How to Write Dialogue, Part 1: Natural Speech, or Making Your Characters Sound Like Actual People
So a lot of creative writers struggle with dialogue, and it’s one of the things I actually find easier. I’ve learned a lot from various pieces of writing advice on tumblr, so I figured I’d contribute my bit as well. Some of my basic tenets for writing natural-sounding dialogue:
1. Actual people do not always talk in full, grammatically correct sentences.
When we talk to one another, we rarely use proper written grammar. We drop articles, don’t finish our sentences, abbreviate words, etc. Consider this exchange:
“Hey, what are you doing after school?” Aliya asked.
Leanne looked up at her friend. “I don’t know, why?”
“A couple of us are getting ice cream. Steve’s driving; do you want to come?”
“Sure. Hang on, let me just tell my mom.” Leanne pulled out her phone and sent a quick text. “Okay, I’m ready to go.”
“Cool,” Aliya said. “I have to grab my bag, so I’ll meet you outside in five minutes, okay?”
“Hey, you doing anything after school?” Aliya asked.
Leanne looked up at her friend. “Dunno, why?”
“A couple of us are getting ice cream. Steve’s driving; wanna come?”
“Sure, hang on, lemme just…” Leanne pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her Mom. “Okay, yeah, I’m good.”
“Cool,” Aliya said. “I gotta grab my bag, so meet you outside in five?”
Which sounds more natural? Which feels more like teenagers?
That’s not to say that your dialogue should never be grammatically correct or include full sentences. In fact, grammar can be a useful way to signal how formal or casual a situation/relationship is. If your sibling asks if you’re busy, you might respond, “Nah, I’m free, what’s up?” but if your boss asks, you might respond, “No, I have a minute. What can I do for you?” Your speech becomes more casual when you’re comfortable or when you’re talking to someone you know well. Your speech becomes more formal when you’re in a stricter environment or when you’re talking to someone you want to impress.
2. We almost never say people’s names when addressing them.
One of the most common habits of inexperienced writers is to have everyone calling each other by their names all the time. In reality, we almost always use names when referring to someone we’re not talking to.
Generally, if we’re using a person’s name as a direct address, it’s for one of the following reasons:
We’re getting their attention (“Hey, Sarah, can you come help me?”)
We’re giving a piece of information to just them, rather than the whole group (“All right, everybody ready? Sarah, you lead the way.”)
We’re trying to really drive an important point home, particularly one we’re making in anger or frustration (“For God’s sake, Sarah, I’m doing my best here!”)
Other than that, we pretty much don’t say people’s names to them, so your characters shouldn’t do it either.
3. Break up dialogue with action.
Nothing makes a reader’s eyes glaze over like huge blocks of text. We know this when it comes to description–how often have you tried to read a book with huge, dense paragraphs on clothing or weather or social structure or any number of other things–but it can be true with dialogue too. Even if the focus of your scene is a conversation, we need action to ground us in the scene. If your characters talk for too long without a physical check-in, we start to find it difficult to “see” them. When we experience real interactions, we process dialogue and visual stimuli simultaneously. Threading them together in your writing will make it feel more real to your reader.
Consider this quick scene:
Adam walked into the kitchen to find his mom sitting at the table, reading. She looked up when he entered.
“Mom, I need to talk to you,” Adam said.
“Lisa might be pregnant.”
“Okay,” Mom said, her voice even. “She doesn’t know for sure yet?”
“No,” Adam answered. “She got a pregnancy test after school. She said she’ll text me right after. She’s three weeks late, though, so.”
“So,” Mom agreed. “Thank you for telling me. If she is pregnant, you know I’m always here. Whatever you two want to do, I’ll help you figure it out.”
The scene is all about the conversation between Adam and his mom, so it makes sense for the focus to be on the conversation. It’s also not a scene where they’re moving around a ton. However, little bits of action can not only ground the scene for the reader, they can also provide additional information and insight. Let’s make some little changes:
Adam walked into the kitchen to find his mom sitting at the table, reading. She looked up when he entered.
“Mom, I need to talk to you,” Adam said.
Immediately, Mom closed her book and folded her hands on top of it. “Sure, what’s up?”
“Lisa might be pregnant.”
“Okay,” Mom said, her voice even. “She doesn’t know for sure yet?”
“No,” Adam answered, sitting down across from her. “She got a pregnancy test after school. She said she’ll text me right after. She’s three weeks late, though, so.”
“So,” Mom agreed. “Thank you for telling me. If she is pregnant, you know I’m always here. Whatever you two want to do, I’ll help you figure it out.”
I only added one action for each character, but see what they do to the scene. In the original, we hear Mom welcome Adam’s need to talk to her, but by adding a bit of physicality, we can see clearly how she recognizes his serious tone and immediately gives him her undivided attention. This lends specificity to this interaction, but it also gives us insight into what kind of mother she is in general, and makes it feel believable that he trusts her enough to come to her for this in the first place.
Adam’s action is tiny, just sitting down. However, it clarifies a few things for us. First and most obviously, we say what he’s doing. In the original, since we don’t see him sit, it’s left unclear whether Adam stays standing or joins his mother at the table. In the revision, we not only know where he is, but the placement of this action colors his emotional state. He blurts out the crux of his problem immediately and bluntly, perhaps to just get it over with, perhaps because he’s worried he’ll lose his nerve. Then, once his mom reacts well and they need to talk details, he sits down to continue the conversation.
Little actions like fiddling with something, brushing hair/sweat out of your face, closing a door, sighing, glancing aside, shifting in your chair, pouring yourself something to drink, etc. can ground your reader in the scene and remind them (and you!) where the characters are. They’re also a way to use your characters’ body language to say things that aren’t (or shouldn’t be) present in your dialogue or speech tags.
4. When in doubt, read it aloud!
The easiest way to find out if your dialogue sounds natural is to listen to it. You can read it on your own, or even better, with a friend to play each character. Read just the speech, not the dialogue tags or descriptions. How does it sound? How does it feel? Is there anything you’re tempted to phrase differently from how it’s written? Are there times one character responds to the other in a way that doesn’t quite fit or make sense? Obviously your characters may have different speech patterns from yours, but generally, if you stumble over something in the conversation, they will too. It’s worth reworking it into something that would more naturally fit into your own mouth, and therefore into the mouths of your characters.
