Stylized Talk: Writing Great Dialogue

What I Aim for When Writing Dialogue:

Dialogue is stylized talk. It should give a flavor of real speech, without seeking to recreate it on
the page. (Record and transcribe a normal conversation: you’ll be surprised how incoherent it
looks written down, even if it sounded just fine spoken.)
In my writing, my aim is to tell the story without letting the words get in the way. That
applies to the dialogue just as much as it does to everything else.
I want my dialogue to be natural and believable, so it could work in a TV or film script.

Obviously, your dialogue needs to gel with the style of the rest of your work. If you have very
prosaic, ordinary dialogue but the rest of your novel is much richer and more literary in style,
that’s going to be a weird disconnect.

Six Tips for Making Your Dialogue Stronger

#1: Make Your Characters Sound Different from One Another:

Real people don’t all talk in the same way. Just think of the people you know. Probably:

 Some of them seem to swear every other word; others never utter anything.
 Some use more complex words than others – think “paraphernalia” vs “stuff”.
 Some tend to go on a bit; others don’t say much.
 Some will have particular phrases that you associate with them – verbal tics.
The way people speak can clue you into their age, gender, class, geographical background, and
level of education. You don’t necessarily have to bow to stereotypes here – you might have a
teenager who eschews swear words and uses quite formal language, for instance.
Also, breaking a pattern can be powerful. If someone who rarely says more than two words
delivers an impassioned speech, or someone who never swears turns the air blue, readers will
take notice!

Watch Out For…

When you’re deciding how your characters speak, there are a couple of things to be a little
cautious of:

Catchphrases – for me, these fall into the category of character “quirks” – they’re handy for bit-
parts but don’t really go deep enough for main characters. By all means, give your characters the
occasional phrase that is associated with them, but don’t go over the top here.
Phonetic spellings – steer clear or use a very light touch. It’s really easy for this to become both
unreadable and insulting to real people who share the same geographical or racial background as
your character.

#2: Don’t Over-Explain:

Your readers are experienced. Yours is not the first novel or short story they’ve read. In their
lifetime, they’ll have read millions of words of fiction.
They’re also experienced in talking and listening. They understand things like sarcasm and
subtext. They know that the same short phrase can mean wildly different things from different
people in different contexts.

As much as possible, let your dialogue stand up by itself. Don’t throw in extra lines of
explanation to ensure that the reader gets a joke, or understands the emotion behind the dialogue.

Watch Out For…

Telling us how a character is feeling. We should be able to tell from the dialogue (plus
supporting action – do they stand up, sit down, turn away, gesture…?)
Unclear attributions. You’re not over-explaining just because you’re making it clear who’s
speaking. An extra “he said” or a line of action along with the dialogue is fine.
#3: Give the flavor of Real Speech:

In real life, people don’t speak in perfect sentences, taking it in turns to talk. They ramble, they
cut in, they talk over one another, they mumble inaudibly, they break off part way.

Where appropriate, introduce some of this into your fiction. For instance, if emotions are running
high, characters may well interrupt one another. If people are excited, they might talk over one
another.

Overdoing it. Too many ellipsis (the “dot dot dot” where a character trails off), too much
general chit-chat, and constant interruptions will start to wear on the reader.
Being consistent with punctuation. This is where dialogue can get a bit tricky to punctuate. For
instance, I always use an ellipsis when someone breaks off part-way of their own accord, and a
dash when they’re interrupted – this is a fairly common convention. If you do something
different, make sure you’re at least consistent about it.

#4: Consider Non-Verbal Communication Too

Not everything needs to be said. We communicate in many other ways, such as:
 Nodding or shaking our heads (do check what’s appropriate for your characters’ culture, if
they don’t share your own).
 Making gestures – a shrug, a thumbs up, a wink.
 With our body language – this may not be intentional, but it can communicate a lot.
 Through silence – ignoring a particular question or conversational gambit.
These responses can help vary things, and can assist when you want or need to have characters
holding a conversation in a noisy environment.
Sometimes, a non-verbal response can also be more powerful than having your character say
something. For instance, if one character says, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me?” and the other is
completely silent, then turns away, that’s far more devastating than a half-hearted response, or
even an argument.

Watch Out For…

Using the same action or gesture repeatedly. I end up with rather too much of characters
putting hands on other characters’ arms, characters shrugging, characters turning away and
turning back … it’s easily done when you’re drafting, and easily fixed if you’re looking out for it
when revising.
Starting a new line where appropriate. If Character A is speaking and Character B reacts (non-
verbally), start a new line for Character B’s reaction.

#5: Read Your Dialogue Out Loud:

Reading aloud is a great way to edit any type of writing, but I think (for obvious reasons!) it’s
especially effective for dialogue. When you read aloud, you can hear your characters’ speech –
and you’ll get a sense of whether their words sound stilted, or whether they’re going on and on
for ages.
If you’re in a writers’ group, you might even ask other members to read your dialogue aloud –
I’ve seen this done with a radio script, for instance. It can be a powerful way to get outside your
work and to see how a reader interprets the words you’ve written.

Watch Out For…

Typos and other mistakes. It’s easy to glide over these when you’re reading normally – but if
you read out loud, you’re forced to slow down. Try to really see every word.
Out-of-character dialogue. Sometimes, in the heat of composition, you end up writing
something that – in retrospect – doesn’t fit with a particular character’s voice or temperament.
Slowing down and reading aloud can help these stand out.

#6: Use Alternative Forms of Communication:

While face-to-face conversations are probably going to form the majority of your dialogue, there
are plenty of other ways in which two characters can talk.

In my novels Lycopolis and Oblivion, I have quite a few conversations taking place through text,
across the internet. I’ve also included forum posts, a handful of emails, and a Skype video call.
More prosaically, I have a fair number of conversations taking place on the phone.
You may want to use some of these elements, or similar ones, in your own fiction. Conversations
that aren’t face-to-face can throw up some practical difficulties, but they can also open up
possibilities that might not have worked otherwise.

Watch Out For…

Not using the medium effectively and plausibly. A text dialogue will obviously read
differently from a spoken one; a Skype video call isn’t the same as a phone call. Think through
the logistics of the conversation and aim to use limitations to assist with your plot or
characterization.
How you punctuate and tag the dialogue. I avoid using “said” for text conversations, usually
opting for “typed” or no tag, just an action or thought. With a phone call, it’s easy to end up with
line after line of dialogue and not much supporting action, especially if you’re writing in the
first-person or the third-person limited. (Ali, 2015)

References:

 Ali. (2015, Thursday 27). Aliventure. Retrieved from Aliventure.COM:

http://www.aliventures.com