Unless you’re writing an experimental, edgy book that has zero direct dialogue, your book will probably heavily rely on having characters speaking to each other. It can be easy to take dialogue in a book for granted, especially because when it’s well done, we often don’t even notice it. Unlike a brilliant plot or a beautiful description that stand out when they’re perfection, dialogue is amazing when it feels so natural that we almost forget to admire it.
But a crucial piece of improving your writing is learning to write dialogue well. It’s tricky, because dialogue in books, although it needs to feel natural, is actual very different than how people talk in real life. When talking off the cuff, people repeat themselves, use the wrong word, use filler words, use hand gestures to explain vague concepts, and more. So much of our everyday speech is mundane. In a book, however, if you write like that, readers will get bored, annoyed, or frustrated—or a combination of all three. But if you write using huge words and eloquent sentences and no contractions, in most cases it will come across as stiff and awkward. Finding this balance is key, and I’ve got three exercises you can do to improve your dialogue writing skills, as well as two common mistakes to avoid.
Exercise #1: Transcribe and edit conversations
This begins with finding a real-life conversation between people, and writing it down word-for-word (or pretty close to it). Eavesdropping on people in public is great, but if that’s unavailable, then find a conversation or interview on a podcast or YouTube. Write down the conversation as it stands, then notice all the ways that, if you just put that straight into a book, it would probably be annoying. Maybe it’s too long, or too wandering, or the speakers talk over each other a lot.
Next, edit the conversation into something that would work in a book. Think about what the purpose of the conversation is, and how you can hone down the current words to serve that purpose and move the “plot” forward. Don’t just rely on the words—add in dialogue tags, action beats, and movements to make meanings clear and adjust pacing (if you don’t know what those are, more on them later).
Purpose: This will help you improve your ability to translate the “purpose” of a conversation into a tight, evocative conversation that moves your book forward and keeps people interested.
Exercise #2: Write down pieces of dialogue you love
As I said before, it’s easy to take good dialogue for granted. But in order to grow your skill, it’s important to keep an eye (or ear) out for good dialogue in books, or even movies, video games, and anything else scripted. When you notice a particularly good phrase, or even full conversation, write it down. You can handwrite it in a journal, or just keep a Google doc of favorite phrases. Wherever you keep your dialogue collection, return to it periodically and study these pieces—why did they work so well? What about them caught your attention? How can you incorporate these methods into your writing?
Purpose: This ongoing practice trains your ear to be listening for good dialogue, an important first step toward improving. Then, when you re-write these conversations, your brain is absorbing them, giving you further material to work with. Finally, studying them to see what works helps you analyze the tools good writers use to create dialogue, so that you can use them yourself.
Exercise #3: Study screenwriting
Confession time: Dialogue used to be one of the things I struggled most with in writing. Then in college, I took a playwriting class. The things we read and wrote were overwhelmingly focused on dialogue, and after a semester of this crash course in characters talking, my ability to write dialogue had improved drastically. It’s now something in my writing that I regularly get compliments on.
I’m not saying that to brag, but to show that even if you don’t write scripts, it can still be a seriously helpful tool. You don’t need to take a college course (though, if you’re able to, go for it!). Instead, you can buy scripts for plays and movies, or even find many freely available online. Study them, and figure out how the screenwriter moves the scene forward with dialogue—and when they allow silence or action to speak instead. Practice writing short scripts of scenes, relying more heavily on dialogue than on description or action. While this typically won’t be a good writing style for fiction, it’s a helpful exercise to give your dialogue skills a boost. Read along with the script as you watch the movie, and see what purpose the dialogue serves. If you were going to capture not only the words, but the way the actor said them, how would you describe that in your book?
Purpose: Although scripts have other elements, their main focus is the dialogue. Studying them and practicing writing your own lets you zero in on it in a way that reading through a full novel doesn’t.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Mistake #1: Overusing dramatic dialogue tags and underutilizing action beats
I said above that I would explain these terms, and here we are. Below is a quick diagram that explains each term.
I wrote a full post about using dialogue tags, so I won’t go into much detail here, but one common mistake new writers make is using too many “fancy” dialogue tags. While it works in the example above, having a conversation full of “she whispered, he whined, she yelled,” gets old very fast. Choose your dialogue tags well: “said” becomes invisible to readers, but “fancy” dialogue tags should only be used when necessary.
Instead of saying “he yelled” to show a character is angry, use action beats to show the character’s emotion. Example: “I can’t believe you would do that!” He shoved his chair back from the table and stepped away, as if he couldn’t bear to be near her anymore. From the character’s actions, we clearly see that he’s angry, and it paints a clearer picture and is more engaging than saying “He yelled.” Again, for a deeper dive into these tips and more, check out my other post.
Mistake #2: Frequently using character names in dialogue.
I don’t know what it is, but when writing dialogue, it’s so easy to have one character use the other character’s name a lot when speaking to them. But in real life, it’s actually pretty rare to use a person’s name when speaking. Typically, unless you’re trying to get someone’s attention or you’re angry/frustrated and making a point, you don’t really do it. Pay attention to real life conversations—you’ll notice this, and then realize that when reading a conversation where the characters say each other’s names a lot, it feels awkward and overwrought. When you’re writing a first draft, don’t worry about it too much, but it’s something to keep in mind when editing.
Do you consider writing dialogue a strength or a weakness? Which of these exercises seems helpful? Let me know in the comments!
