One of the biggest challenges writers face is creating realistic, believable dialogue. How many times have you watched a movie or read a book and thought to yourself, has this writer ever had a conversation? I know I have. As writers, we want to avoid our audience thinking this. As writers, we want to write good dialogue.
For starters, what makes good dialogue?
Good dialogue does so much more than portray a conversation. When a story has good dialogue, the characters have distinct voices—they sound different from each other. Think of the conversations you’ve had and people you know–people don’t all sound the same. Maybe one character uses a lot of idioms, or another character calls everyone “dude.”
Good dialogue is purposeful. Use dialogue as a vessel for implicit information: do your characters like each other? What’s their relationship like? What are they planning to do next? In stories, dialogue is rarely ever just a conversation—use it to your advantage and to move your story along.
And most importantly, good dialogue flows naturally. When writing dialogue, integrate it into your prose, don’t just throw it in. Dialogue should be fluid between your characters as well, and fit the scene. If they’re flirting, their language will be light and playful. If they’re arguing, there’s tension and build-up.
Now, onto writing. Here’s how I make my dialogue as realistic and believable as possible.
Eavesdrop. Listen into other people’s conversations—their topics, their jargon, their reactions to each other. All of those details make a whole lot of difference on the page. Where you eavesdrop can give you different information. Conversations at a coffee shop are drastically different than those at a bar or a library. A conversation between two frat guys is very different from one between a professor and a student or the cashier and a customer at the supermarket. Look for places where your character would hang out.
Add actions and reactions between lines of dialogue. Does your character reach over to touch the other? Do they roll their eyes at each other? Do they laugh or snort or scoff? These details add to the tone and give more context clues as to what’s going on with the characters, and can be the best segue into wherever you want to take your story. Don’t be afraid of “said” in your dialogue tags. A common misconception, especially amongst new writers, is that you should avoid “said” in your tags. And that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Using “said” keeps readers on track and allows other tags to stand out more. If you’re using “remarked,” “exclaimed” and “inquired” too much, they lose their effect and they distract the reader. Use them only when you absolutely need to.