consider the following tips:

Use character thoughts to reveal character: Character thoughts should reveal the personality, background, and motivations of your characters.
Vary character thoughts: Each character should have a unique thought process that reflects their personality, background, and motivations.
Use character thoughts to create tension: Character thoughts can be used to create tension and conflict within a character.
Avoid overusing character thoughts: While character thoughts can be a powerful tool, avoid overusing them.

A: To use description and imagery to enhance your narrative, consider the following tips:

Use sensory details: Use sensory details such as sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures to create a vivid picture of the setting, characters, and events.
Vary description styles: Each scene or setting should have a unique description style that reflects the tone and mood of the narrative.
Use description to create atmosphere: Description can be used to create a specific atmosphere or mood.
Avoid overusing description: While description is essential, avoid overusing it.

A: To use symbolism to add depth to your narrative, consider the following tips:

Use symbols to represent abstract ideas: Symbols can be used to represent abstract ideas or concepts such as hope, love, or redemption.
Vary symbol meanings: Each symbol should have a unique meaning that reflects the tone and mood of the narrative.
Use symbols to create connections: Symbols can be used to create connections between characters, settings, and events.
Avoid overusing symbolism: While symbolism is a powerful tool, avoid overusing it.

A: Some common challenges when revising your narrative include:

Lack of motivation: Finding the motivation to revise can be a challenge.
Lack of time: Finding the time to revise can be a challenge.
Lack of confidence: Lacking confidence in your writing can make it difficult to revise.
Lack of feedback: Not having feedback from others can make it difficult to identify areas for improvement.

The Elements of Style: A classic writing guide that provides tips and advice on writing style, grammar, and syntax.
The Writer's Journey: A comprehensive guide to writing fiction that covers topics such as character development, plot structure, and pacing.
The Art of Description: A guide to writing descriptive passages that provides tips and advice on using sensory details to create vivid descriptions.

Add dialogue to a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and add dialogue to reveal character, create tension, and advance the plot.
Add character thoughts to a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and add character thoughts to reveal character, create tension, and advance the plot.
Use description and imagery to enhance a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and use description and imagery to create a vivid picture of the setting, characters, and events.
Use symbolism to add depth to a scene: Choose a scene from your narrative and use symbolism to represent abstract ideas or concepts.