Dialogue is one of those things that feels like it should be easy. We all talk. We've been listening to conversations our entire life. How hard can it be to write them?
Very hard, as it turns out. Because dialogue that sounds like real speech often reads terribly — and dialogue that reads well sounds nothing like how people actually talk.
Real speech is boring
Listen to an actual conversation. Really listen. You'll hear:
- um, uh, like, you know
- sentences that trail off and restart
- redundant phrases
- topics that meander nowhere
- polite filler that conveys nothing
If you transcribed real speech and put it in a novel, readers would be bored senseless. Real conversation is inefficient. It's full of noise.
Good dialogue creates the illusion of real speech while being far more compressed and purposeful.
Every line should do work
In fiction, dialogue needs to earn its place. Ideally, every line should do double duty — revealing character while advancing plot, or conveying information while creating subtext.
Ask of each line: what is this accomplishing? If the answer is "nothing really, it's just realistic," cut it.
"How are you?"
"Fine, thanks. You?"
"Good, good."
Unless this banality is deliberately establishing something about the characters, it's wasting the reader's time. Skip to the part where something actually happens.
As they say in the film-editing trade, 'go in late, get out early'.
People don't say what they mean
In real life, we're often indirect. We hint, we evade, we say the opposite of what we feel. We talk around subjects instead of addressing them head-on.
Good dialogue captures this. Characters who say exactly what they mean are usually flat and dull. Characters who don't say what they mean are interesting — because we, the readers, are triangulating the truth from their evasions.
"I'm not angry," said through gritted teeth, tells us more than "I'm furious with you" ever could.
Differentiate your characters
Every character should have their own verbal patterns. Vocabulary, sentence length, formality, tendency toward directness or circumlocution.
Test: cover the dialogue tags. Can you tell who's speaking? If everyone sounds the same, you have a problem.
Think about the people you know. The friend who always exaggerates. The colleague who never commits to an opinion. The relative who interrupts. These patterns are what make voices distinct.
Read it aloud
The single best test for dialogue: read it out loud. Actually speak the words.
You'll immediately feel what's awkward. Lines that looked fine on the page will feel unnatural in your mouth. Rhythms that felt right will land wrong.
If you stumble, readers will stumble. Fix it.
"Said" is invisible
New writers often try to avoid "said" — using "exclaimed," "declared," "queried," "opined" and every other synonym they can find.
Don't. "Said" is invisible. Readers' eyes glide right over it. The fancy alternatives draw attention to themselves and away from what's being said.
If you need to convey how something is spoken, use action: "I don't care." She turned away. Better than: "I don't care," she said dismissively.
The best way to improve dialogue is to read widely and pay attention. Notice what works. Notice what doesn't. Then write a lot of it and revise mercilessly.