I remember in every college class I took, I, and everyone around me, seemed to struggle with one thing above all: dialogue. It was as if all of us had forgotten how people speak. Everything came out unnatural, like we were writing in a new language for the first time.
And that problem persisted when I looked over manuscripts at my job. So many writers and authors overcomplicated things, or had characters speaking like robots, or just had generic dialogue where everyone sounded the same.
It’s a major problem. Here are a few of the tricks and tips I picked up over the course of my career in publishing. But let’s start with the basics of writing compelling dialogue:
The Basics of Writing Dialogue
What Counts As Dialogue?
we may think we know what dialogue is, but when there’s still still the question of how to even spell it (dialog vs dialogue) maybe we could all use a refresher.
So what is dialogue in the context of a book? Dialogue is a conversation being spoken between two or more characters. The key differentiator here is “spoken words”. If the narrator is just explaining things that are being said rather than the characters actually saying the words, it is not the kind of dialogue we will be addressing today, nor is it technically dialogue. Understanding the basics is crucial before diving into the art and craft of writing dialogue.
Let’s get a better picture of this using these passage and dialogue examples…
Dialogue:
See how the two characters speak to each other, using their own voices and speech patterns? Each time a new character speaks, it is formatted differently than standard book text.
Now let’s see what isn’t considered dialogue.
Not Dialogue
In this passage, the same conversation is taking place, yet neither of the characters are actively speaking. Instead, the narrator explains to us the conversation that took place, rather than us experiencing it as it unfolds. When a single character speaks extensively, the entire speech should remain in the same paragraph without closing quotes until the next paragraph.
This, is NOT dialogue. It is a scene description.
The Anatomy of Dialogue Formatting
When discussing how to write dialogue, a few terms may begin to crop up that you may not fully know the meaning of, so we'll lay them out here:
Line of Dialogue
A line of dialogue is simply... the dialogue of one character written out. Here's on example:
"She's just like you, you know! Stubborn and prideful! Always in the way!" Samantha screamed as she scolded her daughter.
Here, one character speaks and it's contained in one line or paragraph of dialogue. This also works in screenwriting. Each character in the play or TV show or movie has a line of dialogue or "line", and it is called so even if the "line" would not fit on just one line of text.
Action Beats
Action beats are the short descriptions that come before, during or after someone's line of dialogue. Think:
Marsha ran up to Kyle and threw her arms around him with full force. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
They simply illustrate what one character is doing around the time of their speaking. This is not to be confused with...
Dialogue Tags
Dialogue tags are the descriptions of how a character says their dialogue. Common dialogue tags are:
said
yelled
whispered
sneered
cried
Some however get this slightly confused with action beats and combine the two, with phrases like:
"I'm so happy you're here!" Eliza grinned.
or..
"You're so into me," Gino smirked.
These are actions, not descriptions of how something was said. A good rule of thumb when it comes to dialogue tags is if you can't do that while speaking, it's not a dialogue tag. I can yell as I speak to someone, I can whisper, I can laugh (although that one can be a bit difficult to get out!). Grinning or smirking or frowning...not so much.
Doing those through a whole sentence is hard and takes conscious effort...and most people don't talk like that. People talk in ways that feel natural to them, in ways that express how they're feeling in the moment, so keep that in mind.
Why does the difference matter? That comes in the formatting.
How Do You Format and Punctuate Dialogue?
There are certain dialogue rules that one must learn and follow before adding their own flairs. This is what takes good dialogue that a reader might forget as they turn the page to great dialogue that immerses the reader. So what are they? And how do they relate to the terms we just outlined?
Consider the following dialogue example:
Ella pushed open the door to her apartment, tossing her keys onto the table. She sighed, the weight of a long day settling on her shoulders as she kicked off her shoes. “Surprise!” A voice rang out from the living room, startling her. Ella jumped, her heart racing. “Jake! What are you doing here?” Jake grinned, stepping out from behind the couch with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. “I wanted to surprise you. Thought you could use a little cheering up after the week you’ve had.”
There's a few things of note here:
Ella's first action beat sits separately from the next line
The second action beat stays on the line with the dialogue and starts capitalized
when each character speaks, a new paragraph is started
So why do these things happen?
How Do Action Beats Work?
Action beats, at first glance, seem like the same thing as dialogue tags, but that's incorrect. Action beats are their own sentences, separate from dialogue, while dialogue tags go with the sentence. Which is why you'll find some action beats separate from dialogue, like Ella's first paragraph in the dialogue, or alongside dialogue.
