Tips for writing dialogue

Good dialogue is really, really hard to get right.

It takes a lot of time, practice, and precious feedback to learn how to get your words juuuust right. That said, I can definitely give you some quick pointers that should help!

1. Pause and Consider the Context.

Any time you start to write dialogue, take a moment to stop and think. Ask yourself questions about where the characters are, what they are doing, how they are feeling, what secrets they are holding, and more. Dialogue changes depending on a lot of factors. A tired person won't speak like a person on nine cups of coffee and ten hours sleep. A conversation in a chapel won't sound the same as a conversation in a noisy pub. Stopping to consider the influences on the current conversation helps to avoid dialogue that seems out of place or unbelievable.

2. Consider Body Language as Dialogue

Another source of awkward dialogue is relying too much on the spoken word. A whole lot can be said in a scene with only a single word if you are doing a good job of showing us the body language around that word. This is huge for adding nuance as you can start playing with contrasts of spoke word versus body language. Try sitting down and just doing a few, quick scenes where you have people saying angry things with friendly body language, or nice things with sinister body language. It may help!

3. Think About Common Ground

Dialogue is different between families, friends, co-workers, and strangers. This is mainly because there is a different set of common ground between these groups. Someone you grew up with will have a deeper base-line for what you BOTH know and can reference or infer it to communicate.

For example: Let's say a character lost her temper with a babysitter as a kid and threw a wooden horse at her. Their mom, or long-time best friend might know the story and when they see the character getting angry they might remind them to calm down with 'Hey, don't throw the horse on this!' There's nuance and character development there because the two characters involved have a shared history.

Hope these things help!