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Last updated on Jul 24, 2023

15 Examples of Great Dialogue (And Why They Work So Well)

Great dialogue is hard to pin down, but you know it when you hear or see it. In the earlier parts of this guide, we showed you some well-known tips and rules for writing dialogue. In this section, we'll show you those rules in action with 15 examples of great dialogue, breaking down exactly why they work so well.

1. Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered 

In the opening of Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered, we meet Willa Knox, a middle-aged and newly unemployed writer who has just inherited a ramshackle house. 

     “The simplest thing would be to tear it down,” the man said. “The house is a shambles.”      She took this news as a blood-rush to the ears: a roar of peasant ancestors with rocks in their fists, facing the evictor. But this man was a contractor. Willa had called him here and she could send him away. She waited out her panic while he stood looking at her shambles, appearing to nurse some satisfaction from his diagnosis. She picked out words.      “It’s not a living thing. You can’t just pronounce it dead. Anything that goes wrong with a structure can be replaced with another structure. Am I right?”      “Correct. What I am saying is that the structure needing to be replaced is all of it. I’m sorry. Your foundation is nonexistent.”

Alfred Hitchcock once described drama as "life with the boring bits cut out." In this passage, Kingsolver cuts out the boring parts of Willa's conversation with her contractor and brings us right to the tensest, most interesting part of the conversation.

By entering their conversation late , the reader is spared every tedious detail of their interaction.

Instead of a blow-by-blow account of their negotiations (what she needs done, when he’s free, how she’ll be paying), we’re dropped right into the emotional heart of the discussion. The novel opens with the narrator learning that the home she cherishes can’t be salvaged. 

By starting off in the middle of (relatively obscure) dialogue, it takes a moment for the reader to orient themselves in the story and figure out who is speaking, and what they’re speaking about. This disorientation almost mirrors Willa’s own reaction to the bad news, as her expectations for a new life in her new home are swiftly undermined.

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2. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice  

In the first piece of dialogue in Pride and Prejudice , we meet Mr and Mrs Bennet, as Mrs Bennet attempts to draw her husband into a conversation about neighborhood gossip.

     “My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”      Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.      “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”      Mr. Bennet made no answer.      “Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.      “You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”      This was invitation enough.      “Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

Austen’s dialogue is always witty, subtle, and packed with character. This extract from Pride and Prejudice is a great example of dialogue being used to develop character relationships . 

We instantly learn everything we need to know about the dynamic between Mr and Mrs Bennet’s from their first interaction: she’s chatty, and he’s the beleaguered listener who has learned to entertain her idle gossip, if only for his own sake (hence “you want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it”).

There is even a clear difference between the two characters visually on the page: Mr Bennet responds in short sentences, in simple indirect speech, or not at all, but this is “invitation enough” for Mrs Bennet to launch into a rambling and extended response, dominating the conversation in text just as she does audibly.

The fact that Austen manages to imbue her dialogue with so much character-building realism means we hardly notice the amount of crucial plot exposition she has packed in here. This heavily expository dialogue could be a drag to get through, but Austen’s colorful characterization means she slips it under the radar with ease, forwarding both our understanding of these people and the world they live in simultaneously.

3. Naomi Alderman, The Power

In The Power , young women around the world suddenly find themselves capable of generating and controlling electricity. In this passage, between two boys and a girl who just used those powers to light her cigarette.

     Kyle gestures with his chin and says, “Heard a bunch of guys killed a girl in Nebraska last week for doing that.”      “For smoking? Harsh.”      Hunter says, “Half the kids in school know you can do it.”      “So what?”      Hunter says, “Your dad could use you in his factory. Save money on electricity.”      “He’s not my dad.”      She makes the silver flicker at the ends of her fingers again. The boys watch.

Alderman here uses a show, don’t tell approach to expositional dialogue. Within this short exchange, we discover a lot about Allie, her personal circumstances, and the developing situation elsewhere. We learn that women are being punished harshly for their powers; that Allie is expected to be ashamed of those powers and keep them a secret, but doesn’t seem to care to do so; that her father is successful in industry; and that she has a difficult relationship with him. Using dialogue in this way prevents info-dumping backstory all at once, and instead helps us learn about the novel’s world in a natural way.

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4. Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Here, friends Tommy and Kathy have a conversation after Tommy has had a meltdown. After being bullied by a group of boys, he has been stomping around in the mud, the precise reaction they were hoping to evoke from him.

     “Tommy,” I said, quite sternly. “There’s mud all over your shirt.”      “So what?” he mumbled. But even as he said this, he looked down and noticed the brown specks, and only just stopped himself crying out in alarm. Then I saw the surprise register on his face that I should know about his feelings for the polo shirt.      “It’s nothing to worry about.” I said, before the silence got humiliating for him. “It’ll come off. If you can’t get it off yourself, just take it to Miss Jody.”      He went on examining his shirt, then said grumpily, “It’s nothing to do with you anyway.”

This episode from Never Let Me Go highlights the power of interspersing action beats within dialogue. These action beats work in several ways to add depth to what would otherwise be a very simple and fairly nondescript exchange.  Firstly, they draw attention to the polo shirt, and highlight its potential significance in the plot. Secondly, they help to further define Kathy’s relationship with Tommy. 

We learn through Tommy’s surprised reaction that he didn’t think Kathy knew how much he loved his seemingly generic polo shirt. This moment of recognition allows us to see that she cares for him and understands him more deeply than even he realized. Kathy breaking the silence before it can “humiliate” Tommy further emphasizes her consideration for him. While the dialogue alone might make us think Kathy is downplaying his concerns with pragmatic advice, it is the action beats that tell the true story here.

5. J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit  

The eponymous hobbit Bilbo is engaged in a game of riddles with the strange creature Gollum.

     "What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset.       "Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?"      Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask stuck to his question. "What have I got in my pocket?" he said louder. "S-s-s-s-s," hissed Gollum. "It must give us three guesseses, my precious, three guesseses."      "Very well! Guess away!" said Bilbo.      "Handses!" said Gollum.      "Wrong," said Bilbo, who had luckily just taken his hand out again. "Guess again!"      "S-s-s-s-s," said Gollum, more upset than ever. 

Tolkein’s dialogue for Gollum is a masterclass in creating distinct character voices . By using a repeated catchphrase (“my precious”) and unconventional spelling and grammar to reflect his unusual speech pattern, Tolkien creates an idiosyncratic, unique (and iconic) speech for Gollum. This vivid approach to formatting dialogue, which is almost a transliteration of Gollum's sounds, allows readers to imagine his speech pattern and practically hear it aloud.

We wouldn’t recommend using this extreme level of idiosyncrasy too often in your writing — it can get wearing for readers after a while, and Tolkien deploys it sparingly, as Gollum’s appearances are limited to a handful of scenes. However, you can use Tolkien’s approach as inspiration to create (slightly more subtle) quirks of speech for your own characters.

6. F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The narrator, Nick has just done his new neighbour Gatsby a favor by inviting his beloved Daisy over to tea. Perhaps in return, Gatsby then attempts to make a shady business proposition.

     “There’s another little thing,” he said uncertainly, and hesitated.      “Would you rather put it off for a few days?” I asked.      “Oh, it isn’t about that. At least —” He fumbled with a series of beginnings. “Why, I thought — why, look here, old sport, you don’t make much money, do you?”      “Not very much.”      This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.       “I thought you didn’t, if you’ll pardon my — you see, I carry on a little business on the side, a little side line, if you understand. And I thought that if you don’t make very much — You’re selling bonds, aren’t you, old sport?”      “Trying to.” 

This dialogue from The Great Gatsby is a great example of how to make dialogue sound natural. Gatsby tripping over his own words (even interrupting himself , as marked by the em-dashes) not only makes his nerves and awkwardness palpable but also mimics real speech. Just as real people often falter and make false starts when they’re speaking off the cuff, Gatsby too flounders, giving us insight into his self-doubt; his speech isn’t polished and perfect, and neither is he despite all his efforts to appear so.

Fitzgerald also creates a distinctive voice for Gatsby by littering his speech with the character's signature term of endearment, “old sport”. We don’t even really need dialogue markers to know who’s speaking here — a sign of very strong characterization through dialogue.

7. Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet  

In this first meeting between the two heroes of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, John is introduced to Sherlock while the latter is hard at work in the lab.

