Writing Realistic Dialogue
Hey, y’all. One of the things I see people having difficulty with the most when they’re starting out writing -- whether it’s fanfic, original stories, film/play scripts, or otherwise -- is dialogue. Dialogue is usually defined in literature as spoken communication between characters. This can be the most difficult part for some people, but it’s also one of the most important things to master for believable, engaging, and professional writing.
The main aspects of dialogue I pay attention to are realism and significance. When writing dialogue-driven works like scripts or transcripts, these aspects are especially important. Here are some of my tips for dialogue writing.
Before anything else, punctuation and sentence structure are important to any piece of writing. Grammar and punctuation in dialogue, however, are pretty necessary to nail down for clarity and smoothness of reading. A few grammar and punctuation rules and examples:
- know your punctuation before you start writing. review basic punctuation and the functions and connotations of each type so you can use it to communicate your ideas as engagingly and realistically as possible. (a resource: https://www.thepunctuationguide.com)
- quotation marks are necessary anytime someone is physically speaking. the punctuation goes inside the quotation marks, “like this.” (the exception is if someone is speaking in their head or as the narrator -- then it’s fine to not use quotes. many people use something else to replace the quotes, such as italicizing, bolding, or using parentheses, which I'm doing this exact second.)
- it’s either “should have” or “should’ve,” not “should of.” “should of” and “could of” aren’t real things. it’s “should have” and “could have”. whether or not you pronounce it more like “of” doesn’t matter; it’s not grammatically correct. if you really want us to know it’s pronounced like “of”, you can use the conjunction and write “should’ve,” which is the same sound but is grammatically correct.
- when you end dialogue and there’s a phrase afterwards, put a comma there. “It’s like this,” I demonstrated. “You also need to do this when breaking up sentences or phrases,” I continued, “and put a comma after the joining phrase.”
- one space after a comma, two spaces after a period. your grade school teachers might not have cared about this, but your readers do; it helps a lot with reading comprehension and the overall appearance of your writing.
Realism of Dialogue: The Casual/Formal Spectrum
Now that we’ve covered some grammar and punctuation, we’re ready to talk about realism of dialogue. One of the most helpful tools in my box is the idea of casualness vs. formality. This applies to both the sentence structure (in what way or how casually/formally are they saying this?) and the word choice (how casual/formal are the words and phrases they’re using?). Ideally, you want to be somewhere in between the two extremes below, depending on the character you're writing for. This is a delicate balance because you want to make the dialogue sound real while still writing in a grammatically correct manner. Here are my tips for avoiding both ends of the spectrum:
- writing dialogue isn’t like text-talking. i text very differently from how i write formally, often excluding punctuation and capitalization, but formal writing looks unprofessional and disrupted without those things. instead of writing someone saying “um ok are you coming or not” it would be “Um, okay...are you coming, or not?”
- on the other hand, people don’t always talk in full, correct sentences. this one is tricky because it depends on cultural factors, such as place and time, but for the most part, modern people use a combination of full sentences and sentence fragments. a teenage character probably wouldn’t say something like “Would you like to come with me to the dining hall tonight?” so much as “Wanna hit the dining hall?” or even just “Dining hall tonight?” *NOTE: both of those last two alternatives are informal, but for different reasons: the first one is a grammatically correct sentence with informal words, and the second is a grammatically incorrect sentence with formal words. people use both of these combinations all the time in verbal communication, and your dialogue will sound much more natural if you’re mindful of realistic speech patterns.
Now that you know some guidelines of realistic dialogue, the real trick is to find/develop your characters’ voices and unique balances between these extremes. My goal when moving from realistic to characterizating dialogue is usually to move from “yeah, someone would say that” to “yeah, (insert character) would say that.”
The other piece of the dialogue puzzle is its significance, or why your characters are saying what they’re saying. Dialogue is a tool that can be used for many different important functions in your work. It can function as characterization, exposition, plot furthering, or emotional stimulation for you, your characters, and your audience. Here are some questions to ask yourself when writing and editing your work.
- why is your character saying this instead of 1) saying something else or 2) another character saying it?
- does it make sense grammatically and in context?
- is it necessary? one of the things that makes me lose focus and interest is when there’s too much unnecessary dialogue where body language, literary narration, cinematography, editing, or just fewer words would convey the same message better. so consider: is dialogue the best way to convey your idea(s)? if so, what is the most efficient and effective way to structure it?
- does it give insight into the character? if it’s already significant to the plot, you can make it even more significant by making it characterizing as well. does your character speak with a lot of pop culture or literary references? do they tend to ask questions, or state their opinion and wait for someone else to jump in? do they like to talk or do they not talk much? are they rude? sarcastic? kind? educated? is their head in the clouds? what does their dialogue reveal?
- is it too expositional? exposition is essential, mostly background, information on the characters and the plot. the golden rule of writing, “show, don’t tell,” is a warning against heavy exposition because it can get boring. instead of a character asking, “Did you go to your appointment and get your medication like you do every Tuesday?” they could say, “How was your appointment?” and the other character could show them a pill bottle and say, “Just like every Tuesday.” those are both expositional, but one is more interesting and “shows” the audience what’s happening more than “telling” them.
- is there some effect that you want that is missing? try different word choice, a different tone or emotion, another type of dialogue, or switching from dialogue to another mode of writing. play around with those until you get the vibe you’re looking for.
Dialogue is one of the trickiest components of creative writing, but with time and practice, it can be one of the most useful and exciting as well. Consider who, what, and why at every step of the process to maximize the effectiveness of your dialogue. Remember your grammar and punctuation and then go back and edit for significance and clarity.
Feel free to ask questions about this post or any of my other posts. I’m always glad to talk about anything on this blog. Happy writing!
