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My Dialogue Sucks: Tips For Improving Dialogue In Your Novel

May 17, 2010 by Joanna Penn 24 Comments

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OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn

I have just submitted the first few chapters of my thriller novel, Pentecost to my writing group for critique. The responses have been great on plot but truly, my dialogue sucks! (and I am using the English spelling before everyone starts sending me typo notices)

So here are some articles and links that I have been reading to try and improve my dialogue so hopefully they will help you too.

  • “Dialogue is not conversation” from Robert McKee ‘Story‘. Conversation is boring, repetitive and concerns inane things. Dialogue moves the plot along, reveals character and every word is necessary to advance the story. As Alfred Hitchcock said, ‘a good story is life with the boring bits taken out'.
  • Very few writers get away with writing in dialects, (think Irvine Welsh) but for most readers it is very annoying and disturbs the flow of reading so don't do it.
  • Dialogue breaks up monotony of paragraphs of exposition/description and makes the story move faster (JA Konrath). It is better to reveal story elements in dialogue than exposition. It should be natural, but not too natural (as above, it is NOT real conversation). Avoid adverbs and dialogue tags where possible i.e. Jill said wryly. Reading it aloud helps.
  • Intersperse dialogue with action and movement. Keep the characters moving around as large chunks of dialogue are also boring. This is discussed with technothriller author JC Hutchins on writing thrillers.
  • On attribution and dialogue tags from Let The Words Flow. He said/she said is needed but not every line which can be distracting. But be careful of the opposite extreme so the reader loses sense of who is speaking.
  • Dialogue should reveal emotion through words, not through adverbs. Don't say “angrily” when you can use angry words and describe the character/action portraying anger. (Show, don't tell!). From Blood Red Pencil.
  • Don't use dialogue to explain the back story, saying things like “As you know John, we have already navigated the lost world of Aurion and found the golden goblet…” . From Poewar, which also has some great exercises for dialogue.
  • For a brilliant chapter on dialogue, read “How not to write a novel” which parodies the author who is too good for the word ‘said, as well as examining misplaced exposition, random adverbs, failure to identify the speaker and more in a laugh-out-loud writing book.
  • My primary flaw seems to be that my readers don't think my character would talk the way I have written, so my dialogue does not match the person created in the reader's head. This is good in a way as I have evoked a specific character in their minds, but bad as I have clearly got the ‘voice' wrong! Holly Lisle's advice helps here, “writing good dialogue comes from being able to hear voices in your head that aren't there“, and the voices have to belong to the specific characters. I am planning to read my chapters out loud and rectify the issues. I am still on first draft so I am not fretting too much but dialogue is one of the areas that has stopped me writing so I want to continue learning about it.

Do you have any tips for writing dialogue? Or any good examples in books I could read?

******

You can now get free chapters of Pentecost on the Facebook page by clicking here.

********
Image: Flickr CC Streetfly JZ

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Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: dialogue

Comments

  1. Ben@McConley says

    July 28, 2015 at 1:15 am

    Make it sound natural, but not too natural. We often digress when we speak, but if you do this in written dialogue you’ll quickly lose your readers. Essentially, you have to take out the boring bits. Your characters need to stay on topic but sound as though they are conversing naturally.

    Reply
  2. Katarina says

    August 16, 2016 at 1:42 pm

    Great tips, but I would only add some technicalities regarding dialogue, such as tags, using adjectives after tags the right way… Something like this https://katherinemilkovich.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/writing-style-and-dialogue/
    Because those things could make or brake your dialogue. Those are some dialogue basics.

    Reply
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Most of the information on this site is free for you to read, watch or listen to, but The Creative Penn is also a business and my livelihood. So please expect hyperlinks to be affiliate links in many cases, when I receive a small percentage of sales if you wish to purchase. I only recommend tools, books and services that I either use or people I know personally. Integrity and authenticity continue to be of the highest importance to me. Read the privacy policy here. Read the Cookie policy here. I hope you find the site useful! Thanks - Joanna

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