"One line of DIALOGUE that rings true REVEALS CHARACTER in a way that PAGES OF DESCRIPTION CAN'T."
—Anne Lamott
I asked my followers on @vineandparchment which elements of creative writing they would be interested in breaking down together.
Primary vs. secondary emotional responses took the win, but writing dialogue was a close second.
While I was putting my thoughts together on the subject, I realized that I had a lot of thoughts; this would be a much longer conversation than was feasible to have just on Instagram, and we’re not about half-assery around here. So, here we are, in blog post form, gearing up to dive into the nitty gritty of fictional conversation.
Here are a few thoughts from a fantasy editor on writing impactful dialogue:
Writing
Dialogue Tags
We’ve all heard the rules about dialogue tags – “said” only! No fancy tags! No adverbs! – which are all good rules that you should absolutely follow, except for when you don’t.
Writing rules exist to set a precedent, not to smother your creative genius. The “Simple Dialogue Tags” rule, for example, exists to encourage stronger dialogue that doesn’t rely on tags to give meaning to the words spoken. You shouldn’t feel restricted by the rules of creative writing, but we do need to understand them before we can bend them in ways that actually serve our stories.
Dialogue tags are used to indicate who is speaking. They may also be used to clarify how something is being said if it cannot otherwise be shown (whispered, cried, stuttered). They are not used to provide new information or to explain the dialogue. Let me give you an example of the difference:
“Fuck you!” John shouted.
“Fuck you!” John bellowed angrily.
I don’t have to tell you which one is more effective, do I? One dialogue tag is succinct and to the point, serving only to clarify that John is, in fact, shouting (because “said” might feel contradictory to the exclamation point, in this case), while the other feels redundant and even melodramatic. The fancy tag does the exact same thing as the simple one, but worse.
There’s a very simple exercise you can do to ensure your dialogue tags are doing their jobs: while you’re writing your first draft, limit yourself to only using simple dialogue tags (said, asked, whispered, etc.). Restricting yourself in this way will force you to write clear, concise dialogue, and when you go back to revise, you’ll see that 90% of those tags are perfect as they are because they’re completely unobtrusive. Then you can weave in some fancier tags where they add real impact without distracting from the words being said.
Writing
Action Tags
Haters of the “Simple Dialogue Tag” rule (of which there are many, so if you’re one of them, you’re not alone!) argue that repeatedly using “said” is boring and visually unappealing. I would argue back that dialogue tags aren’t supposed to be a focal point – they work similarly to punctuation in that, while they can be utilized stylistically, they’re most effective when they’re invisible. However, I do understand that a wall of “he said, she said” is less than ideal as well. There are two easy fixes to this problem.
1. Use fewer dialogue tags.
Not every line of dialogue requires a dialogue tag. Once you’ve established who is speaking, let them speak, and only clarify when necessary.
2. Use more action tags.
Sometimes it’s more effective to indicate who is speaking or how something is being said through movement or context clues. I’ll give another example:
“I have to tell you something.” Julie wrung her hands, avoiding eye contact. “I was the one who destroyed your cake before the baking competition.”
John leapt to his feet and flipped the nearest table. “Fuck you, Julie!”
Jokes aside, action tags are a useful “show, don’t tell” tool – Julie’s movement’s show that she’s nervous and remorseful for her actions without her having to outright state how she’s feeling. Action tags can also help to break up long dialogue sequences, improving pacing and cadence, and help with physical continuity, so we remain rooted in the setting throughout the exchange. Remember that how well you’ve set the scene has a massive impact on how the dialogue is received; we never want a conversation to feel like two “talking heads” speaking to each other in a void.
Writing
Voice & Perspective
Now that we’ve covered dialogue and action tags, let’s get into the dialogue itself.
What a character says and how they say it reveals a lot about who they are, the way they were raised and the environment they grew up in, and what their goals are. These are the very building blocks of character, and they culminate into unique perspectives and voices.
When writing dialogue, we consider what a character’s unique perspective might bring to the conversation and how it might influence it. We consider how their lived experiences distinguish their voice from others’. It might help to think about it this way:
Content + Diction + Syntax = Voice
What they say, how they say it, and which words they use are useful tools in establishing both character and world details. These details differ based on social class, time period, level of education, nationality/regionality, etc., while also serving to differentiate characters so each one’s voice is distinct, recognizable, and reflective of their role or focus in the story.
Personality + Setting + Desire = Perspective
Their backstory, their homeland, their wants and fears – these dictate how a person thinks and acts, and therefore influences how they present themselves in conversation. We incorporate these details while writing dialogue in order to give real consequence to the character’s experiences, grounding them in the readers’ eyes. A lot of natural tension comes from characters simply being themselves.
