Get your characters talking with good dialogue

You may or may not have experienced a story without dialogue. Some books get away with it, but it’s difficult to get around. When I think of fiction without dialogue, I think of the stories classmates and I wrote in elementary school. They were made up of narration and not much else. Appropriately, they were often very boring.

Of course, you usually won’t have dialogue in poetry or essays, but when it comes to fiction, it is usually a must.

Use dialogue correctly

It’s important to use dialogue in the right situations and in the right way. It shouldn’t replace narration. If you find your main character is talking a lot or always thinking out loud, you might want to think about changing the point of view so that they are the narrator.

Make sure you set up your dialogue correctly with quotation marks. It might seem obvious, but some people do get it wrong.

Remember, dialogue is used when people are speaking. Write it just like you are writing down someone’s conversation. Pretend you are in the room with them listening and write it down word for word. Use descriptions intermittently when necessary.

Avoid ‘he said, she said’

I can remember, in a creative writing class, listening to a fellow classmate read her story which was filled with dialogue. I can’t say for sure if it was too much dialogue or even if the story was any good because I couldn’t get past the horrific dialogue tags.

She had literally written “he said” or “she said” after every single sentence, even the questions. Don’t make this mistake.

Avoid using the word ‘said’ as much as possible. There are so many different ways you can do this:

• Use other words such as mentioned, asked, exclaimed, etc.
• Begin it or end it with a description such as what they are doing. E.g. “I don’t understand,” she bit her lip in frustration.
• Leave it alone. Especially in large sections of dialogue, not every sentence needs a tag.

Don’t rely only on dialogue

Dialogue is important, but not any more important than other aspects of writing such as narration, description, etc. Don’t rely on you characters to tell us what the city looks like or what she thinks is going to happen. Fiction is made for words. Don’t force it all into dialogue.

Make smooth transitions

It can be hard to transition from a few paragraphs describing a landscape or other surrounding into a conversation. This is where it takes true talent and thought. Make sure it flows, just as the rest of the story should. Move in and out from dialogue to thoughts to imagery and so on.

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