Bring Your Characters to Life with These Dialogue Tips

Whether it’s snappy banter or an emotional heart-to-heart, dialogue often makes or breaks fiction writing. Crafting conversations that flow naturally and reveal character is an art all writers need to master. Follow these key tips to make your dialogue pop off the page:

Avoid Info Dumping

Don’t use dialogue as an excuse for overt exposition. Readers will glaze over if you have characters explain details about themselves or the world just for the sake of info dumping. Reveal such information organically through implication, action, and subtle hints instead. Keep dialogue focused on advancing the scene.

Give Each Character a Unique Voice

Your characters’ speaking styles should be as distinctive as their personalities. Pay close attention to sentence structure, word choice, rhythm, and slang usage in their dialogue. For example, does a character use lots of short, choppy sentences reflecting impatience? Does another ramble nervously, using too many words? Crafting distinct voices immerses readers deeply.

Read Aloud

After writing dialogue, always read it aloud. This lets you catch unnatural phrasing, excessive monologues, and awkward exchanges. Listen for parts that should be broken up, tightened, or expanded. Make sure the conversation has an authentic back-and-forth flow. Tweak anything that sounds off until the dialogue reads smoothly.

Use Expressive Verbs

Verbs like “said” and “asked” disappear into the background. Punch up your dialogue tags by using more descriptive verbs fitting the character’s tone. For example: demanded, whispered, blurted, mused, muttered, bellowed, crowed. This casts mood and reveals personality. But don’t go overboard – you still want most focus on the dialogue.

Balance Dialogue and Narrative

Too much nonstop dialogue without breaks can sound artificial and be hard to follow. Balance lines of dialogue with bits of narrative such as depictions of actions, internal thoughts, and details of the scene. This creates natural rhythm and flow for the reader.

Trim the Fat

Remove unnecessary filler words from dialogue that don’t sound like natural speech. For example, you can cut versions of “that”, repeated words, and vocables like “um”, “uh”, “like”, and “well.” Tight, clipped or terse phrasing suits some characters better than long meandering sentences.

Mine Subtext

What’s left unsaid is as important as what’s spoken aloud. Have characters imply things through vague language and leave emotional subtext hanging in the air. This builds tension and intrigue. Mastering subtext makes dialogue exchanges far deeper and layered.

Interruptions Build Intrigue

Don’t have all your dialogue follow neat back-and-forth exchanges. Have characters interrupt each other occasionally or trail off mid-sentence. This makes conversation feel more authentic. Unresolved or interrupted dialogue also builds engaging mystery.

Include Non-Verbal Cues

Describe characters’ nonverbal reactions during dialogue, like facial expressions, gestures, and body language. This helps convey nuance and subtext of what’s not being verbalized out loud. For example: “Of course I’m happy for you,” she said, blinking back tears.”

Get Feedback

Ask writing partners or beta readers to assess your dialogue. Do conversations sound natural or stilted? Are voices distinct enough? Feedback helps you identify dialogue issues so you can refine it before submitting your story.

With practice and close attention to how real people speak, your fictional dialogue will become more authentic. Use these tips to make character interactions pop – and avoid lackluster exchanges that derail a captivating scene. Remember, dialogue has power to place readers right into the pulse of the story. Make them hang on every word.