The Novel Workshop: Tips for Writing Natural Dialogue

Dialogue can be one of the trickier aspects of writing a novel because you have to find a balance between making it seem real and natural while still having it drive the story forward.  Here are some tips that I've found helpful in my own writing:

• If you listen to people speak, they use a lot of filler words--they may have their own favorite "um" or "uh" to fall back on while they're thinking.  While it may be useful to have these words on occasion, you would obviously annoy a reader if you did it through your entire book.

• On the other side of the scale is dialogue that is too stiff--sometimes it's even correct from a grammar standpoint, but something seems missing.  You want to be able to read your dialogue out loud and not sound like a robot--unless that's what you're going for with your character.

• To make dialogue between two or more characters distinct, you have to know your characters' traits--their background, age, personality, and education.  Whenever possible, remember that a large portion of what a person says is not just in their words but how they say it--don't forget to add body language and tone.

• Once you've established who is speaking, you can often increase the pace of a story by leaving off unnecessary occurrences of "he said" and "she said."

• When it comes to conflict and sometimes even normal conversations, don't forget that people sometimes cut in and interrupt each other if they're upset or just think of something related to the conversation.

• Avoid phonetically spelling out accents--mention the accent, and then write the dialogue as if the person does not have one.  Most readers' brains can fill in the accent once they know the character has one, and you don't hurt the pace of your story.

I hope you've found these tips helpful.  If you'd like to receive e-mails with more fiction writing tips, feel free to join this gather group:

• Novel Writing Workshop

Also, feel free to contribute any extra tips that have helped you as a writer.  I found Gather through a website called Writing.com, and I've learned how helpful it is for writers to learn and grow from each other.

I also have more writing tools and articles at these addresses:

• Fictional Character Development Template
• Web Writer Central
• The Writer's Library

You can find out more about my writing at my author's blog by clicking here.