Give your fictional conversations a glow-up with these tips for talking on the page.

We talk to other humans all day, every day, so why is it so hard to write realistic conversations between fictional people?

Probably because effective written dialogue has very little in common with the kind of chats we have in the real world.

In real life, we make polite small talk, fail to finish our sentences, go on meandering side quests, stumble and stutter and um and ah. It’s how we make each other feel comfortable, but if you tried to replicate it on the page it would be so tedious your reader would very quickly find something (anything) else to do.

Instead, you want to aim for a glazed version of the real thing, like a hamburger that’s been artfully anointed with hairspray to look mouthwatering in an advertising campaign.

If you’re struggling to write great banter or get your characters’ convos flowing, start with these tips.

Eavesdrop on strangers

This is less about what people are saying and more about how they say it. Listen to the rhythms in people’s speech and the way they dance back and forth with each other. We tend to use shorter words over longer ones, punchier sentences over lengthy, complex phrases. But don’t get too caught up in replicating those choppy rhythms – you need some variety in there too. It’s all about balance. Remember, you’re aiming for real-ish!

Do use contractions

I beg you! If you’re writing contemporary fiction, load up your apostrophe splatter gun and keep your finger on the trigger. ‘I’m’ rather than ‘I am’; ‘it’s’ instead of ‘it is’; ‘can’t rather than cannot’ – and so on. Your characters will instantly sound so much more authentic. And when you do want to use the full word for a moment of emphasis, the contrast will mean it lands with the right amount of gravitas.

Read it aloud

As a journalist, I was taught to prioritise phone interviews over email questionnaires for the simple reason that people tend to sound like robots when they write things down. If your dialogue isn’t sparking joy, it might be that your writing voice is defaulting to formal settings. You won’t know it till you hear it, so raise your voice and loosen up.

If you’re dropping words like ‘whilst’ or ‘therefore’, it’s easy to hear where formality has taken the reins. But it can also fly under the radar with something as small as a conjunction. One of my personal bugbears is the use of ‘as’ in place of ‘because’. I find it can drain the life from dialogue, instantly lending it an oddly formal feel:

  • ‘I couldn’t make it today as I got held up at work.’
    ‘I hate gerberas as they remind me of hospitals.’

If you read those sentences out loud you’ll hear just how stilted and unnatural ‘as’ sounds in this context. But replace that ‘as’ with ‘because’, or maybe even a dash, and it’ll sound much more alive.

  • ‘I couldn’t make it today – I got held up at work.’
    ‘I hate gerberas because they remind me of hospitals.’

It’s a small change, but effective!

Give it purpose

Dialogue does a lot of heavy lifting in storytelling. It’s action, bringing characters together to do something, learn something, make a decision or feel their feelings. It also reveals the characters’ intentions, secrets, fears and hopes. For that reason, every line has to work hard.

When you’re writing dialogue, think about the purpose of the conversation. How is it moving the story forward? What do you want the characters to discover or decide? What dialogue shows your purpose effectively, and what might be diluting your purpose? For example, you don’t need the filler that we rely on in real conversations – hi, how are you, how was your day. Take us directly to the main course: ‘Where were you?’

Consider the subtext, too. Often, what characters don’t say is what gives a scene an undercurrent of tension. Rather than tell us exactly what your character is thinking in the dialogue, can you show a disconnect between what they’re saying and what they’re feeling? Perhaps one of your characters is putting on a brave face while screaming inside, or they’re trying to remain calm in a stressful situation. The contrast between their dialogue and their inner narrative creates instant drama.

Avoid name-dropping

A surefire way to overcook your dialogue is to throw in lots of names. Like this:

  • ‘Look, Anna, it’s not about you, it’s just the way it turned out.’
  • ‘Is that so, Chloe? Because last time I checked, I was still the boss of this company.’
  • ‘Oh, get off your high horse, Anna!’

In real life, we rarely address people by name, so overdoing it in fictional dialogue can be distracting or give an unintended patronising edge. If you’re aiming for sarcasm, however, a well-timed name-drop might be perfect. Just use this technique sparingly.

Ground it in movement

Dialogue with too many speech tags can start to feel like a game of tennis: 

  • ‘What’s going on?’ I asked. 
  • ‘We’re heading to the stakeout,’ he whispered. 
  • ‘Well, I’m coming,’ I said.
  • ‘Fine. Just don’t hold us up,’ he replied.

Your first thought might be to pull out most of the speaker attributions and let the dialogue roll merrily on. But that can leave dialogue sounding weirdly disembodied. A nice solution is to add a bit of movement and interiority. Use a mix of physical action beats and interior narration to anchor the characters in the setting and layer up emotion.

  • ‘What’s going on?’ I asked.  
  • John glanced over his shoulder. ‘We’re heading to the stakeout,’ he whispered.
  • My stomach lurched. There was no hiding now, only damage control. ‘Well, I’m coming.’
  • He paused, eyes narrowed, considering. ‘Fine. Just don’t hold us up.’

Ditch maid-and-butler dialogue

This is the fancy name for the kind of dialogue that repeats what characters already know for the benefit of the reader. It’s another form of info-dumping and is best avoided:

  • ‘As you know, I moved to Sydney ten years ago from a small town in the outback.’
  • ‘You know how Cheryl was the one to catch John with his hands in the till?’

If you’re using dialogue to catch the reader up on backstory, see if you can find a more compelling way of sharing the information.

  • ‘It’s funny – Sydney still doesn’t feel like home, even after ten years. I guess you can’t really ever shake the outback out of someone.’
  • ‘John’s getting out of prison on Monday. Do you think anyone’s warned Cheryl? I reckon he’s out for revenge.’

Consider character background

The most important note I can give you is to consider characterisation. From your POV characters to your supporting cast, each person should have their own voice. How would their upbringing, their background, their age and their personality affect their word choice, syntax and rhythm? When you nail this, your readers will know who’s talking without you even having to tell them. And that’s when you’ve nailed the craft of dialogue.

If you’d like more help with your dialogue, get in touch for a free sample edit of your project. 

Ready to learn how to punctuate dialogue? Head here.