Every writer should master the art of dialogue—it’s a critical tool in any writers’ toolkit. Some writers naturally craft seamless, natural conversations, while others struggle. The silver lining? You can rapidly grasp the technique of dialogue with a bit of practice. For those in Australia and New Zealand looking into self-publishing their books, honing your dialogue skills can set your work apart.
What is Dialogue?
Dialogue involves the conversation between characters in a book. Effective dialogue is concise, engaging, and adds depth to both characters and the story. It should feel natural while advancing the plot, revealing character traits, or creating tension and conflict.
Your book isn’t just about unfolding events; at its heart, ’a book is about the characters. Dialogue or conversation brings these characters to life, enhancing the reader’s engagement and enjoyment of your book.
The Purpose of Dialogue
Dialogue does a lot in storytelling, such as:
- Revealing character: Dialogue shows personalities, backgrounds, motivations, and relationships through how characters talk and interact.
- Advancing plot and conflict: By introducing and building conflict, making decisions, and resolving issues, dialogue moves the plot along. ’ Conversations push the story forward by sharing key information or sparking major events.
- Building atmosphere: The language, tone, and rhythm of dialogue helps set the mood of the scene and character interactions.
- Enhancing realism: Good dialogue sounds like natural speech, making characters and their interactions feel real and relatable.
- Providing exposition: Dialogue delivers background info, backstory, or world-building details in a more engaging way than just plain narration or exposition.
- Developing theme: What characters chat about reflects and explores the story’s bigger themes.
How you can write great dialogue
We’ve mentioned this word a couple of times already, but the major key to nailing dialogue is that it must sound natural. It’s got to be engaging and easy to follow. Here are our top 10 tips:
- Listen to real conversations: Pay attention to how people speak in real life. Notice the rhythmic flow and word choice. Realistic dialogue mirrors everyday talk.
- Show, don’t tell: Reveal information about characters, their relationships, and the story through conversation instead of exposition.
- Keep it concise: Cut the fluff. Avoid long-winded speeches by making your dialogue primarily punchy and to the point.
- Use contractions: Unless your character is super formal, use contractions like “can’t” and “it’s”. It makes dialogue sound more natural.
- Give each character a distinct voice: Ensure each character has unique speech patterns, vocabulary, and rhythms. This helps readers tell them apart while also adding depth and interest.
- Avoid exposition dumps: Don’t use dialogue just to dump info. Mix in action, conflict, or emotion to keep it engaging.
- Use dialogue tags sparingly: Try and stick more so to “said” or “asked” most of the time in your dialogue tags. Fancy tags like “exclaimed” or “interjected” can distract.
- Show emotion: Let characters express their emotions through their words and tone. This adds depth and authenticity.
- Use subtext: Sometimes, what characters don’t say is as important as what they do say. Use subtext to imply underlying emotions or motives.
- Read it aloud: After writing, read your dialogue out loud. If it feels awkward, revise until it flows smoothly.
Practice regularly, experiment with styles, and remember that improving dialogue takes time and effort. Keep at it!