      “How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”      “How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.      “Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself. “The question now is about hemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?”     “It is interesting, chemically, no doubt,” I answered, “but practically— ”      “Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal discovery for years. Don’t you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains. Come over here now!” He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. “Let us have some fresh blood,” he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette. “Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction.” As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.      “Ha! ha!” he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. “What do you think of that?”

This passage uses a number of the key techniques for writing naturalistic and exciting dialogue, including characters speaking over one another and the interspersal of action beats. 

Sherlock cutting off Watson to launch into a monologue about his blood experiment shows immediately where Sherlock’s interest lies — not in small talk, or the person he is speaking to, but in his own pursuits, just like earlier in the conversation when he refuses to explain anything to John and is instead self-absorbedly “chuckling to himself”. This helps establish their initial rapport (or lack thereof) very quickly.

Breaking up that monologue with snippets of him undertaking the forensic tests allows us to experience the full force of his enthusiasm over it without having to read an uninterrupted speech about the ins and outs of a science experiment.

Starting to think you might like to read some Sherlock? Check out our guide to the Sherlock Holmes canon !

8. Brandon Taylor, Real Life

Here, our protagonist Wallace is questioned by Ramon, a friend-of-a-friend, over the fact that he is considering leaving his PhD program.

     Wallace hums. “I mean, I wouldn’t say that I want to leave, but I’ve thought about it, sure.”     “Why would you do that? I mean, the prospects for… black people, you know?”        “What are the prospects for black people?” Wallace asks, though he knows he will be considered the aggressor for this question.

Brandon Taylor’s Real Life is drawn from the author’s own experiences as a queer Black man, attempting to navigate the unwelcoming world of academia, navigating the world of academia, and so it’s no surprise that his dialogue rings so true to life — it’s one of the reasons the novel is one of our picks for must-read books by Black authors . 

This episode is part of a pattern where Wallace is casually cornered and questioned by people who never question for a moment whether they have the right to ambush him or criticize his choices. The use of indirect dialogue at the end shows us this is a well-trodden path for Wallace: he has had this same conversation several times, and can pre-empt the exact outcome.

This scene is also a great example of the dramatic significance of people choosing not to speak. The exchange happens in front of a big group, but — despite their apparent discomfort —  nobody speaks up to defend Wallace, or to criticize Ramon’s patronizing microaggressions. Their silence is deafening, and we get a glimpse of Ramon’s isolation due to the complacency of others, all due to what is not said in this dialogue example.

9. Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants

In this short story, an unnamed man and a young woman discuss whether or not they should terminate a pregnancy while sitting on a train platform.

     “Well,” the man said, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple.”      “And you really want to?”      “I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you really don’t want to.”      “And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?”      “I love you now. You know I love you.”      “I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?”      “I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry.”      “If I do it you won’t ever worry?”      “I won’t worry about that because it’s perfectly simple.”

This example of dialogue from Hemingway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants moves at quite a clip. The conversation quickly bounces back and forth between the speakers, and the call-and-response format of the woman asking and the man answering is effective because it establishes a clear dynamic between the two speakers: the woman is the one seeking reassurance and trying to understand the man’s feelings, while he is the one who is ultimately in control of the situation.

Note the sparing use of dialogue markers: this minimalist approach keeps the dialogue brisk, and we can still easily understand who is who due to the use of a new paragraph when the speaker changes .

Like this classic author’s style? Head over to our selection of the 11 best Ernest Hemingway books .

10. Madeline Miller, Circe

In Madeline Miller’s retelling of Greek myth, we witness a conversation between the mythical enchantress Circe and Telemachus (son of Odysseus).

     “You do not grieve for your father?”        “I do. I grieve that I never met the father everyone told me I had.”           I narrowed my eyes. “Explain.”      “I am no storyteller.”      “I am not asking for a story. You have come to my island. You owe me truth.”       A moment passed, and then he nodded. “You will have it.” 

This short and punchy exchange hits on a lot of the stylistic points we’ve covered so far. The conversation is a taut tennis match between the two speakers as they volley back and forth with short but impactful sentences, and unnecessary dialogue tags have been shaved off . It also highlights Circe’s imperious attitude, a result of her divine status. Her use of short, snappy declaratives and imperatives demonstrates that she’s used to getting her own way and feels no need to mince her words.

11. Andre Aciman, Call Me By Your Name

This is an early conversation between seventeen-year-old Elio and his family’s handsome new student lodger, Oliver.

     What did one do around here? Nothing. Wait for summer to end. What did one do in the winter, then?      I smiled at the answer I was about to give. He got the gist and said, “Don’t tell me: wait for summer to come, right?”      I liked having my mind read. He’d pick up on dinner drudgery sooner than those before him.      “Actually, in the winter the place gets very gray and dark. We come for Christmas. Otherwise it’s a ghost town.”      “And what else do you do here at Christmas besides roast chestnuts and drink eggnog?”      He was teasing. I offered the same smile as before. He understood, said nothing, we laughed.      He asked what I did. I played tennis. Swam. Went out at night. Jogged. Transcribed music. Read.      He said he jogged too. Early in the morning. Where did one jog around here? Along the promenade, mostly. I could show him if he wanted.      It hit me in the face just when I was starting to like him again: “Later, maybe.”

Dialogue is one of the most crucial aspects of writing romance — what’s a literary relationship without some flirty lines? Here, however, Aciman gives us a great example of efficient dialogue. By removing unnecessary dialogue and instead summarizing with narration, he’s able to confer the gist of the conversation without slowing down the pace unnecessarily. Instead, the emphasis is left on what’s unsaid, the developing romantic subtext. 

Furthermore, the fact that we receive this scene in half-reported snippets rather than as an uninterrupted transcript emphasizes the fact that this is Elio’s own recollection of the story, as the manipulation of the dialogue in this way serves to mimic the nostalgic haziness of memory.

Understanding Point of View

Learn to master different POVs and choose the best for your story.

12. George Eliot, Middlemarch

Two of Eliot’s characters, Mary and Rosamond, are out shopping,

     When she and Rosamond happened both to be reflected in the glass, she said laughingly —      “What a brown patch I am by the side of you, Rosy! You are the most unbecoming companion.”      “Oh no! No one thinks of your appearance, you are so sensible and useful, Mary. Beauty is of very little consequence in reality,” said Rosamond, turning her head towards Mary, but with eyes swerving towards the new view of her neck in the glass.      “You mean my beauty,” said Mary, rather sardonically.       Rosamond thought, “Poor Mary, she takes the kindest things ill.” Aloud she said, “What have you been doing lately?”      “I? Oh, minding the house — pouring out syrup — pretending to be amiable and contented — learning to have a bad opinion of everybody.”

This excerpt, a conversation between the level-headed Mary and vain Rosamond, is an example of dialogue that develops character relationships naturally. Action descriptors allow us to understand what is really happening in the conversation. 

Whilst the speech alone might lead us to believe Rosamond is honestly (if clumsily) engaging with her friend, the description of her simultaneously gazing at herself in a mirror gives us insight not only into her vanity, but also into the fact that she is not really engaged in her conversation with Mary at all.

The use of internal dialogue cut into the conversation (here formatted with quotation marks rather than the usual italics ) lets us know what Rosamond is actually thinking, and the contrast between this and what she says aloud is telling. The fact that we know she privately realizes she has offended Mary, but quickly continues the conversation rather than apologizing, is emphatic of her character. We get to know Rosamond very well within this short passage, which is a hallmark of effective character-driven dialogue.

13. John Steinbeck, The Winter of our Discontent

Here, Mary (speaking first) reacts to her husband Ethan’s attempts to discuss his previous experiences as a disciplined soldier, his struggles in subsequent life, and his feeling of impending change.

     “You’re trying to tell me something.”      “Sadly enough, I am. And it sounds in my ears like an apology. I hope it is not.”      “I’m going to set out lunch.”

Steinbeck’s Winter of our Discontent is an acute study of alienation and miscommunication, and this exchange exemplifies the ways in which characters can fail to communicate, even when they’re speaking. The pair speaking here are trapped in a dysfunctional marriage which leaves Ethan feeling isolated, and part of his loneliness comes from the accumulation of exchanges such as this one. Whenever he tries to communicate meaningfully with his wife, she shuts the conversation down with a complete non sequitur. 

