How to Write a Novel: Dialogue
“Writing good dialogue is art as well as craft.”
—Stephen King, On Writing
Dialogue is how characters communicate with each other. As your characters speak, they reveal aspects of their attitudes and back story, and when they talk to others, they demonstrate their social ability and how they relate to others. Dialogue brings the story to life.
You can develop character and plot through dialogue, as well as deepen any other aspect of your story. It is a critical part of fiction writing and can be hard to master, even if you are experienced in writing other things.
But don’t worry. You can learn the basics of dialogue and then decide how far you want to take your expertise.
Some writers use it extensively, and others sparingly. Some authors start their writing process with dialogue, saying they ‘hear’ their characters talking and ‘take dictation,’ before expanding the story further.
From a reader perspective, some love a lot of dialogue while others prefer narrative and exposition. Some want deep authenticity in character voice, with accents and vocal tics, and others prefer a light touch.
You can usually tell a writer’s preference by the amount of white space on a page, as the punctuation of dialogue means many more lines on a page, compared to a denser paragraph of description or inner thought.
Dialogue reflects the author’s voice, just as much as the characters’. You will discover your preference as a reader and as a writer through your author journey.
Dialogue is not just a transcript of people talking
While listening to people talking is a great way to research different voices, dialogue in a novel is not a natural conversation.
People don’t communicate in perfect sentences. If you transcribe any conversation directly, it will be full of repetitions, filler words, hesitation or thinking words like ‘um,’ and doesn’t necessarily make sense.
Your job in writing dialogue is to make conversation natural, but still respect the reader’s experience.
Vary dialogue tags with character action
Some writing craft books say that you should only ever use basic dialogue tags — for example, ‘Morgan said’ or ‘Jake said’ — because the reader skips over them in the text, so they barely register as repetition.
But that advice is dated in the world of increased audio consumption.
It is obvious to the listener when a writer uses repetitive words in an audiobook, and hearing dialogue tags like ‘said’ over and over again can cause them to stop listening.
However, you don’t have to replace ‘said’ with words like ‘interjected’ or ‘spat’ or ‘whispered,’ although those can be good options if the story demands it.
Instead, replace dialogue tags with character action, so the reader knows who is speaking. For example:
Morgan walked over to the window and looked out at the sparkling blue waters. “The key is out there somewhere. We just have to find it.”
Make it clear who is speaking… but don’t overuse character names
“Hi Bob, how’s the rocket this morning?” Jane said.
“Oh, hi Jane, it’s looking good,” Bob replied. “Just need to sort out the paint job.”
“Have fun with that, Bob,” Jane said, as she turned away and stepped into the portal.
It’s clear to the reader who’s speaking here, but it’s like being bashed over the head with the repeated names and it feels clumsy. New writers will often use names inside dialogue and use them in tags as well, but it’s not necessary.
Here’s a new version.
Jane leaned over the bench. “Hi Bob, how’s the rocket this morning?”
“Lookin’ good.” Bob grinned and pointed at the can of red paint by his feet. “Just need to sort out the paint job.”
“Have fun with that.” Jane turned away and stepped into the portal.
This uses action within dialogue. It’s clear who is speaking and we’re not overusing character names.
Use dialogue to move the plot forward
All sorts of interesting things can come up between characters through dialogue. For example, characters may be forced to resolve a conflict or work together to escape a situation or solve a puzzle.
Conflict in dialogue can bring the story alive, and relationship clashes portrayed through dialogue can be brutal. We often know how to hurt those we love with words.
One of my favorite TV series is Succession, about an ageing billionaire media mogul and the fight amongst his children as to who will succeed him as CEO. The dialogue between the four siblings as well as with the father, mother, and other family members, as well as between lovers and spouses, is savage, but as such, resonates as true.
Subtext
Subtext is the true meaning under surface spoken words and is revealed through character action. How often do you say, “I’m fine,” when you’re actually angry and show that anger in different ways, like slamming a door?