What determines where the action beat goes is what's happening in the dialogue. Because the description of what's happening as Ella gets home is solely focused on her, it should be separate from the next line because she is not the one that says "surprise".
So then why does the second one follow "surprise", even though it's focused on Ella's reaction? Simple. The action beat is describing how Jake's voice affects the room. Because of this, it stays on the line with Jake's dialogue.
Dialogue Formatting
To make dialogue easier to read, a new paragraph starts each time a new speaker talks. Since Jake speaks after Ella comes home, it's a new line. When Ella speaks after that, again a new paragraph. When Jake talks again, he gets a new paragraph.
This makes it easier to follow, and is also the reason a dialogue tag is not always needed to know who is speaking.
Let's take this a bit further with the second half of our dialogue example:
Ella’s eyes widened as she took in the flowers, her shock giving way to a smile. “I—wow. You really didn’t have to do this.” “I know,” Jake said, his grin softening into something warmer. “But I wanted to.” She walked over, taking the bouquet from him, her fingers brushing against his. “Thank you, Jake. This is... this is exactly what I needed.”
What's really the focus here is that second line where Jake responds to Ella.
Dialogue Punctuation
Here we see how a dialogue tag are meant to be punctuated. Since the dialogue tag is connected to the dialogue directly, the dialogue that would have ended with a period now ends with a comma. Even if the line was said with emphasis and ended with a question mark or an exclamation point, it would still be one sentence. Meaning if instead the line was "I know!" and the writer used a pronoun instead of a proper name, that pronoun (he in this example) would be lower case.
But Jake has continued to speak, and the dialogue tag sits in the middle of the two phrases. This means that the new dialogue is a separate sentence, but stays in the same paragraph, as shown in our dialogue example.
Now that we have a bit more of a foundation into dialogue, the question is how do we make it better?
How To Write Dialogue ... Better
The Secret Sauce of Great Dialogue
Like many things in storytelling, the foundation of dialogue is… you guessed it: characters. If you don’t know who your characters are, what they want, how they would act, etc., you don’t know what they sound like or how they speak either — which is a big problem.
Why? Without a foundation of knowledge on your character's voice, all characters might end up sounding like your own voice. This is fine for one or two characters, since your voice is an authentic human voice with personality and intrigue, but when most characters have your voice...you end up with same voice syndrome. This not only makes your writing feel stale, but it makes your characters and world less believable, because in real life no five people have the exact same speech patterns.
As a base, work on your character writing and establish who each character is. If you need extra guidance with that*, an article on how to elevate your characters* is on its way. But if you want a brief overview on how to write better characters to write even better dialogue, the first step is finding your inspiration.
Inspired Characters Bring Out Realistic Dialogue
Get Dialogue Examples to Frame How Characters Speak
Most writers have an image of our characters in our heads or who we know them to be, well break down that image. What people in your real life or celebrities act the way your character does? Sounds like them to you? Who did you base your character off of? Come up with a list of people and then…research them.
If they’re people you know, (and are on good terms with, please don’t endanger yourself if the person a character is based on is a bad person for you to be around!) hang out with them, speak to them, read old texts from them, ask if you can record conversations with them. Get as much reference material as you can.
Those texts and recorded conversations can come in extra handy when you’ve sat down to write dialogue for that character and are completely stumped. While celebrities are a bit less accessible, many of them have hours of online content, interviews, and social media posts with actual text to them for you to sift through. The same thought process can be applied to them.
Character Voices: Syntax, Accents, Tone and Features
Here's where we get rid of same voice syndrome. Like we already established, dialogue is all about the character: how they speak, how they fit into the story, how they act. This should culminate even in the first word your character says when introduced in the narrative. From beginning to end, each word your characters speak should be uniquely them — which is what propels our story forward and gives the reader not only a better sense of the character's voice, but a more enjoyable time reading your story.