We expect Mary’s “you’re trying to tell me something” to be followed by a revelation, but Ethan is not forthcoming in his response, and Mary then exits the conversation entirely. Nothing is communicated, and the jarring and frustrating effect of having our expectations subverted goes a long way in mirroring Ethan’s own frustration.

Just like Ethan and Mary, we receive no emotional pay-off, and this passage of characters talking past one another doesn’t further the plot as we hope it might, but instead gives us insight into the extent of these characters’ estrangement.

14. Bret Easton Ellis , Less Than Zero

The disillusioned main character of Bret Easton Ellis’ debut novel, Clay, here catches up with a college friend, Daniel, whom he hasn’t seen in a while. 

     He keeps rubbing his mouth and when I realize that he’s not going to answer me, I ask him what he’s been doing.      “Been doing?”      “Yeah.”      “Hanging out.”      “Hanging out where?”      “Where? Around.”

Less Than Zero is an elegy to conversation, and this dialogue is an example of the many vacuous exchanges the protagonist engages in, seemingly just to fill time. The whole book is deliberately unpoetic and flat, and depicts the lives of disaffected youths in 1980s LA. Their misguided attempts to fill the emptiness within them with drink and drugs are ultimately fruitless, and it shows in their conversations: in truth, they have nothing to say to one another at all.

This utterly meaningless exchange would elsewhere be considered dead weight to a story. Here, rather than being fat in need of trimming, the empty conversation is instead thematically resonant.

15. Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

The young narrator of du Maurier’s classic gothic novel here has a strained conversation with Robert, one of the young staff members at her new husband’s home, the unwelcoming Manderley.

     “Has Mr. de Winter been in?” I said.      “Yes, Madam,” said Robert; “he came in just after two, and had a quick lunch, and then went out again. He asked for you and Frith said he thought you must have gone down to see the ship.”      “Did he say when he would be back again?” I asked.      “No, Madam.”      “Perhaps he went to the beach another way,” I said; “I may have missed him.”      “Yes, Madam,” said Robert.      I looked at the cold meat and the salad. I felt empty but not hungry. I did not want cold meat now. “Will you be taking lunch?” said Robert.      “No,” I said, “No, you might bring me some tea, Robert, in the library. Nothing like cakes or scones. Just tea and bread and butter.”      “Yes, Madam.”

We’re including this one in our dialogue examples list to show you the power of everything Du Maurier doesn’t do: rather than cycling through a ton of fancy synonyms for “said”, she opts for spare dialogue and tags. 

This interaction's cold, sparse tone complements the lack of warmth the protagonist feels in the moment depicted here. By keeping the dialogue tags simple , the author ratchets up the tension —  without any distracting flourishes taking the reader out of the scene. The subtext of the conversation is able to simmer under the surface, and we aren’t beaten over the head with any stage direction extras.

The inclusion of three sentences of internal dialogue in the middle of the dialogue (“I looked at the cold meat and the salad. I felt empty but not hungry. I did not want cold meat now.”) is also a masterful touch. What could have been a single sentence is stretched into three, creating a massive pregnant pause before Robert continues speaking, without having to explicitly signpost one. Manipulating the pace of dialogue in this way and manufacturing meaningful silence is a great way of adding depth to a scene.

Phew! We've been through a lot of dialogue, from first meetings to idle chit-chat to confrontations, and we hope these dialogue examples have been helpful in illustrating some of the most common techniques.

If you’re looking for more pointers on creating believable and effective dialogue, be sure to check out our course on writing dialogue. Or, if you find you learn better through examples, you can look at our list of 100 books to read before you die — it’s packed full of expert storytellers who’ve honed the art of dialogue.

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How to Write Dialogue: 7 Great Tips for Writers (With Examples)

Hannah Yang

Great dialogue serves multiple purposes. It moves your plot forward. It develops your characters and it makes the story more engaging.

It’s not easy to do all these things at once, but when you master the art of writing dialogue, readers won’t be able to put your book down.

In this article, we will teach you the rules for writing dialogue and share our top dialogue tips that will make your story sing.

Dialogue Rules

How to format dialogue, 7 tips for writing dialogue in a story or book, dialogue examples.

Before we look at tips for writing powerful dialogue, let’s start with an overview of basic dialogue rules.

• Start a new paragraph each time there’s a new speaker. Whenever a new character begins to speak, you should give them their own paragraph. This rule makes it easier for the reader to follow the conversation.
• Keep all speech between quotation marks . Everything that a character says should go between quotation marks, including the final punctuation marks. For example, periods and commas should always come before the final quotation mark, not after.
• Don’t use end quotations for paragraphs within long speeches. If a single character speaks for such a long time that you break their speech up into multiple paragraphs, you should omit the quotation marks at the end of each paragraph until they stop talking. The final quotation mark indicates that their speech is over.
• Use single quotes when a character quotes someone else. Whenever you have a quote within a quote, you should use single quotation marks (e.g. She said, “He had me at ‘hello.’”)
• Dialogue tags are optional. A dialogue tag is anything that indicates which character is speaking and how, such as “she said,” “he whispered,” or “I shouted.” You can use dialogue tags if you want to give the reader more information about who’s speaking, but you can also choose to omit them if you want the dialogue to flow more naturally. We’ll be discussing more about this rule in our tips below.

Let’s walk through some examples of how to format dialogue .

The simplest formatting option is to write a line of speech without a dialogue tag. In this case, the entire line of speech goes within the quotation marks, including the period at the end.

• Example: “I think I need a nap.”

Another common formatting option is to write a single line of speech that ends with a dialogue tag.

Here, you should separate the speech from the dialogue tag with a comma, which should go inside the quotation marks.

• Example: “I think I need a nap,” Maria said.

You can also write a line of speech that starts with a dialogue tag. Again, you separate the dialogue tag with a comma, but this time, the comma goes outside the quotation marks.

• Example: Maria said, “I think I need a nap.”

As an alternative to a simple dialogue tag, you can write a line of speech accompanied by an action beat. In this case, you should use a period rather than a comma, because the action beat is a full sentence.

• Example: Maria sat down on the bed. “I think I need a nap.”

Finally, you can choose to include an action beat while the character is talking.

In this case, you would use em-dashes to separate the action from the dialogue, to indicate that the action happens without a pause in the speech.

• Example: “I think I need”—Maria sat down on the bed—“a nap.”

Now that we’ve covered the basics, we can move on to the more nuanced aspects of writing dialogue.

Here are our seven favorite tips for writing strong, powerful dialogue that will keep your readers engaged.

Tip #1: Create Character Voices

Dialogue is a great way to reveal your characters. What your characters say, and how they say it, can tell us so much about what kind of people they are.

Some characters are witty and gregarious. Others are timid and unobtrusive.

Speech patterns vary drastically from person to person.

To make someone stop talking to them, one character might say “I would rather not talk about this right now,” while another might say, “Shut your mouth before I shut it for you.”

When you’re writing dialogue, think about your character’s education level, personality, and interests.

• What kind of slang do they use?
• Do they prefer long or short sentences?
• Do they ask questions or make assertions?

Each character should have their own voice.

Ideally, you want to write dialogue that lets your reader identify the person speaking at any point in your story just by looking at what’s between the quotation marks.

Tip #2: Write Realistic Dialogue

Good dialogue should sound natural. Listen to how people talk in real life and try to replicate it on the page when you write dialogue.

Don’t be afraid to break the rules of grammar, or to use an occasional exclamation point to punctuate dialogue.

It’s okay to use contractions , sentence fragments , and run-on sentences , even if you wouldn’t use them in other parts of the story.

This doesn’t mean that realistic dialogue should sound exactly like the way people speak in the real world.

If you’ve ever read a court transcript, you know that real-life speech is riddled with “ums” and “ahs” and repeated words and phrases. A few paragraphs of this might put your readers to sleep.

Compelling dialogue should sound like a real conversation, while still being wittier, smoother, and better worded than real speech.

Tip #3: Simplify Your Dialogue Tags

A dialogue tag is anything that tells the reader which character is talking within that same paragraph, such as “she said” or “I asked.”

When you’re writing dialogue, remember that simple dialogue tags are the most effective .

Often, you can omit dialogue tags after the conversation has started flowing, especially if only two characters are participating.

The reader will be able to keep up with who’s speaking as long as you start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.

When you do need to use a dialogue tag, a simple “he said” or “she said” will do the trick.

Our brains generally skip over the word “said” when we’re reading, while other dialogue tags are a distraction.

