How to Write Natural Dialogue

In creating fictional novels and short stories, it can sometimes be difficult to create natural and realistic dialogue. In this article, I'll show you ways you can solve this problem.

1) The first step in creating believable dialogue involves taking a look at your characters.

Keep in mind traits such as personality, where they are from, their ages, and their education. Dialogue is a tool that you can use to show these traits to your reader without directly telling them. Taking the time to do this will help you determine not only what a fictional character might say, but how he or she would say it.

2) Mentally picture your characters interacting as if they were on a TV show or a play.

Is there anything about what they're saying to each other that seems odd or out of place? Sometimes a sentence of dialogue may be correct from a grammar standpoint, but you may have to reword it because of how people speak in reality.

3) Read the dialogue out loud.

This will help your pacing. If you feel like you're out of breath after a string of dialogue, you may want to shorten your sentences. Likewise, if you feel like the dialogue is too short for the situation, you can smooth it out.

4) Last, do a check of your overall story.

Although you need some variety, using "said" instead of a replacement word is fine about 80% of the time. This is because readers tend to skip over the word, allowing them to read your dialogue at a faster pace. When you need emphasis, use a different word (shouted, screamed, whispered, etc.) Once you establish who's speaking, you can also leave out any extra wording and allow a string of dialogue to stand on its own.

Additional Tips:

• Try paying attention to the conversations of people. You'll begin to pick up on patterns such as rapid subject changes.
• Think of ways you can show your character's personality by how much they speak and how much they listen.
• On the other extreme, you don't necessarily want your dialogue to completely reflect how people talk--especially filler words such as "um."
• Avoid phonetically spelling out accents of characters if at all possible. This can annoy your readers after a certain point. Mention the accent, but make the words themselves easy to read.
• Also avoid modern slang if you intend for the story to be longer-lasting.

More Articles and Resources:

• Web Writer Central
• The Writer's Library
• Write a Novel in 2010 Group (Gather.com)
• Novel Writing Workshop Group (Gather.com)

Author Links:

• Patricia Gilliam's Amazon.com Author Page