It sounds like a lot, but when you understand the little features that make up a voice, it can become rather simple. Take your references for example. Listen to how each reference person phrases things:
The idioms they use: "hack my legs off and call me shorty", "barking up the wrong tree", "call it a day"
the way they pause and start,
if they interrupt other people,
if they interrupt themselves and speak in fragments, for instance:
"When I was on stage and I was thinking of... I know him though, and I know his heart and know what he wouldn't do to hurt me — but I didn't realize feeling so confident and so great about myself and then it be just completely shattered, by one thing, by something so stupid. But then you make me feel crazy, you make me feel like it's my fault...I was in pain." -Selena Gomez, The Heart Wants What It Wants
how fast or slowly they speak,
their word choices: like if they say "Ron's own" instead of "Ron's" for possessives or if they say "goodnight!" instead of "ow" when they stub their toe
how often they gesture,
if they use a gesture as if it finishes their sentence: instead of saying "whatever" they wave off with their hand, or instead of saying "I don't know" they shrug
what their voice sounds like:
Do they have a smooth quality to their voice or does it shake?
Do they have vocal fry? (speak with an almost gravelly tone to their voice like Kim Kardashian)
How deep or high?
Do they speak in a whisper or are they loud and boisterous?
How does this change when they change emotion?
There are so many things that make up a voice, which is what makes them unique. Pay attention to the little things for each reference and pick out the things that feel truest to your character to write effective dialogue.
This also goes for written out accents! Please, PLEASE do your research if the dialect or accent you’re writing is foreign to you. Too many times have I heard about and seen manuscripts and books where accents were poorly written to the point of offense. Take time to listen to as much content as you can where people have this accent.
TV shows and movies are less reliable for this because the accents may be played up or downright inaccurate, so try to find video and audio of people who naturally have the accent you’re going for. For instance, if writing a female Scottish character, try listening to an actress like Karen Gillan. See how they might write out their accent if that’s the route you want to take.
But if all else fails, you can write their dialogue plain and write how the accent sounds as a descriptor after your dialogue from time to time. And the same things to look out for above also apply to the accents. Listen to how the accent changes the voice and describe accordingly.
Keep A Record
I will go more into depth with this in my characterization article (coming soon), but in my opinion, every author should keep a style sheet for each character. On this sheet, you should have all relevant information about your character — including how they speak! Take all the things you’ve decided they should do in their speech from your research and document it. We actually have a character sheet that you can use here.
Continuity errors are a big reason why readers become dissatisfied with the books they read, and your characters having inconsistent voice, while not the end of the world, contributes to that feeling of unease and discontinuity.
Whenever you’re writing, keep your style sheets close and handy so you can reference them as you go. Even if you think you remember every little thing you decided your character would do in their speech, you may just be defaulting to the same two or three decisions, which can end up leaving your dialogue stale — despite how much work you put into it. Voices, like we established, are multifaceted, so keep that in mind and reference your sheet to ensure you are writing great dialogue.
Some Overall Dos & Don'ts
☒ Don’t: Unnaturally Exposition Dump
Have you ever read a story where the characters essentially turn to you and tell you all the information you need to know by talking to someone who already has this knowledge as if they don’t? It’s distracting, and often gives an amateurish feel to the writing. So don’t make the same mistake! If you have a bit of backstory or lore you need the reader to know for an upcoming scene, don’t make two characters who already know all the information speak to each other as if they don’t, like in this example:
"As you know already head vampire Broderick, once the blood moon happens tonight our powers will get stronger and even the heftiest werewolf won't be able to take down even our weakest fighter," Sammie said, a grin slowly appearing on her face. "Yes, my child. We will own the night!"
I mean, why tell Broderick this? He knows already! Relaying this information to him is sort of wasting his time, don't you think?
There are other ways to give the readers plot forward information about your story, without the weird and unnatural conversation
☑ Do: Leave Breadcrumbs
When two people are speaking about something they both have knowledge of in real life, they often reference certain aspects without giving full explanations. As in, the actual words they use will be vague and allude to things, rather than outright stating things. Having your characters do this as well not only makes them more realistic, but it also builds up tension for reveals and gives the reader something to look forward to.
But what if they need the information right then? Flashbacks are another great way to give readers context into your story without hamfisted exposition dialogue. This way, you can show them the things they need to know rather than telling them.
If you’re still not a fan, having regular expository writing is FINE. You don’t have to have characters tell readers the exposition through a conversation, you can put that in the narrative of your story itself. As long as it’s not overly long and giving necessary information, most readers can accept a few bouts of exposition here and there.