A common mistake beginner writers make is to avoid using the word “said.”

Characters in amateur novels tend to mutter, whisper, declare, or chuckle at every line of dialogue. This feels overblown and distracts from the actual story.

Another common mistake is to attach an adverb to the word “said.” Characters in amateur novels rarely just say things—they have to say things loudly, quietly, cheerfully, or angrily.

If you’re writing great dialogue, readers should be able to figure out whether your character is cheerful or angry from what’s within the quotation marks.

The only exception to this rule is if the dialogue tag contradicts the dialogue itself. For example, consider this sentence:

• “You’ve ruined my life,” she said angrily.

The word “angrily” is redundant here because the words inside the quotation marks already imply that the character is speaking angrily.

In contrast, consider this sentence:

• “You’ve ruined my life,” she said thoughtfully.

Here, the word “thoughtfully” is well-placed because it contrasts with what we might otherwise assume. It adds an additional nuance to the sentence inside the quotation marks.

You can use the ProWritingAid dialogue check when you write dialogue to make sure your dialogue tags are pulling their weight and aren’t distracting readers from the main storyline.

Sign up for your free ProWritingAid account to check your dialogue tags today.

Tip #4: Balance Speech with Action

When you’re writing dialogue, you can use action beats —descriptions of body language or physical action—to show what each character is doing throughout the conversation.

Learning how to write action beats is an important component of learning how to write dialogue.

Good dialogue becomes even more interesting when the characters are doing something active at the same time.

You can watch people in real life, or even characters in movies, to see what kinds of body language they have. Some pick at their fingernails. Some pace the room. Some tap their feet on the floor.

Including physical action when writing dialogue can have multiple benefits:

• It changes the pace of your dialogue and makes the rhythm more interesting
• It prevents “white room syndrome,” which is when a scene feels like it’s happening in a white room because it’s all dialogue and no description
• It shows the reader who’s speaking without using speaker tags

You can decide how often to include physical descriptions in each scene. All dialogue has an ebb and flow to it, and you can use beats to control the pace of your dialogue scenes.

If you want a lot of tension in your scene, you can use fewer action beats to let the dialogue ping-pong back and forth.

If you want a slower scene, you can write dialogue that includes long, detailed action beats to help the reader relax.

You should start a separate sentence, or even a new paragraph, for each of these longer beats.

Tip #5: Write Conversations with Subtext

Every conversation has subtext , because we rarely say exactly what we mean. The best dialogue should include both what is said and what is not said.

I once had a roommate who cared a lot about the tidiness of our apartment, but would never say it outright. We soon figured out that whenever she said something like “I might bring some friends over tonight,” what she meant was “Please wash your dishes, because there are no clean plates left for my friends to use.”

When you’re writing dialogue, it’s important to think about what’s not being said. Even pleasant conversations can hide a lot beneath the surface.

Is one character secretly mad at the other?

Is one secretly in love with the other?

Is one thinking about tomorrow’s math test and only pretending to pay attention to what the other person is saying?

Personally, I find it really hard to use subtext when I write dialogue from scratch.

In my first drafts I let my characters say what they really mean. Then, when I’m editing, I go back and figure out how to convey the same information through subtext instead.

Tip #6: Show, Don’t Tell

When I was in high school, I once wrote a story in which the protagonist’s mother tells her: “As you know, Susan, your dad left us when you were five.”

I’ve learned a lot about the writing craft since high school, but it doesn’t take a brilliant writer to figure out that this is not something any mother would say to her daughter in real life.

The reason I wrote that line of dialogue was because I wanted to tell the reader when Susan last saw her father, but I didn’t do it in a realistic way.

Don’t shoehorn information into your characters’ conversations if they’re not likely to say it to each other.

One useful trick is to have your characters get into an argument.

You can convey a lot of information about a topic through their conflicting opinions, without making it sound like either of the characters is saying things for the reader’s benefit.

Here’s one way my high school self could have conveyed the same information in a more realistic way in just a few lines:

Susan: “Why didn’t you tell me Dad was leaving? Why didn’t you let me say goodbye?”

Mom: “You were only five. I wanted to protect you.”

Tip #7: Keep Your Dialogue Concise

Dialogue tends to flow out easily when you’re drafting your story, so in the editing process, you’ll need to be ruthless. Cut anything that doesn’t move the story forward.

Try not to write dialogue that feels like small talk.

You can eliminate most hellos and goodbyes, or summarize them instead of showing them. Readers don’t want to waste their time reading dialogue that they hear every day.

In addition, try not to write dialogue with too many trigger phrases, which are questions that trigger the next line of dialogue, such as:

• “And then what?”
• “What do you mean?”

It’s tempting to slip these in when you’re writing dialogue because they keep the conversation flowing. I still catch myself doing this from time to time.

Remember that you don’t need three lines of dialogue when one line could accomplish the same thing.

Let’s look at some dialogue examples from successful novels that follow each of our seven tips.

Dialogue Example #1: How to Create Character Voice

Let’s start with an example of a character with a distinct voice from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.

“What happened, Harry? What happened? Is he ill? But you can cure him, can’t you?” Colin had run down from his seat and was now dancing alongside them as they left the field. Ron gave a huge heave and more slugs dribbled down his front. “Oooh,” said Colin, fascinated and raising his camera. “Can you hold him still, Harry?”

Most readers could figure out that this was Colin Creevey speaking, even if his name hadn’t been mentioned in the passage.

This is because Colin Creevey is the only character who speaks with such extreme enthusiasm, even at a time when Ron is belching slugs.

This snippet of written dialogue does a great job of showing us Colin’s personality and how much he worships his hero Harry.

Dialogue Example #2: How to Write Realistic Dialogue

Here’s an example of how to write dialogue that feels realistic from A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

“As much as I love this land, some days I think about leaving it,” Babi said. “Where to?” “Anyplace where it’s easy to forget. Pakistan first, I suppose. For a year, maybe two. Wait for our paperwork to get processed.” “And then?” “And then, well, it is a big world. Maybe America. Somewhere near the sea. Like California.”

Notice the punctuation and grammar that these two characters use when they speak.

There are many sentence fragments in this conversation like, “Anyplace where it’s easy to forget.” and “Somewhere near the sea.”

Babi often omits the verbs from his sentences, just like people do in real life. He speaks in short fragments instead of long, flowing paragraphs.

This dialogue shows who Babi is and feels similar to the way a real person would talk, while still remaining concise.

Dialogue Example #3: How to Simplify Your Dialogue Tags

Here’s an example of effective dialogue tags in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

In this passage, the narrator’s been caught exploring the forbidden west wing of her new husband’s house, and she’s trying to make excuses for being there.

“I lost my way,” I said, “I was trying to find my room.” “You have come to the opposite side of the house,” she said; “this is the west wing.” “Yes, I know,” I said. “Did you go into any of the rooms?” she asked me. “No,” I said. “No, I just opened a door, I did not go in. Everything was dark, covered up in dust sheets. I’m sorry. I did not mean to disturb anything. I expect you like to keep all this shut up.” “If you wish to open up the rooms I will have it done,” she said; “you have only to tell me. The rooms are all furnished, and can be used.” “Oh, no,” I said. “No. I did not mean you to think that.”

In this passage, the only dialogue tags Du Maurier uses are “I said,” “she said,” and “she asked.”

Even so, you can feel the narrator’s dread and nervousness. Her emotions are conveyed through what she actually says, rather than through the dialogue tags.

This is a splendid example of evocative speech that doesn’t need fancy dialogue tags to make it come to life.

Dialogue Example #4: How to Balance Speech with Action

Let’s look at a passage from The Princess Bride by William Goldman, where dialogue is melded with physical action.

With a smile the hunchback pushed the knife harder against Buttercup’s throat. It was about to bring blood. “If you wish her dead, by all means keep moving," Vizzini said. The man in black froze. “Better,” Vizzini nodded. No sound now beneath the moonlight. “I understand completely what you are trying to do,” the Sicilian said finally, “and I want it quite clear that I resent your behavior. You are trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen, and I think it quite ungentlemanly.” “Let me explain,” the man in black began, starting to edge forward. “You’re killing her!” the Sicilian screamed, shoving harder with the knife. A drop of blood appeared now at Buttercup’s throat, red against white.

In this passage, William Goldman brings our attention seamlessly from the action to the dialogue and back again.

