Writing dialogue is a peculiar skill. We spend our whole lives speaking to people (some of whom we even like), yet the moment we try to write conversation on the page, it comes out stilted, stiff, and strangely formal, like two robots debating philosophy at a polite dinner party.
Good dialogue should feel effortless, natural, and alive. It should echo real speech without replicating it verbatim, because actual conversation is full of ums, interruptions, and irrelevant tangents about someone’s cousin’s dog.
I was told that a way to help you with this is reading your dialogue aloud. If you sound like you’re auditioning for a soap opera, rewrite it. Your ear will catch awkwardness your eyes miss.
People rarely say exactly what they mean. Subtext is the secret spice. Characters lie, dodge, joke, ramble, or reveal feelings they didn’t intend to. A conversation about tea can actually be about love, jealousy, or impending doom. Give your dialogue hidden layers.
Keep sentences varied. Mix short and long lines. Let characters interrupt each other or trail off. Real conversations have rhythm; so should your scenes.
Ensure each character has a distinct voice. A teenager should not speak like a Victorian professor. A villain should not sound like your nan. Unless, of course, your villain is your nan, in which case please continue, because that sounds fantastic.
Starting half way through a conversation also works, remove the politeness at the start. Do you really want to waste time, effort and your writing time with the characters asking how the weekend was, how they are feeling today and what the weather is like, jump into the action.
Dialogue isn’t just people talking, it’s storytelling through speech. And once you master it, your scenes will leap to life, I just need to start taking my own advice.
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