A long while back, some people noted that they enjoy the way I write dialogue. To be completely honest, I do firmly believe that the way I write dialogue is one of the better things I do in my writing
So I thought I’d write an explanation/guide as to how I write it!
There is a lot of debate regarding writing dialogue and like a lot of things when it comes to writing, a lot of it comes down to preferences.
A big rule I agree with and try and stick with is that your dialogue should be good enough to carry how someone is saying something. That, or the context of what is happening instead of just a speech tag.
I take this to the extreme, however. I try my best to write my dialogue as strong as I can to convey the meaning, but sometimes that isn’t enough.
I write my dialogue phonetically. Meaning, I write it how it would sound if someone were speaking.
A general rule I use is that characters who are well spoken, well educated, and older tend to speak in full sentences, don’t trail off, don’t mumble or stutter over their words, and speak with a higher caliber vocabulary. That’s just a base rule, however. When writing for different characters, I take that a step further and tweak how they would say certain things to match their personalities and backstories.
On the flip-side, characters who are younger, not as well educated, and are perhaps more humorous tend to trail off, stutter over words, use improper grammar, repeat certain words, and have a weaker vocabulary. And again, mattering on who the character is, I further tailor how they would speak mattering on their background or even where they came from.
For example, I have some characters who come from the southern United States. They are younger, and some are still in high school or are college dropouts. They also tend to use slang; y’all, ain’t, fixing to, and etc. Sometimes, I’ll drop the -g off of words that end in -ing. “Fixin’ to.”
Characters who are more northern that I have never use this sort of slang.
I have a strong belief that as long as you’re writing dialogue, you can break most grammar rules if you want. People oftentimes don’t speak properly. I almost never hear someone say “Sally and I” when referring to themselves and another person, for instance. It’s always either “me and Sally” or even “Sally and me.” I’ll write someone saying is instead of are, use commas to break up a long sentence to indicate someone is talking with little pause. Or use and between every item in a list. Such as “We need to get milk and eggs and bread and butter from the grocery store.” I’ll write people randomly changing what they are talking about in a sentence without a comma to make it read as if they are talking faster and faster, or to indicate there is no pause when they speak and they talk quickly. I also use a lot of “ums” and “ers” and stutters “S- such a- as th- this, for i- instance.” I use words that just take up space, such as “very,” and I also start sentences with “and” or “but.” More rarely, sometimes I write words wrong and purely how it sounds. “Fixin’ ta” is an easy and quick example. I use this very rarely as to not be annoying, however.
Ellipses are a huge favorite of mine. I keep them out of the narration unless I am heavily stylizing something or if it’s actually needed. In dialogue, however, they’re one of my favorite tools to show a character is trailing off, running out of breath, pausing in their own thoughts, and to give the dialogue a slower, more thoughtful or hesitant feel. That being said, I still stick to using ellipses as they are supposed to be used as best as I can.
Now, I don’t use all these techniques all the time. Again, each character I have has different quirks in how they speak. Certain characters speak a certain way, and others in a different way. I also try my best to not make the dialogue too painful to read, so it stays easy and fast to read.
Though I am all for writing dialogue phonetically, I do shy away from writing accents. That just gets annoying and can be hard to keep up with. I’ll just mention it in a speech tag and move on.
Now, besides all that, I also try and pay attention to what certain characters would never say. An easy example is saying “sir” or “ma’am.” My older characters or characters grown up in more “old-fashioned” homes tend to use “sir” and “ma’am” while younger characters or characters grown up in more relaxed homes about respect of that kind don’t ever use it. There are other things that fall under this example, but I want to keep those a little private for now. I think watching what a character wouldn’t say is quite important and gives them more character and personality in the long run.
Another trick is that I change how someone speaks based off of who they are speaking too. Someone shy would speak very differently to a stranger than they would a friend. People speak differently when faced with different people; teachers, family, friends, co-workers… the list goes on and I try my best to reflect that in my dialogue.
Cursing is another thing I pay attention too. Characters I have who are younger tend to curse more than those who are older. Certain characters who have certain personalities also curse more than others. Hell, I’ll write some characters cursing/cursing more when around certain people and not at all around others. It’s just another layer.
For me, dialogue is incredibly important. The way a character speaks does add to personality a lot. Same with the things they say, if they curse or not, how much they stutter, and etc. It shows a lot of personality. And that all ties back into that age-old rule of “show, don’t tell.”
This, of course, is all just my opinion and how I personally do things. It’s not the “right” way and is, by far, the “only” way to write dialogue. I just thought I’d share what I do.
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