This makes the scene twice as interesting, because we’re paying attention not just to what Vizzini and the man in black are saying, but also to what they’re doing.

This is a great way to keep tension high and move the plot forward.

Dialogue Example #5: How to Write Conversations with Subtext

This example from Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card shows how to write dialogue with subtext.

Here is the scene when Ender and his sister Valentine are reunited for the first time, after Ender’s spent most of his childhood away from home training to be a soldier.

Ender didn’t wave when she walked down the hill toward him, didn’t smile when she stepped onto the floating boat slip. But she knew that he was glad to see her, knew it because of the way his eyes never left her face. “You’re bigger than I remembered,” she said stupidly. “You too,” he said. “I also remembered that you were beautiful.” “Memory does play tricks on us.” “No. Your face is the same, but I don’t remember what beautiful means anymore. Come on. Let’s go out into the lake.”

In this scene, we can tell that Valentine missed her brother terribly, and that Ender went through a lot of trauma at Battle School, without either of them saying it outright.

The conversation could have started with Valentine saying “I missed you,” but instead, she goes for a subtler opening: “You’re bigger than I remembered.”

Similarly, Ender could say “You have no idea what I’ve been through,” but instead he says, “I don’t remember what beautiful means anymore.”

We can deduce what each of these characters is thinking and feeling from what they say and from what they leave unsaid.

Dialogue Example #6: How to Show, Not Tell

Let’s look at an example from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This scene is the story’s first introduction of the ancient creatures called the Chandrian.

“I didn’t know the Chandrian were demons,” the boy said. “I’d heard—” “They ain’t demons,” Jake said firmly. “They were the first six people to refuse Tehlu’s choice of the path, and he cursed them to wander the corners—” “Are you telling this story, Jacob Walker?” Cob said sharply. “Cause if you are, I’ll just let you get on with it.” The two men glared at each other for a long moment. Eventually Jake looked away, muttering something that could, conceivably, have been an apology. Cob turned back to the boy. “That’s the mystery of the Chandrian,” he explained. “Where do they come from? Where do they go after they’ve done their bloody deeds? Are they men who sold their souls? Demons? Spirits? No one knows.” Cob shot Jake a profoundly disdainful look. “Though every half-wit claims he knows...”

The three characters taking part in this conversation all know what the Chandrian are.

Imagine if Cob had said “As we all know, the Chandrian are mysterious demon-spirits.” We would feel like he was talking to us, not to the two other characters.

Instead, Rothfuss has all three characters try to explain their own understanding of what the Chandrian are, and then shoot each other’s explanations down.

When Cob reprimands Jake for interrupting him and then calls him a half-wit for claiming to know what he’s talking about, it feels like a realistic interaction.

This is a clever way for Rothfuss to introduce the Chandrian in a believable way.

Dialogue Example #7: How to Keep Your Dialogue Concise

Here’s an example of concise dialogue from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

“Do you blame me for flunking you, boy?” he said. “No, sir! I certainly don’t,” I said. I wished to hell he’d stop calling me “boy” all the time. He tried chucking my exam paper on the bed when he was through with it. Only, he missed again, naturally. I had to get up again and pick it up and put it on top of the Atlantic Monthly. It’s boring to do that every two minutes. “What would you have done in my place?” he said. “Tell the truth, boy.” Well, you could see he really felt pretty lousy about flunking me. So I shot the bull for a while. I told him I was a real moron, and all that stuff. I told him how I would’ve done exactly the same thing if I’d been in his place, and how most people didn’t appreciate how tough it is being a teacher. That kind of stuff. The old bull.

Here, the last paragraph diverges from the prior ones. After the teacher says “Tell the truth, boy,” the rest of the conversation is summarized, rather than shown.

The summary of what the narrator says in the last paragraph—“I told him I was a real moron, and all that stuff”—serves to hammer home that this is the type of “old bull” that the narrator has fed to his teachers over and over before.

It doesn’t need to be shown because it’s not important to the narrator—it’s just “all that stuff.”

Salinger could have written out the entire conversation in dialogue, but instead he kept the dialogue concise.

Final Words

Now you know how to write clear, effective dialogue! Start with the basic rules for dialogue and try implementing the more advanced tips as you go.

What are your favorite dialogue tips? Let us know in the comments below.

Do you know how to craft memorable, compelling characters? Download this free book now:

Creating Legends: How to Craft Characters Readers Adore… or Despise!

This guide is for all the writers out there who want to create compelling, engaging, relatable characters that readers will adore… or despise., learn how to invent characters based on actions, motives, and their past..

Be confident about grammar

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Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who writes about all things strange and surreal. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark, and elsewhere, and two of her stories have been finalists for the Locus Award. Her favorite hobbies include watercolor painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing. You can follow her work on hannahyang.com, or subscribe to her newsletter for publication updates.

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How to Write Dialogue: Rules, Examples, and 8 Tips for Engaging Dialogue

by Fija Callaghan

You’ll often hear fiction writers talking about “character-driven stories”—stories where the strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations of the central cast of characters stay with us long after the book is closed. But what drives character, and how do we create characters that leave long-lasting impressions?

The answer lies in dialogue : the device used by our characters to communicate with each other. Powerful dialogue can elevate a story and subtly reveal important information, but poorly written dialogue can send your work straight to the slush bin. Let’s look at what dialogue is in writing, how to properly format dialogue, and how to make your characters’ dialogue the best it can be.

What is dialogue in a story?

Dialogue is the verbal exchange between two or more characters. In most fiction, the exchange is in the form of a spoken conversation. However, conversations in a story can also be things like letters, text messages, telepathy, or even sign language. Any moment where two characters speak or connect with each other through their choice of words, they’re engaging in dialogue.

Why does dialogue matter in a story?

We use dialogue in a story to reveal new information about the plot, characters, and story world. Great dialogue is essential to character development and helps move the plot forward in a story.

Writing good dialogue is a great way to sneak exposition into your story without stating it overtly to the reader; you can also use tools like dialect and diction in your dialogue to communicate more detail about your characters.

Through a character’s dialogue, we can learn about their motivations, relationships, and understanding of the world around them.

A character won’t always say what they mean (more on dialogue subtext below), but everything they say will serve some larger purpose in the story. If your dialogue is well-written, the reader will absorb this information without even realizing it. If your dialogue is clunky, however, it will stand out and pull your reader away from your story.

Rules for writing dialogue

Before we get into how to make your dialogue realistic and engaging, let’s make sure you’ve got the basics down: how to properly format dialogue in a story. We’ll look at how to punctuate dialogue, how to write dialogue correctly when using a question mark or exclamation point, and some helpful dialogue writing examples.

Here are the need-to-know rules for formatting dialogue in writing.

Enclose lines of dialogue in double quotation marks

This is the most essential rule in basic dialogue punctuation. When you write dialogue in North American English, a spoken line will have a set of double quotation marks around it. Here’s a simple dialogue example:

“Were you at the party last night?”

Any punctuation such as periods, question marks, and exclamation marks will also go inside the quotation marks. The quotation marks give a visual clue to the reader that this line is spoken out loud.

In European or British English, however, you’ll often see single quotation marks being used instead of double quotation marks. All the other rules stay the same.

Enclose nested dialogue in single quotation marks

Nested dialogue is when one line of dialogue happens inside another line of dialogue—when someone is verbally quoting someone else. In North American English, you’d use single quotation marks to identify where the new dialogue line starts and stops, like this:

“And then, do you know what he said to me? Right to my face, he said, ‘I stayed home all night.’ As if I didn’t even see him.”

The double and single quotation marks give the reader clues as to who’s speaking. In European or British English, the quotation marks would be reversed; you’d use single quotation marks on the outside, and double quotation marks on the inside.

Every speaker gets a new paragraph

Every time you switch to a new speaker, you end the line where it is and start a new line. Here are some dialogue examples to show you how it looks:

“Were you at the party last night?” “No, I stayed home all night.”

The same is true if the new “speaker” is only in focus because of their action. You can think of the paragraphs like camera angles, each one focusing on a different person:

“Were you at the party last night?” “No, I stayed home all night.” She raised a single, threatening eyebrow. “Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and watched Netflix instead.”

If you kept the action on the same line as the dialogue, it would get confusing and make it look like she was the one saying it. Giving each character a new paragraph keeps the speakers clear and distinct.

