- Level:
- Beginner
- Lessons:
- 4 Lessons
Dialogue beats
Control the nuances of your story through a conversation-first approach to beats.
- Reading Time
- approx. 2 min
Think of this as a script for the AI to follow. You have your characters, what they’re saying, and some description (how much you add is up to you) and the AI weaves prose around it. These beats give you the most control over flow and pacing, and the prose is very easy to edit.
This is a great beat style for if you can really envision the conversations and conflicts, but description or introspection isn’t your strongest suit. This way you can use AI to supplement the parts of writing you are weaker at, and allow your strengths to shine.
Expect a much more concise output with these beats. Like with detailed beats, output is generally proportional to the amount of dialogue you put in. You will need to tell the AI to add in description or introspection (as we’ve seen in other recipes), but this gives you more control over where said description/introspection is added.
Details to include:
- The dialogue
- Who is saying each line, who they’re saying it to, and what their emotional state is
- Anyone else present in the scene (even if they don’t talk, they still exist!)
- Any key actions that you want mentioned
- The setting
Bob and Jane’s house. Bob is pacing the lounge, waiting for Jane to come home. Jane left her phone behind that morning.
Bob: (looking at Jane’s phone, to himself) “This is ridiculous…”
The front door opens. Jane enters, crying.
Jane: “Bob.”
Bob: “What happened?”
Jane: “I can’t. I can’t do this anymore.”
Bob: “Can’t do what? Jane?”
Jane continues crying.
Bob: (quietly) “Let’s sit down…”
Bob guides Jane to the couch. Jane clings to him tighter.
Jane: “Don’t leave me. Promise me Bob. Please, I-I-”
Bob: “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Jane: “Everyone else…”
The sound of sirens gets closer.
Troubleshooting
“There is no/little description/introspection.”
You will need to tailor your dialogue beat to indicate where you want these to occur, so that the AI knows. This will also help with the overall pacing of the prose.
You can go in during editing and indicate where you want these additions, and use a text expansion prompt.
“The output is really short.”
The output tends to be proportional to the amount of dialogue you put in. If you only have four lines of dialogue, it’s going to be pretty hard to get 1500 words out of it unless you add in further instruction. Conversations are often fast-paced, and so you will want to hand-select where the pacing is slowed.
To lengthen the output, you may want to mix up the types of scene beats you use, to give change in the pacing. Your story won’t be dialogue 100% of the time! This type of beat is perfect to combine with a detailed beat.
“The AI is changing my dialogue.”
What model are you using? Some of the models may struggle with ‘memory’, and so experiment to find an AI model that fits your voice and follows your instructions.
Check the temperature of the AI model you are using. Is it too high? The AI might be trying to be too creative.
This lesson was taught by:
Kate Robinson
Based in the UK, Kate has been writing since she was young, driven by a burning need to get the vivid tales in her head down on paper… or the computer screen.