How To Write Great Dialogue In Fiction

What is dialogue in writing? We explain how to write great dialogue. Every writer needs to master the art of writing dialogue to create believable stories.

What Is Dialogue In Writing?

Dialogue is a written or spoken conversation between two or more people. We use dialogue to show characters, show setting, advance our plots, provide backstory, and break up long descriptions in our stories. We can perceive our characters’ motivations without the author having to tell us about them. Dialogue allows us to show. It also creates a realistic sense of interactions between characters. We also use digital dialogue in stories set in today’s world.

How To Write Great Dialogue In Fiction

Learning how to write great dialogue is a necessity. Modern novels are filled with it. More than 50% of your book should be filled with characters talking to each other. Beginner novelists are often afraid of dialogue and they should be.

Writing dialogue is complicated. An author has to give the impression that characters are speaking as if they existed in a real world without including the boring everyday conversations people indulge in.

1. Reality check

‘Real world’ dialogue is the kiss of death in a novel. Real life has no plot. Most everyday conversations have no point and they exist for the sake of appearances. They are made up of exchanging greetings and pleasantries. Small talk is just that and has no place in your novel. Only use everyday conversations if they become important at some point or if you are setting up an important scene that includes these rituals.

Writing tip: An interesting way to test this for yourself is to tape a series of conversations and write them down exactly as the words are spoken. You will find people ramble on. They repeat what they have said, they struggle to find words, their grammar is terrible, and they talk ‘at’ each other.

2. How do authors only include dialogue that is necessary?

One way is to read a variety of novels published in the last 10 years. Examine the dialogue. Good authors only include what is necessary for the story. Sometimes this means dialogue has been pared down to the minimum, but this is necessary.

Never include unnecessary conversations. Readers expect every conversation you choose to include to be significant. Unnecessary conversations are the red herrings of the dialogue universe.

Authors should remember that there are three reasons for including dialogue in a novel:

1. Dialogue should move a plot forward. Let your characters talk about plans, actions, and consequences. Let them give instructions and make introductions. Dialogue allows us to introduce conflict into scenes.
2. Dialogue should reveal character. Every word your character uses shows the sort of person he or she is.
3. Dialogue should provide information. Treat this one with care. There is a fine line between revealing important facts and boring the reader with details. Do not allow your characters to ‘tell’ in dialogue. Rather use a short summary.

If your dialogue does not fall into one of these, you should probably omit it.

Writing tip: Read your dialogue scenes to somebody. Ask them to tell you what they’ve learnt about the plot and character from the interaction. If they have learnt nothing, you may want to remove it.

3. The supporting act

Remember that people don’t just utter words when they interact. They act, they move, and they use body language – intentionally or unintentionally.

Two friends may walk or drink coffee as they speak. A young mother may jump up to prevent her child from crawling away. A woman may cross her arms as she listens to her husband. (You may find these body language cheat sheets I created useful.)

Writing Tip: Introduce a habit with dialogue. Your villain might flip a coin when he speaks. Your love interest might smoke when they speak.

4. Add a thought or two

Remember that thought is also part of dialogue. Allow your viewpoint characters to have a thought or two as they speak. This adds to the richness of the interaction and it is realistic. Most of us think before we talk.

If you want, you could allow your character a short interior monologue before you start the dialogue. This could allow the character to sort out their thoughts.

Writing tip: Do not repeat what you say in thoughts in dialogue. Rather use this technique to add to the interaction.

5. Use dialogue tags

We use dialogue tags to show which character is speaking. The most common dialogue tags are ‘he said’ and ‘she asked’.

We must use them because they allow us to avoid confusing readers – your readers will always know who the speaker is.

If we use them, we can break up long pieces of dialogue, insert an action or a reaction, and add body language.

Writing tip: Avoid using too many adverbial dialogue tags when you write. An adverbial dialogue tag is “when an adverb modifies the verb we use to denote dialogue. For example, ‘he said hastily‘, ‘she said gruffly‘, ‘they asked groggily‘.” Too many adverbs make us tell rather show.

6. Said

Novelists should ignore the many posts suggesting: 50 words to use instead of ‘said’

Said is perfect. It shows the reader who is speaking. and it keeps the reader focused on the dialogue.

When characters mutter, proffer, utter, cry, growl, and grin words, the author just looks silly. It’s also exhausting for the reader who has to wade through all the unnecessary verbs.

Writing tip: Read your dialogue out loud. Your tongue will trip over all the nonsense words. Remove them.

7. Accents and dialect

Follow speech patterns rather than misspelling words. Only use dialect if you are confident you can do it well. It takes a dedicated reader to muddle through idiosyncratic vernacular. When you are writing an accent, add the odd foreign word to show the speaker is not English.

Writing tip: Like everything else in writing, perfecting dialogue requires practice and patience. Write every day, and include dialogue in that writing if you can. This will teach you how to write great dialogue.

8. What is digital dialogue?

Been on your smartphone lately? Sent a message? Or an emoji? That’s digital dialogue. We’re all doing it, all the time. We need to find ways to include digital dialogue in our stories. Please carry on reading about dialogue in the digital age here: What Digital Dialogue Can Do For Storytelling

Writing tip: Explore how digital messages are formatted and how you could include them in your books.

The Last Word

I hope we’ve explained how to write great dialogue. I hope the tips help you to write better stories. Every writer needs to master writing dialogue to create believable stories, making characters feel real and engaging for readers. Additional reading: 10 Dialogue Errors To Avoid At All Costs

TOP TIP: Learn to write better dialogue with The Dialogue Workbook

by Amanda Patterson
© Amanda Patterson

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