Use em-dashes when dialogue gets cut short

If your character begins to speak but is interrupted, you’ll break off their line of dialogue with an em-dash, like this:

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and—” “Is that really what happened?”

Be careful with this one, because many word processors will treat your em-dash like the beginning of a new sentence and attach your closing quotation marks backwards:

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and—“

You may need to keep an eye out and adjust as you go along.

In this dialogue example, the new speaker doesn’t lead with an em-dash; they just start speaking like normal. The only time you’ll ever open a line of dialogue with an em-dash is if the speaker who’s been cut off continues with what they were saying:

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and—” “Is that really what happened?” “—watched Netflix instead. Yes, that’s what happened.”

This shows the reader that there’s actually only one line of dialogue, but it’s been cut in the middle by another speaker.

Each line of dialogue is indented

Every time you give your speaker a new paragraph, it’s indented from the left-hand side. Many word processors will do this automatically. The only exception is if your dialogue is opening your story or a new section of your story, such as a chapter; these will always start at the far left margin of the page, whether they’re dialogue or narration.

Long speeches don’t use use closing quotation marks until the end

Most writers favor shorter lines of dialogue in their writing, but sometimes you might need to give your character a longer one—for instance, if the character speaking is giving a speech or telling a story. In these cases, you might choose to break up their speech into shorter paragraphs the way you would if you were writing regular narrative.

However, here the punctuation gets a bit weird. You’ll begin the character’s dialogue with a double quotation mark, like normal. But you won’t use a double quotation mark at the end of the paragraph, because they haven’t finished speaking yet. But! You’ll use another opening quotation mark at the beginning of the subsequent paragraph. This means that you may use several opening double quotation marks for your character’s speech, but only ever one closing quotation mark.

If your character is telling a story that involves people talking, remember to use single quotation marks for your dialogue-within-dialogue as we looked at above.

Sometimes these dialogue formatting rules are easier to catch later on, during the editing process. When you’re writing, worry less about using the exact dialogue punctuation and more about writing great dialogue that supports your character development and moves the story forward.

How to use dialogue tags

Dialogue tags help identify the speaker. They’re especially important if you have a group of people all talking together, and it can get pretty confusing for the reader trying to keep everybody straight. If you’re using a speech tag after your line of dialogue—he said, she said, and so forth—you’ll end your sentence with a comma, like this:

“No, I stayed home all night,” he said.

But if you’re using an action to identify the person speaking instead, you’ll punctuate the sentence like normal and start a new sentence to describe the action taking place:

“No, I stayed home all night.” He looked down at his feet.

The dialogue tags and action tags always follow in the same paragraph. When you move your story lens to a new person, you’ll switch to a new paragraph. Each line where a new person speaks propels the story forward.

When to use capitals in dialogue tags

You may have noticed in the two examples above that one dialogue tag begins with a lowercase letter, and one—which is technically called an action tag—begins with a capital letter. Confusing? The rules are simple once you get a little practice.

When you use a dialogue tag like “he said,” “she said,” “he whispered,” or “she shouted,” you’re using these as modifiers to your sentence—dressing it up with a little clarity. They’re an extension of the sentence the person was speaking. That’s why you separate them with a comma and keep going.

With an action tag , you’re ending one sentence and beginning a whole new one. Each sentence represents two distinct moments in the story. That’s why you end the first sentence with a period, and then open the next one with a capital letter.

If you’re not sure, try reading them out loud:

“No, I stayed home all night,” he said. “No, I stayed home all night.” He looked down at his feet.

Since you can’t hear quotation marks out loud, the way you say them will show you if they’re one sentence or two. In the first example, you can hear how the sentence keeps going after the dialogue ends. In the second example, you can hear how one sentence comes to a full stop and another one begins.

But what if your dialogue tag comes before the dialogue, instead of after? In this case, the dialogue is always capitalized because the speaker is beginning a new sentence:

He said, “No, I stayed home all night.” He looked down at his feet. “No, I stayed home all night.”

You’ll still use a comma after the dialogue tag and a period after the action tag, just like if you’d separate them if you were putting your tag at the end.

If you’re not sure, ask yourself if your leading tag sounds like a full sentence or a partial sentence. If it sounds like a partial sentence, it gets a comma. If it reads like a full sentence that stands on its own, it gets a period.

External vs. internal dialogue

All of the dialogue we’ve looked at so far is external dialogue, which is directed from one character to another. The other type of dialogue is internal dialogue, or inner dialogue, where a character is talking to themselves. You’ll use this when you want to show what a character is thinking, but other characters can’t hear.

Usually, internal dialogue will be written in italics to distinguish it from the rest of the text. That shows the reader that the line is happening inside the character’s head. For example:

It’s not a big deal, she thought. It’s just a new school. It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.

Here you can see that the dialogue tag is used in the same way, just as if it was a line of external dialogue. However, “she thought” is written in regular text because it’s not a part of what the character is thinking. This helps keep everything clear for the reader.

In your story, you can play with using contrasting internal and external dialogue to show that what your characters say isn’t always what they mean. You may also choose to use this internal dialogue formatting if you’re writing dialogue between two or more characters that isn’t spoken out loud—for instance, telepathically or by sign language.

8 tips for creating engaging dialogue in a story

Now that you’ve mastered the mechanics of how to write dialogue, let’s look at how to create convincing, compelling dialogue that will elevate your story.

1. Listen to people talk

To write convincingly about people, you’ll first need to know something about them. The work of great writers is often characterized by their insight into humanity; you read them and think, “Yes, this is exactly what people are like.” You can begin accumulating your own insight by listening to what real people say to each other.

You can go to any public place where people are likely to gather and converse: cafés, art galleries, political events, dimly lit pubs, bookshops. Record snippets of conversation, pay attention to how people’s voices change as they move from speaking to one person to another, try to imagine what it is they’re not saying, the words simmering just under the surface.

By listening to stories unfold in real time, you’ll have a better idea of how to recreate them in your writing—and inspiration for some new stories, too.

2. Give each spoken line a purpose

Here is something that actors have drilled into their heads from their first day at drama school, and writers would do well to remember it too: every single line of dialogue has a hidden motivation. Every time your character speaks, they’re trying to achieve something, either overtly or covertly.

Small talk is rare in fiction, because it doesn’t advance the plot or reveal something about your characters. The exception is when your characters are using their small talk for a specific purpose, such as to put off talking about the real issue, to disarm someone, or to pretend they belong somewhere they don’t.

When writing your own dialogue, ask yourself what the line accomplishes in the story. If you come up blank, it probably doesn’t need to be there. Words need to earn their place on the page.

3. Embrace subtext

In real life, we rarely say exactly what we really mean. The reality of polite society is that we’ve evolved to speak in circles around our true intentions, afraid of the consequences of speaking our mind. Your characters will be no different. If your protagonist is trying to tell their best friend they’re in love with them, for instance, they’ll come up with about fifty different ways to say it before speaking the deceptively simple words themselves.

To write better dialogue, try exploring different ways of moving your characters around what’s really being said, layering text and subtext side by side. The reader will love picking apart the conversation between your characters and deducing what’s really happening underneath (incidentally, this is also the place where fan fiction is born).

4. Keep names to a minimum

You may notice that on television, in moments of great upheaval, the characters will communicate exactly how important the moment is by saying each other’s names in dramatic bursts of anger/passion/fear/heartbreak/shock. In real life, we say each other’s names very rarely; saying someone’s name out loud can actually be a surprisingly intimate experience.

Names may be a necessary evil right at the beginning of your story so your reader knows who’s who, but after you’ve established your cast, try to include names in dialogue only when it makes sense to do so. If you’re not sure, try reading the dialogue out loud to see if it sounds like something someone would actually say (we’ll talk more about reading out loud below).

5. Prune unnecessary words

This is one area where reality and story differ. In life, dialogue is full of filler words: “Um, uh, well, so yeah, then I was like, erm, huh?” You may have noticed this when you practiced listening to dialogue, above. We won’t say there’s never a place for these words in fiction, but like all words in storytelling, they need to earn their place. You might find filler words an effective tool for showing something about one particular character, or about one particular moment, but you’ll generally find that you use them a lot less than people really do in everyday speech.

When you’re reviewing your characters’ dialogue, remember the hint above: each line needs a purpose. It’s the same for each word. Keep only the ones that contribute something to the story.

6. Vary word choices and rhythms

The greatest dialogue examples in writing use distinctive character voices; each character sounds a little bit different, because they have their own personality.

