Writing REAL

Dialogue

Who’s afraid of a little dialogue?

Common dialogue fears
1. My characters will sound stupid or weak
2. My characters will all sound the same
3. My dialogue will slow down the story

What fears do you have?

Ways to overcome the fears and how to fix the mistakes

o Know your characters (more about this later)
o Listen to live dialogue. Record it on paper or on tape.
o Read dialogue of published authors (vary the genre). Dissect it. What works? What
doesn’t?
o Read your dialogue out loud and have someone else read it out loud. Although
dialogue isn’t really how people talk it’s supposed to sound like it.
o Write and rewrite. Do the ‘with purpose’ test (I’ll talk about that later).

Note: Dialogue doesn’t “work” if it jolts you out of the ‘fictive dream’ of the story. But if it
brings you closer to the character, the character’s world, or the story, then it’s doing its job.

Writing REAL Dialogue | ©2008 Linda Leigh Hargrove | Linda@LLHargrove.com | Page 1 of 7

A Tale in Two Parts
Writing real dialogue starts with having a grasp of the mechanics of dialogue. Then once the
mechanics are mastered (don’t worry that’s not much to master) then we can move into the
art of dialogue.

Part 1: Let’s Get Mechanical

The mechanics of dialogue consists of knowing the correct use of punctuation and knowing
the dialogue conventions.

Punctuation in Dialogue

• Put quotation marks at the beginning and end of every passage of dialogue.
o Example: “I’m ready to go,” Joanie said, standing up.
o Or: Joanie stood up. “I’m ready to go.”
o Or: “I think I’m ready,” Joanie said as she stood up. “Let’s go.”

• Use ellipses for words in a character’s speech that trail off.

o Example: Unsure of herself, Joanie stood up. “I’m ready to go…”

• Use a dash to show an interruption or a character who breaks off in the middle of
a sentence.
o Example: Joanie stood up. “I’m ready to go—”
“I don’t think so.” Carl stood in front of her, blocking the doorway.1

Conventions in Dialogue

• Attribution tags
• Action beats

Part 2: Getting Artsy

We writers must give ourselves permission to get artsy with dialogue. We should know when
to use dialogue to provide sketches of things to come much the same way a painter uses
the charcoal to lay the groundwork for a painting. And like a photographer uses her aperture
settings, we should be able to use dialogue to set a mood, bring things to light, or cloak
them in shadow.

Uses of dialogue
A richer story uses dialogue to accomplish three or more of these things in each scene. If
your dialogue does none of these things, it’s not needed at all.
a. Establish the tone or mood
b. Provide exposition or back story

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 c. Reveal character and motivation
d. Create immediacy and intimacy (build reader empathy)
e. Move the plot forward and/or increase its pace
f. Create or add to existing conflict
g. Remind the reader of things they may have forgotten
h. Foreshadow

Note: Using dialogue to provide exposition and back story is tricky. Do so sparingly. If the
result seems unnatural and stilted then it probably is.

Objectives of Dialogue

Every scene needs to move the story ahead. Every bit of narrative, action, and dialogue
should weave in conflict and a sense of expectancy. How?

Obey the two objectives of dialogue and your readers will be happy with the amount of
conflict and drama that carries them from scene to scene.
o Create tension right now (stretch the rubber band)
o Move things along by building suspense for later (hold the rubber band down with
Scotch tape)

Your aim in plot driven fiction is lots of white space. Strive for a good mix of narrative, action,
and dialogue. Too much dialogue and your work tends to be groundless or maybe a
somewhat preachy. Too little dialogue and the story may be dry.

Draw on the different motivations, back story, likes, dislikes, etc of the characters in the
scene to meet these objectives. For instance, tension (or humor) can be high when you pit
two opposites against one another in dialogue. Have fun with their different agendas; use it
to your advantage to bring your dialogue to life.

Writing REAL Dialogue | ©2008 Linda Leigh Hargrove | Linda@LLHargrove.com | Page 3 of 7

Making it REAL
One of your biggest goals with fiction is to engage emotions. One way to do that is to know
your characters. Yes, every one of them. Not just the protagonist. Know where they come
from, where they’ve been, and where they’re going. Know their motivations. What makes
them mad, sad, happy, etc. Get into the head of the people you’ve created. In some way, we
must become them.

When you know them this well, you are better able to bring realism into the dialogue. It’s
been said that every scene should bring the protagonist closer to sure ruin and your
antagonist closer to sure victory—that is, in their minds and words. Weave these feelings and
motivations smoothly into dialogue and the reader will be convinced of their ruin and victory
as well.

Even though you want the characters to speak naturally—to appear as though they are
thinking and speaking for themselves—the bottom line is you control them. So you have to
be a ventriloquist of sorts. Control the dummy, but don’t let anyone see your hand in his
back or your lips moving. Otherwise people will say, ‘oh, that’s just a dummy.’ And
unfortunately they won’t be talking about your character.

Writing realistic dialogue has been compared to playing a game. Like pool or chess, you
want to use one move to set up the next. The trick is to do it with skill and grace (there’s the
art of it) that draws the spectator (the reader) in to watch/listen and enjoy.

Writer's Great Commandment: keep dialogue straightforward, with a minimum use of

attribution verbs and modifiers, and a very infrequent sprinkling of substitute verbs for "said"
when absolutely necessary.2

On knowing your characters

o Some authors write dossiers of each character. Listing out their likes, dislikes, job
history, etc like a prospective employer
o Some authors “shop” for their characters at the mall.

What are some other ways?

Layer your fiction

1. Dialogue with purpose
2. Action with purpose
3. Narrative with purpose

Why ‘with purpose’? The with purpose test for dialogue: If the dialogue isn’t something
someone would eavesdrop on then most likely it doesn’t have a purpose. Cut it.

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Writing REAL dialogue
o Relax: Remember to relax. Dialogue is just talking.
o Emotional: creates and evokes emotions in the reader
o Ask: Are you writing ‘with purpose’ question. If it doesn’t have a purpose, cut it.
o Layer: Layer the dialogue with purposeful narrative and action. Stretch the rubber
band and tape it down, lightly.

Writing REAL Dialogue | ©2008 Linda Leigh Hargrove | Linda@LLHargrove.com | Page 5 of 7

Exercises
Remember to relax, evoke emotion, answer the purpose question, and layer the piece with
narrative and action.

1. Choose a picture from a magazine. Write quick a personal profile on him/her: likes,
dislikes, etc. Then write a brief letter (three or four paragraphs) in their voice on any
topic. Last write a page of dialogue of them talking to you about that topic.
2. Create three characters. One romantic. One science fiction. One fantasy. Put them
each in the same scene. Write a page or two of dialogue.

Writing REAL Dialogue | ©2008 Linda Leigh Hargrove | Linda@LLHargrove.com | Page 6 of 7

Sources
1 Dialogue:Techniques and exercises for crafting effective dialogue, Gloria Kempton, Writer’s Digest
Books, 2004
2 Dr. Nathan Dodge, Reflection’s Edge, http://www.reflectionsedge.com/archives/jan2005/hsss_nd.html

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