Writing Compelling Dialogue

Writing compelling dialogue will elevate your novel from good to superb. Dialogue is one of the cornerstones of a novel – writing it well will gift your reader with an immersive experience. Dialogue can add depth to your characters, giving them individuality and personality.

But many authors find it hard to write dialogue which is realistic and believable while at the same time not pedestrian or clunky. I’ve provided some tips below to help with writing compelling dialogue that will bring your characters to life.

Listen!

Listen to conversations around you. This is particularly useful if you are writing contemporary fiction. How do people actually speak? Listen to the cadence, vocabulary, speech patterns, rhythms. Pay close attention to how people talk in real life.

Observe conversations, both formal and informal, and listen to the rhythms, vocabulary, and speech patterns people use. This will help you capture the authenticity of natural dialogue in your writing.

However, this advice comes with a warning! When we speak, we mumble and trip over our words. We hesitate and use “um” and “er”. If you wrote down a conversation, word for word, it would be very clunky to read back. Having one character that stumbles is fine. Having all your characters stumble is not!

“I, er, don’t know what to, um, do?” he said.

“Like, what are we, um, supposed to, er, say?” she replied.

Contractions

People rarely speak in formal, stiff language – even when they are giving a formal, stiff presentation. Again, this applies particularly to contemporary fiction. Be aware that some genres (for example historical fiction) may need a different touch.

Using contractions (won’t rather than will not, shouldn’t rather than should not, haven’t rather than have not) will make your dialogue sound more natural and conversational.

Show Personality

Each person has their own way of speaking that reflects their personality. Characters in your book should be equally distinct from each other. Consider factors like age, regional dialects, education and life experience.

However, be careful not to take this too far. The differences need to be subtle. Don’t give each of your characters something remarkable. It’s fine for one character to use a verbal tick, but if they are all at it, it’s going to become a parody.

Varying the sentence length can work really well – maybe one character can speak in very short, abrupt sentences, providing a foil for a character who expounds at length.

Another excellent way to show differences is with word choice. One character can use longer, more sophisticated words to reflect either that they are more sophisticated, or that they are insecure and trying to appear more sophisticated.

Keep it Concise

If you listen to a conversation, it’s rare for one person to speak for very long without having some sort of engagement from the other players in the group.

Writing compelling dialogue means avoiding lengthy monologues in your novel – even if someone is telling a story. Other people rarely stay quiet for very long!

Interruptions

Include interruptions and people speaking over each other. These can be hard to render in text, but ending dialogue with an em dash (—) indicates that a character has been interrupted (by another character or a loud noise, for example). Using ellipses ( . . . ) indicates a character has trailed off.

Adding interruptions adds realism to dialogue and creates a sense of natural flow, making the interaction between characters more dynamic and lifelike.

Writing Compelling Dialogue Means Reading Aloud!

Read your dialogue out loud. This will pick out anything that sounds unnatural or stilted. Pay particular attention to the pace and rhythm.

Reading words aloud helps you to identify overly long sentences (where you literally have no chance to take a breath), and repeated sentence structures (where all the sentences are constructed in the same way).

Writing compelling dialogue that sounds natural and flows well takes practice and a keen ear for authenticity. By observing real conversations, crafting distinct voices for your characters, and incorporating these techniques, you can make your dialogue resonate with readers and bring your story to life.

If you are looking for an editor for your next novel, you might like to learn more about my editing process.