Five Tips for Great Dialogue

Writing believable dialogue isn’t easy. However, it is even harder to write an entire story with no dialogue at all. Characters talk; that’s just a fact of life. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to create a conversation that isn’t boring, long-winded, or too dramatic. Here are some tips that I use to create good dialogue:

1. Make your main character “you.”

You don’t have to put yourself in the story if you don’t want to, but whoever talks the most should have your voice, at least, if you want to make the dialogue writing as simple as possible. In fiction, it is easy to suddenly realize that every character in the whole book sounds like you when they talk. That’s no good. Having a single character that sounds like you, though, it’s a big deal. Making it your protagonist or narrator can help jump start your dialogue – all you have to do is think “What would I say in this situation?

2. Listen.

Yes, I’m recommending that you eavesdrop! It’s rude to listen in to conversations of people you know or people who don’t know that you’re listening, but there’s nothing wrong with sitting near others in a restaurant or at the park and just listening to what they say and how they say it. They’re in public and know that others could hear them, after all. Listening to people talk can really give you some great dialogue ideas.

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3. Remember, not everything has to be spoken.

You don’t have to have 50 lines of dialogue to get the conversation across to readers. No one wants to hear boring chit chat, even if that is realistic. Instead, use your power as a narrator to quickly cut through some stuff. For example: “Bob and Bill met outside the coffee shop. After exchanging pleasantries, they walked inside, discussing the shop’s new premium blend choices.” That’s not dialogue per se, but the characters are talking, and it is much better than an entire back-and-forth about coffee and the weather. Pick and choose where you really need dialogue.

4. Don’t overdo the accents.

It really, really, really bothers me when characters in fiction all have wacky-a-doodle accepts that are laid on thickly and stereotypically. Ok, someone from the south might say “ya’ll” or someone from Canada might add “eh” onto a sentence or two, but if every character in your book has a crazy accent – and you write it into the dialogue – your readers will get frustrated quickly. Accents can be hard to read and disrupt the story, and really, few people actually do have very thick accents. Your dialogue will be more believable if you just pepper it with notes of an accent.

5. Read the dialogue out loud.

Not sure if a passage of dialogue is working? Grab a friend (or two or three or however many you need), and read it out loud. What sounds awkward? What lines aren’t necessary? Where can you add more details to make how the characters are speaking more apparent?

I’m no master of dialogue. I like to think that my narration skills are pretty sharp, but my fiction always suffers when I have to write dialogue. One thing that really helped was an exercise we did during a creative writing class I had in college – we wrote dozens of scenes of dialogue. The plot didn’t matter. The setting only mattered minimally. We just created two characters and wrote out dialogue scenes. Sometimes, the “practice makes perfect” approach really can help you get better.

Share some of your own tips with a comment below!