5 Steps To Great Dialogue

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Writing good dialogue doesn’t come easily to everyone. And creating convincing dialogue is not about trying to reproduce the way that people actually speak.

Each time you use dialogue in your novel or short story it should be doing one of five key things, if not all of them at once.

1. Building character and telling us more about the people you’ve created.
2. Advancing the storyline or plot.
3. Adding to the musicality/mood of the scene, story, chapter or novel.
4. Imparting information from a different point of view, especially where the character speaking is not connected to the central narrative voice.
5. Bringing your story to life with an everyday feel without being trite.

Writing good dialogue is a skill like any other, and learning to listen is a key component in the process of creating believable characters.

Related Reading:

Writing Dialogue for Scripts: Effective Dialogue for Film, TV, Radio and Stage (Writing Handbooks)

Plays: "The Homecoming", "Tea Party", "The Basement", "Landscape", "Silence", "Night", "That's Your Trouble", "That's All", "Applicant", "Interview", "Dialogue ... Story) Vol 3 (Faber Contemporary Classics)

The Methuen Book of Duologues for Young Actors (Audition Books) (Monologue and Scene Books)

Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue: Bk.2

Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue: Bk. 3

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