This can be tricky to master, but an easy way to get started is to look at the word choice and rhythm for each character. You might have one character use longer words and run-on sentences, while another uses smaller words and simple, single-clause sentences. You might have one lean on colloquial regional dialect, where another sounds more cosmopolitan. Play around with different ways to develop characters and give each one their own voice.

7. Be consistent for each character

When you do find a solid, believable voice for your character, make sure that it stays consistent throughout your entire story. It’s easy to set a story aside for a while, then return to it and forget some of the work you did in distinguishing your characters’ dialogue. You might find it helpful to write down some notes about the way each character speaks so you can refer back to it later.

The exception, of course, is if your character’s speech pattern goes through a transformation over the course of the story, like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady . In this case, you can use your character’s distinctive voice to communicate a major change. But as with all things in writing, make sure that it comes from intention and not from forgetfulness.

8. Read your dialogue out loud

After you’ve written a scene between two or more characters, you can take the dialogue for a trial run by speaking it out loud. Ask yourself, does the dialogue sound realistic? Are there any moments where it drags or feels forced? Does the voice feel natural for each character? You’ll often find there are snags you miss in your writing that only become apparent when read out loud. Bonus: this is great practice for when you become rich and famous and do live readings at bookshops.

3 mistakes to avoid when writing dialogue

Easy, right? But there are also a few pitfalls that new writers often encounter when writing dialogue that can drag down an otherwise compelling story. Here are the things to watch out for when crafting your story dialogue.

1. Too much exposition

Exposition is one of the more demanding literary devices , and one of the ones most likely to trip up new writers. Dialogue is a good place to sneak in some information about your story—but subtlety is essential. This is one place where the adage “show, don’t tell” really shines.

Consider these dialogue examples:

“How is she, Doctor?” “Well Mr. Stuffington, I don’t have to remind you that your daughter, the sole heiress to your estate and currently engaged to the Baron of Flippingshire, has suffered a grievous injury when she fell from her horse last Sunday. We don’t need to discuss right now whether or not you think her jealous maid was responsible; what matters is your daughter’s well being. As to your question, I’m afraid it’s very unlikely that she’ll ever walk again.” Can’t you just feel your arm aching to throw the poor book across the room? There’s a lot of important information here, but you can find subtler ways to work it into your story. Let’s try again: “How is she, Doctor?” “Well Mr. Stuffington, your daughter took quite a blow from that horse—worse than we initially thought. I’m afraid it’s very unlikely that she’ll ever walk again.” “And what am I supposed to say to Flippingshire?” “The Baron? I suppose you’ll have to tell him that his future wife has lost the use of her legs.”

And so forth. To create good dialogue exposition, look for little ways to work in the details of your story, instead of piling it up in one great clump.

2. Too much small talk

We looked at how each line of dialogue needs a specific purpose above. Very often small talk in a story happens because the writer doesn’t know what the scene is about. Small talk doesn’t move the scene along unless it’s there for a reason. If you’re not sure, ask yourself what each character wants in this moment.

For example, imagine you’re in an office, and two characters are talking by the water cooler. How was your weekend, what did you think of the game, how’s your wife doing, are those new shoes, etc etc. Can’t you just feel the reader’s will to live slipping away?

But what about this: your characters are talking by the water cooler—Character A and Character B. Character A knows that his friend is inside Character B’s office looking for evidence of corporate espionage, so A is doing everything he can to stop B from going in. How was your weekend, what did you think of the game, how’s your wife doing, are those new shoes, literally anything just to keep him talking. Suddenly these benign little phrases have a purpose.

If you find your characters slipping into small talk, double check that it’s there for a purpose, and not just a crutch to keep you from moving forward in your scene. When writing dialogue, Make each line of dialogue earn its place.

3. Too much repetition

Variation is the spice of a good story. To keep your readers engaged, avoid using the same sentence structure and the same dialogue tags over and over again. Using “he said” and “she said” is effective and clear cut, but only for about three beats. After that, try switching to an action tag instead or letting the line of dialogue stand on its own.

You can also experiment with varying the length of your sentences or groupings of sentences. By changing up the rhythm of your story regularly, you’ll keep it feeling fresh and present for the reader.

Effective dialogue examples from literature

With all of these tips and tricks in mind, let’s look at how other writers have used good dialogue to elevate their stories.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine , by Gail Honeyman

“I’m going to pick up a carryout and head round to my mate Andy’s. A few of us usually hang out there on Saturday nights, fire up the playstation, have a smoke and a few beers.” “Sounds utterly delightful,” I said. “What about you?” he asked. I was going home, of course, to watch a television program or read a book. What else would I be doing? “I shall return to my flat,” I said. “I think there might be a documentary about komodo dragons on BBC4 later this evening.”

In this dialogue example, the author gives her characters two very distinctive voices. From just a few words we can begin to see these people very clearly in our minds—and with this distinction comes the tension that drives the story. Dialogue is an excellent place to show your character dynamics using speech patterns and word choices.

Pride and Prejudice , by Jane Austen

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?” Mr. Bennet replied that he had not. “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.” Mr. Bennet made no answer. “Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently. “You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.” This was invitation enough. “Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

In this famous dialogue example, the author illustrates the relationship between these two characters clearly and succinctly. Their dialogue shows Mr. B’s stalwart, tolerant love for his wife and Mrs. B’s excitement and propensity for gossip. The author shows us everything we need to know about these people in just a few lines.

Dinner in Donnybrook , by Maeve Binchy

“Look, I thought you ought to know, we’ve had a very odd letter from Carmel.” “A what… from Carmel?” “A letter. Yes, I know it’s sort of out of character, I thought maybe something might be wrong and you’d need to know…” “Yes, well, what did she say, what’s the matter with her?” “Nothing, that’s the problem, she’s inviting us to dinner.” “To dinner?” “Yes, it’s sort of funny, isn’t it? As if she wasn’t well or something. I thought you should know in case she got in touch with you.” “Did you really drag me all the way down here, third years are at the top of the house you know, I thought the house had burned down! God, wait till I come home to you. I’ll murder you.” “The dinner’s in a month’s time, and she says she’s invited Ruth O’Donnell.” “Oh, Jesus Christ.”

This dialogue example is a telephone conversation between two people. The lack of dialogue tags or action tags allows the words to come to the forefront and immerses us in their back-and-forth conversation. Even though there are no tags to indicate the speakers, the language is simple and straightforward enough that the reader always knows who’s talking. Through this conversation the author slowly builds the tension from the benign to the catastrophic within a domestic setting.

Compelling dialogue is the key to a good story

A writer has a lot riding on their characters’ dialogue, and learning how to write dialogue is a critical skill for any writer. When done well, it can leaves a lasting impact on the reader. But when dialogue is clumsy and awkward, it can drag your story down and make your reader feel like they’re wasting their time.

But if you keep these tips in mind, listen to dialogue in your everyday life, and practice , you’ll be sure to create realistic dialogue that brings your story to life.

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50 Examples of Dialogue to Inspire Writers

This post isn’t about how to punctuate dialogue, or the basics of how to write dialogue, but more advanced techniques, as shown by established authors. 

It doesn’t matter what genre you write: every writer needs to improve their dialogue. And whether you’re writing a novel or working on a short story, the examples below will help you.

After all, dialogue is where characters come alive, and characters are the heartbeat of fiction.

These fifty examples of excellent dialogue include everything from writing comic dialogue to writing dialogue between two people (and three people!), and focuses exclusively on fiction. 

1. Use Ellipsis to Avoid Saying Hard Things

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

Her arms had a lovely tan, although a scatter of raw pink patches marred the skin above one wrist. Scars. Dolly stared at them. “Kitty, are those …” she faltered. “On your arms, are they …?” “Burns,” Kitty said. “I made them myself.”

When you have a truth that a character can’t acknowledge, don’t make them say it out loud. Let them be interrupted. Let them stop talking. Make them trail off.

Avoiding a word, and making the other character say it, always increases the power of that word. It makes the reader wait for it — and that delay increases the tension.

2. Use Retorts for Boring Dialogue

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

“Good morning,” began the woman. “I beg to differ.” “My name is Gwendolin Bendincks.” “Don’t blame me.”

Nothing is more dull than someone saying good morning, or announcing their name. How do you spice that up? With witty retorts to each line. This is using the age-old comedian strategy of straight-man and the comic, and allowing the comic to play off the straight man.