Reading screenplays can help with learning how to write good dialogue because they only show action and dialogue between characters in a setting, rather than explaining inner thoughts. Seeing the pairing of a dialogue line with an action will give you ideas for how you can create the same kind of subtext on a page.
Dictate or read dialogue out loud
If you dictate your story, you might find your dialogue is more natural from the start. But if you write it, you are likely to find during editing that your dialogue is overly formal.
Read it aloud, and you’ll spot the issues. I always have to rewrite dialogue in my edit!
Beware of ‘on the nose’ dialogue
‘On the nose’ dialogue is a screenwriting term and refers to telling instead of showing. It’s when characters say what they feel and what has happened, instead of showing it through action.
A (very) on the nose example might be:
“I’m so sad,” Marie said.
“Is it because your husband just left you for another woman?” Janice replied.
Compare that to:
Marie sat on the edge of the sofa shaking with sobs, her hands covering her face as if to shut out the world.
Janice rubbed her friend’s back slowly, in a soothing motion, like she did with her children. “He’s a bastard,” she said, an edge of steel in her voice. “Let her have him. You deserve better.”
Dialect and speech mannerisms
While it is a good idea to differentiate your main characters, at least, through their speech patterns, dialect, character voice, and mannerisms, it’s up to you how far you want to go with this.
Some writers have made a career out of writing effectively with dialect — for example, Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh in Scots English. Some consider it important for representation and the world of the book to immerse the reader in a different language.
Other writers consider dialect and speech mannerisms as seasoning, rather than differentiating every sentence of every fragment of dialogue. In IT, by Stephen King, one of the main characters has a stutter, but King portrays it with a light touch. The reader can skim over the words without stopping too much on the repeated stuttering dialogue.
You can also use verbal description, which will help with adaptation to audio. One author I know was appalled to find her novel with an Irish protagonist narrated with an accent like a leprechaun, instead of the gentle lilt she had imagined. The assumption of ‘Irish’ without further descriptors had been taken too far into cliché during adaptation.
Don’t use fake dialogue to introduce back story
We’ve all heard or read this type of dialogue.
“Hey Mary, isn’t your sister coming over tonight? You know, the one who married that criminal from down south who is getting out of jail soon and promised to kill her when he got out?”
Clearly, Mary would know about her sister’s past, so this dialogue is a clumsy way of providing back story about a character who will arrive soon, and telegraphs plot in an inept fashion.
Find another way to weave in back story. It might take more words, but it will be a better book.
It’s dialogue, not monologue
If you have paragraphs of one character speaking, then it’s probably an info dump, or you haven’t considered what action could occur at the same time.
What are the other characters doing while this character is speaking? What could be happening while they talk? Are there other ways you could communicate the necessary information to the reader without using this much dialogue?
Swearing and curse words
You need to make a decision about swearing and profanity early in your author career, because readers are particular about what curse words they allow. You can ritually murder children or blow up a hospital in your fiction and get away with it, but if you use a surprise f-bomb when you don’t usually include cursing, you’ll get angry comments and one-star reviews.
I know because this happened to me, so I decided not to use cursing in my books at all.
Some authors will say, ‘Well, my characters are New York cops [or insert character type here] so they have to swear.’ But you can write authentic characters without swearing and readers won’t even notice.
Of course, you can absolutely curse all you like in your fiction. Use any language you choose — just be consistent. If your characters swear, make it clear from your first book, and readers will self-select for the level they want to read.
Questions:
• In what way do you want to use dialect and speech mannerisms in your story? Why are you making this choice?
• Will you use curse words in your dialogue?
• Select a dialogue-heavy scene from your manuscript and check it against the potential problems listed in this chapter. Which do you need to watch out for, and how can you fix them?
• Similarly, are there tools like subtext or action tags that you could be using more effectively? Are you using dialogue to move the plot forward and/or reveal character?
Resources:
• Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen — Robert McKee
• How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript — James Scott Bell
• Dialogue Doctor Jeff Elkins, podcast and resources — www.DialogueDoctor.com
• Writing dialogue and character voice with Jeff Elkins. Interview with transcript — www.TheCreativePenn.com/elkins