☒ Don’t: Overuse Long Sentences or Dialogue Tags
Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking, “if it’s long, it’s good”. But that’s what bogs down a story. Imagine reading dialogue where each character says a paragraph, followed by a speech tag that explain several different character thoughts and facial expressions. It gets tedious and hard to read. Here's a dialogue example from something I wrote in college that...perfectly encapsulates what NOT to do:
“What do you mean by that?” Sheryl said as she painted her nails. She had just chosen “Hello Kitty Pink” when her step brother barged into her room. She didn’t take kindly to people waltzing into her bedroom like it was their space, but she had grown to like him, so she allowed it. She shifted to a more comfortable position on her bed. “I mean you can’t tell her,” James said, walking to the foot of Sheryl’s bed. “She’ll leave.” He looked around as if he was taking in the scene around him; there were countless magazines and pillows littered on her carpeted floor, little mounds of clothing filled each corner, and the whole room reeked of nail polish remover. “Good. Let her,” Sheryl said nonchalantly. She never cared much for her older sister anyway. Amanda constantly picked fights with her and their dad always seemed to pick her side.
Talk about bogged down!
A conversation is a give and take, it goes back and forth. Leaving some space for the page to breathe emphasizes the speech. This also goes for overly expressive speech tags. Sometimes the speech tags end up not making sense, like characters sighing, gasping, or exhaling whole sentences. Leave more convoluted actions to the body of the page, not to the dialogue tag. If you would like to see how I turn this monstrosity into something actually passable, check it out here on our resources page!
☑ Do: Be Creative
Character dynamics have as much to do with dialogue as words and punctuation marks do — which is to say ALOT. How characters are connected, whether through familial ties, romantic relationships, mutual third-party relationships, friendships, adversaries or more, each of these will change how the characters interact, and serious writers will make sure this shows up in their dialogue.
Have characters give outlandish nicknames to each other (less "bro" and "sis", more "monkey" and "pixie toes"), gesture to allude to unspoken things, give them inside jokes, give dads long speeches or enemies dialogue that consists of one word responses. Really elevate those bonds and the dialogue will begin to feel more natural.
Creativity doesn't have to and shouldn't stop there when it comes to writing dialogue. Add ellipses and em dashes to emphasize the tone and naturally pauses of speech, have characters use commonly incorrect grammar, play with where you place the dialogue tag in the line. Things like this make your dialogue feel more real, and in turn make the character feel more real as well.
Writing is an art form and words just happen to be the medium. See what happens when you decide to stop writing "correctly" and start writing creatively. You might just find that your writing gets better for it, not just in dialogue, but in general.
☒ Don’t: Be Repetitive
Nothing is worse than seeing the same dialogue tags over and over, even if it’s something more creative like “he sniffed” or “she said lovingly”. If every other sentence coming from a character’s mouth is phrased this way, the dialogue gets stale — even if the reader doesn’t notice right away.
A lot of reading is subconscious. We’re taking in a lot of information, past just the plot or the character descriptions. We also take in the writing style, repetitive story beats, and much more. So avoid unnecessary repetition and break out that thesaurus! Just make sure to not overdo it and use words that still fit the overall style of your writing. Every dialogue tag being different or being some extravagant word no one’s heard of makes your dialogue stick out, and not in a good way.
And nothing beats the old adage: "When in doubt, leave it out!" Not every line of dialogue needs a tag to go along with it. The dialogue being in a separate paragraph denotes a different person speaking, and not everything is said emphatically or with emphasis in real life anyway. It won't make your dialogue unreadable to leave off extraneous details.
☑ Do: Study the Greats
Now, you don’t necessarily have to read all of the classics or what every English teacher you ever had called the greatest works of literature. Instead, go back to your favorite books and really take note of how the dialogue looks on the page.
What are they doing differently than you?
How do they structure their dialogue?
What dialogue features do they use and how often do they use them at all?
Then, if you can, go back to a book you know you didn’t like specifically because of how the characters interacted/talked. Try to compare and cross-reference.
What choices did the latter author make that ruined the dialogue for you?
Is the dialogue way too long or exceedingly short?
Do the characters all sound the same?
Does the dialogue feel like it drags on or happens too quickly?
This will give you a better sense of what good dialogue looks like, not just in general, but for you, because now you can apply what you've learned to your own dialogue and make it better. Dialogue doesn't have to be scary, just use what you know!
Overall, many parts of writing come down to...research. Researching your character, worldbuilding, knowing your market, all these things require you sit down and really reflect on the certain aspects you want in your book — which is why writing a book is such an amazing feat. So keep pushing that dialogue, and your results will follow! Happy writing!
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