Dialogue can accomplish a lot of things when utilized well, including revealing exposition, establishing setting, driving plot and character arcs, and so on. It should not be used for straight exposition (“as you know” dialogue, for example, is always disengaging). It may surprise you to hear me say that because I’m a big advocator for conversations over pages of prose, but you absolutely can overdo it. Which brings me to my next point!
Writing
Realism
This is a tricky one to describe because you want your dialogue to feel realistic, but not to be realistic. In real life, people speak in choppy, half-baked sentences that are entirely dependent on physical context to even make sense. We do not provide context for everything we say, we hardly ever use each others’ names, and the tone of voice with which we say something can quite drastically change its meaning.
Written dialogue is much more succinct than real-life speech. If you’re unsure why I’m making this distinction, go out in public some time and transcribe a conversation you hear word for word, including every “um”, “like”, and awkward pause. You’ll see what I mean about emulating realism rather than being realistic.
One way to achieve this is to ensure that there are stakes to the conversations you write between characters. Not every dialogue scene is high-stakes, high-tension, but they should always serve a purpose and elicit some sort of emotion. In real life, we have pointless conversations all the time, but when emulating realism in dialogue, even quips and witty banter need to serve a purpose. If the dialogue serves no purpose, it will be disengaging to the reader no matter how “realistic” the words written may be.
Another way to emulate realism is to utilize subtext. Subtext can be incredibly revealing and allow for an element of interpretation that’s engaging to readers. Consider that real-life conversations are often concealing as much as they are revealing; the same can be said for your characters – that what they do not say is often more powerful than what they do say. People react more to what’s implied than what’s outwardly stated.
Lastly: “no” dialogue. When characters say no to each other, it creates that inherent tension that exists in everyday interactions between real people. No two people think the same way or have had the exact same experiences, so they’re bound to disagree on certain things from time to time. Make use of this in your story. It’ll create interesting dialogue and present you with opportunities for character growth and relationship development that feel natural and realistic to your readers.
Writing
Structure
The structure of your dialogue and even the story at large have a significant impact on how your dialogue feels to your readers.
Create visual interest and ground readers in the setting by varying the length of lines and using a combination of dialogue tags, action tags, and description. All of these elements inform pacing, and pacing – or the ebb and flow of tension – is everything.
Pacing is about balance. In high tension moments, we might use short sentences with very little description interrupting the flow of conversation in order to indicate that the dialogue is moving quickly. For slower, more casual or contemplative conversation, we might create pockets of time for the characters (and readers) to breathe, consider, and react. We might do this by giving the characters something to do with their hands while they’re conversing. Things like tags, sentence length, interruptions, silences, etc., all tell the reader what to focus on and create emphasis on what’s important.
And speaking of focusing on what’s important: there’s another famous dialogue rule you might be familiar with, which is to “enter late and leave early.” That is to say, summarize whatever doesn’t need to play out in real time. We don’t need to read through every hello and goodbye.
Beyond the focused perspective of each individual character, we have the point of view the story is written in as well. POV dictates the lens through which the readers receive the dialogue. For example, in a first person novel, every line of dialogue that we read is filtered through the POV of the main character. This means it’s inherently laced with the bias of how the character interprets what’s being said to them. In third person, however, dialogue is understood more objectively, and is therefore more trustworthy to the reader.
The best rule of thumb when writing dialogue is this: always ask yourself what the dialogue you’re writing adds to the story.
If the answer is, “it adds nothing,” cut it. If your intention doesn’t quite add up with what’s actually being said, revise it. If it says something about the characters that you don’t want it to say, change it. Remember that dialogue isn’t just for story progression – it’s your most useful tool for revealing and developing character.
It doesn’t matter which comes first! If you’re a plotter, prep your character sheets and get to know your cast as well as possible so you can play out realistic conversations between them. If you’re a pantser, write until you’ve learned enough about your characters to go back and ensure they’re always acting and speaking like themselves. In real life, people act out of character and say out of pocket things all the time. In creative writing, however, your readers will latch onto discrepancies in how your characters converse like you wouldn’t believe, even if they don’t fully realize what the problem is.
It seems like a lot of information to consider for every single line of dialogue, doesn’t it? Possibly a bit of overkill? Maybe. In reality, while you’re writing, it’s not nearly as complicated as it seems written out like this. You know your characters, and if you don’t, you’ll get to know them. They will grow and change and develop their own unique little quirks whether you guide them with a firm, purposeful hand or let them take the wheel. The important thing is that when all is said and done, they feel like a living, breathing person (or elf, or orc), whose dialogue reflects who they are and their function in the narrative.
If you made it to the end of this article, thank you! I hope you found it helpful. If you did, feel free to share it with some writing friends or leave any questions you may have for me in the comments. If you didn’t, well… you can keep that to yourself.
Happy writing, friends!