Tips for Writing Realistic and Believable Dialogue

Tips for Writing Realistic and Believable Dialogue

  Now that you know what dialogue should be able to do, there are some guidelines for writing them.

 

1. Say dialogues out aloud

  When you are writing your dialogues or right after, say them out aloud as your character would. Then iron those kinks that reveal themselves. Writing dialogue depends a lot on listening. So listen to how people speak in real life and try to bring that level of authenticity into your character’s dialogues. However, fictional dialogue takes on a bit more than real-life dialogue. It should sound like something that people in real-life say and move the story forward too. Recording your dialogues in the way you expect your characters to say it can be one way to gauge how natural they sound. If they don’t, rework on them.

 

2. Avoid small talk and filler words

  Another place where fictional dialogue diverges from the real-life dialogue is in the absence of small talk. Avoid any small talk. It slows down the pace of the story and doesn’t add anything substantial to it. Small talk tugs on your story, stopping it from moving forward. Filler words like ‘um’ and ‘ah’ should be avoided, too, unless it establishes a character trait.

However, there is one exception to this rule. If small talk is used to stall the character from finding out something or change the story in any other way, then do use it. In this scene, if the audience knows what’s going on, but the character doesn’t, you’d have added the literary device of dramatic irony to your dialogue

 

3. Keep it short and simple

  In real-life, dialogues can be long and pointless. But in fiction, you don’t have that choice. The reader will get bored, or your publisher might point out the finite number of pages available to you. Literary or fictional dialogue should get to the point soon. Be ruthless and snip away lines that are not essential to the scene. Pare down your dialogue till only what’s required remains.

 

4. Create a unique voice for each character

  While developing characters, you’ll need to create a unique voice for each of your characters. When writing, you should ensure that this voice is reflected in the character’s dialogues. So that when your reader is reading the dialogues, they will be able to pick out who is saying what without getting confused.

 

5. Be consistent in the voices of each character

  Once you have chosen a voice for each character, you need to stick to it. That becomes the character’s personality. If a character uses a particular word or phrase often, then be consistent in using it in their dialogue all through the story.

 

6. Use appropriate slang

  While writing dialogue, use slang to evoke a certain world. Do keep a watch out on the genre and the character’s socio-political status before you do. You don’t want to use street slang for an aristocratic character because that is not how they speak. For example, in the ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, He saw me looking with admiration at his car. “It’s pretty, isn’t it, old sport?” He jumped off to give me a better view. “Haven’t you ever seen it before?” ‘Old sport’ is a slang term from the 1920s that men would use with their friends.

 

7. Adapt dialogue to the person addressed

  In real life, as in fiction, dialogue changes based on who is being addressed. You don’t speak the same way with your mother as you do with your employer. So, keep an eye out for the person whom your character is addressing. This is, of course, in alignment with the voice of your character. Edit or change your dialogue accordingly.

 

8. Reduce or avoid paragraphs

  In real life, rarely does anyone speak at length before someone interrupts them. Try to recreate that in fiction. If your character might have things to say, that go on for several lines. In that case, break it up with indications about body language or observations about how other people react to your character’s words. Alternate dialogue with action and explanation.

9. Avoid greetings

In real life, greetings are important but not so much in fiction. Avoid them completely if you can. They can make the situation boring. One exception is when something significant happens in the middle of a greeting. For example, someone dies is poisoned or has an accident in the middle of a greeting.

10. Establish who your character is

In real life, we understand a character by observing people’s mannerisms and speech. You can do the same in your fictional work. Stephen King says in ‘On Writing,’ his book about writing, ‘…what people say often conveys their character to others in ways of which they—the speakers—are completely unaware.’ For example, in Jane Austen’s

‘Pride and Prejudice,’ dialogue is used to introduce Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, their relationship, and their differing attitudes towards arranging marriages for their daughters:

‘A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!’

‘How so? How can it affect them?’

‘My dear Mr. Bennet,’ replied his wife, ‘how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.’

‘Is that his design in settling here?’

‘Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.’

Through this dialogue, we get to know that Mrs. Bennet is keen to get her five daughters married but not Mr. Bennet.

11. Use dialogue tags sparingly

Dialogue tags are ‘he said’ or ‘she said’ tagged to the line of dialogue. It’s a good idea to use them sparingly. ‘Said’ and ‘asked’ are the most used and use other synonyms when required. However, the purpose of a dialogue tag is to identify the speaker, not to express how they say those dialogues. You’ll need to show that instead of using a dialogue tag.

12. Give your characters actions to do

When your characters are talking, give them something to do. They can’t only be talking to each other. That’s called the dreaded ‘talking head syndrome’ wherein a scene otherwise well written, characters are not rooted in reality. They seem to be heads floating and talking.

13. Avoid using dialogue to carry your favorite message

Do you feel strongly about something? No matter how strongly you feel about an issue and how much you identify with a character, avoid using them to relay your favourite message. It creates a rather jarring effect and takes the focus away from the story and characters.

14. Let your characters interrupt each other

To approximate real-life speech, have your characters speak over one another and ‘cut’ each other off. Dialogues need not be complete sentences. Rarely do people speak in complete sentences in life, so it need not be so in fiction as well.

15. Avoid repeating names in a dialogue

When a character is addressing another character, it is not necessary to have them begin or end the sentence with the name of the other character. Maybe if one character is doing it to irritate the other, then yes, go ahead. Under no other circumstances does this repetition of names help the dialogue or story.

16. Use subtext

The subtext is that which is left unsaid but is really the point of it all. Introduce subtext in your dialogues. It will make dialogues rich and layered. Let’s look at this example. Dill is a new kid in town in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This is the first time that six-year-old Scout and her older brother Jem are meeting Dill. Scout is narrating this incident.

‘Hey.’

‘Hey yourself,’ said Jem pleasantly.

‘I’m Charles Baker Harris,’ he said. ‘I can read.’

‘So what?’ I said.

‘I just thought you’d like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin’ I can do it…’

‘How old are you,’ asked Jem, ‘four-and-a-half?’

‘Goin’ on seven.’

‘Shoot no wonder, then,’ said Jem, jerking his thumb at me.

‘Scout yonder’s been readin’ ever since she was born, and she ain’t even started to school yet. You look right puny for goin’ on seven.’

Dill offers to say something about himself, his most valuable characteristic, which is reading to make friends with Jem. But Jem does not accept this offer. He dismisses the offering saying there is nothing special in it since Scout has been doing it for a while. That is the subtext to this exchange of dialogue. It would require something a bit more to win over Jem.