3. Speed up your Dialogue

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon

“Did you tell him you were going to ask Helen to marry you?” “Could have.” “But you aren’t.” “Didn’t.” “And she got upset.” “Ran into her bedroom and slammed the door. Hit me first, actually.” “Good for her.” “Sucker punched me.” “Ouch.”

Bad dialogue is often longwinded dialogue. This runs quicker than an auctioneer — the reader is begged to fly down the page. It’s quippy and witty and makes light of violence in a way that manages to be humorous.

4. Switch the Topic

The History of Love, Nicole Krauss

“Tell me something about Dad,” he whispered. “You forgot to cut your toenails,” I said.

Don’t make it easy on your characters. When one wants information from the other, simply change the subject.

Just make sure there’s an emotional reason for it. Here, it’s hard for this character to talk about her father — that’s why she changes the subject.

5. Use Punctuation to Pace Your Dialogue

Pachinoko, Min Jin Lee

“But you said — that you wanted to go. I thought you’d marry someone back home.” “But you know that — that I’ve cared. That I do –“ “If you said it is possible –“

These characters are talking about something which is hard to admit — their affections for each other.

So their speech is halting, unsure of itself. You could use ellipsis for that, or here, Min Jin Lee uses em dashes.

Just watch out that you don’t go full Emily Dickinson on us with those em dashes — less tends to be more.

6. Lie — And Call Attention to It

Marilynne Robinson, Home

“I’m sorry if I kept you awake last night. I was restless. I needed to take a walk.” “No, I went right to sleep,” she said, which was not true. “I tried to be quiet.” “I didn’t hear a thing.” That also was not true. She had heard him come through the door a little after three.

The question is how to communicate to the reader that the character is lying. Here, Robinson uses the thoughts of the narrator Glory to contrast with the spoken dialogue.

7. Be Evasive

Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel

“How does a person become an entertainment journalist?” “Is this one of those postmodern things?” Jeevan asked. “Where you turn the tables and interview me, like those celebrities who take photos of the paparazzi?” […] “I don’t know,” Arthur said, “I’m just curious. How’d you get into this line of work?” “Gradually and then suddenly.” “No, seriously,” he said, snapping out of it, “I’ve always wondered what drives you people.” “Money, generally speaking.”

Here we have the celebrity trying to interview the interviewer, and the interviewer refuses to answer any questions.

Here’s a strategy for writing dialogue: never give the questioner what they want. Every question asked, he avoids the question in a new way:

• Answers a question with a question (postmodern things?)
• Vague, non-answer (gradually and then suddenly).
• Uninteresting answer that isn’t vulnerable (money)

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8. Use Dialogue Attribution for Pacing

White Oleander, Janet Fitch

“You better not be seen talking to me. She’s going to burn a cross on my lawn.” “You don’t have a lawn,” I said. She smiled, but she didn’t look at me again. “My name’s Astrid,” I said. “You go inside now,” she said. “Astrid.”

Normally, a character telling someone their name is fairly boring, and followed by the other character saying their name. Here, the placement of “she said” creates a pause, and emphasizes the gentle recognition of meeting someone new. It’s perfect timing.

9. Repetition of the Exact Phrase between Characters

Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halfway Walk

Talking about joining the army:

Hector is nodding. “That’s sort of my whole point. What I got out here sucks, so I might as well join.” “What else is there,” Mango says. “What else is there,” Hector agrees. “What else is there,” Billy echoes, but he’s thinking of home.

You see repetition of the exact same words between two characters often, but almost never between three characters.

What makes this work is that Billy is disagreeing in his thoughts, even though while verbally agreeing with the others. That’s a variation once we get to the third repetition.

10. Direct Dialogue

The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt

“Where is your mother?” Charlie asked. “Dead.” “I’m sorry to hear that.” “Thank you. But she was always dead.” “Tell us about your girl,” I said. “Her name is Anna, and her hair is the color of honey. It is the cleanest hair I have ever seen and runs halfway down to the ground. I am in love with her.” “Are your feelings reciprocated?” “I don’t know what that word means.” “Does she love you too?”

The shape of sentences has an enormous impact on how your dialogue sounds. Most of these are SVO – subject, verb, object. Simple and direct.

These dialogues are also stripped down to the bone. This is told during the frontier days of American westerns, and there is a stiffness to the prose which gives it an old-timey feel without making it inaccessible to modern readers.

11. The Punchline

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,’ I said. ‘By Black and White. By Indian and White. But I know this isn’t true. The world is only broken into two tribes: the people who are assholes and the people who are not.”

This dialogue has the classic underpinnings of a joke. There is the set-up, the middle reversal (“I know this isn’t true”) and the payoff of the punchline.

12. Flaunt Egotism

Tobias Wolff, Old School

Ayn Rand, one of the speakers here, is the author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

“If you have to name the single greatest work by an American author, what would it be?” “Atlas Shrugged.” “Your own novel.” “Is there another?” “And after that?” “The Fountainhead.” “Is there really no other American writer whose work you admire?”

Dialogue can be a great place to expose what a character believes about herself. In this case, Ayn Rand seems to have quite a lofty view of herself, and enough confidence to power a thousand lives.

13. Misunderstanding

The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

They’re talking about someone pawning a famous painting, “The Goldfinch”:

“Yes, but Sascha think he used the picture to clear a debt.” “So the guy has ties there?” “Evidently.” “I find this difficult to believe.” “What, about the ties?” “No, about the debt. This guy — he looks like he was stealing hubcaps off the street six months ago.”

Most authors writing dialogue don’t use nearly as many misunderstandings as established authors do. Ties? Debt? Which one is it?

Misunderstandings happen far more often in real life than they do in fiction, so add more to your fiction.

14. Dialogue through Translators

Bel Canto, Ann Patchett

“Do you know what’s wrong with him? Could he be a diabetic? Touch him, he’s cold!” “Tell me what she says,” Fyodorov whispered from between his knees. “She wants to know what’s wrong with you,” Gen said. “Tell her it’s love,” he said. “Love?” Fyodorov nodded his head.

All through this book, they’re speaking French, Spanish, Russian, English, and a translator is translating between all these characters. It’s wonderful that no one understands each other, and they’re never talking to each other, but always the translator.

15. Making Dialogue Mean the Opposite

Jonathan Franzen, “The Corrections”

“Dad, Grandma’s on the phone!” Gary ambled across the yard … “ Dad !” Thank you, Aaron, I heard you the first time.” “Grandma’s on the phone!” “I know that, Aaron. You just told me.” “She called this morning,” Caroline said. ” I forgot to tell you. The phone’s been ringing every five minutes, and finally I was running –“ “Thank you Caroline.” “I was running–“ “Thank you.”

Gary says, “Thank you” three times in this scene, and every time we know with more certainty that he doesn’t mean it. For him, “Thank you” is what he says when he’s trying desperately to control his temper, and I can hear the edge in his voice.

• sometimes “thank you” is patronizing
• sometimes “thank you” is disgruntled
• sometimes “thank you” is impatient

16. Unique Voices: Arch Dialogue 

Busy Monsters, William Giraldi

“Just hold on,” I said, “and put some trust in me, Charles Homar. Others have done so and not been badly disappointed.” “I’d rather not die, thanks.” “Not a chance. I am neither bogus nor brash, just a citizen out doing his duty. Look into my eyes, miss. What do you see there? That’s right: I was a Templar Knight a few lives ago. Let’s meet the earth.” “Why do you speak that way?” “What way?” “That weirdo way.” “ No comprende, chica .” “Oh, Christ,” she said. “Are we really going to do this?” And I said, “Really.”

When you have a character trot out archaic language and strange linguistic formulations, you are doing an enormous amount of character building.

What an amusing dweeb this man is, far more confident in himself than the other character is confident in him.

17. Vulnerability

Hanya Yanagihara, The People in the Trees

“As a doctor,” Tallent said, “what do you want the most? You want to cure diseases — you want to eradicate illnesses, you want to prolong life … But what I want — and this will sound childish, but it is ultimately why we are here, and it is an interest many of my colleagues have, even if they are too grand to admit it — is to find another society, another people, one not known to civilization, and, I should say, one that does not know civilization … “I know what it’s like to be studied,” he said. “I know what it’s like to be reduced to a thing, a series of behaviors and beliefs, for someone to find the exotic, the ritual, in every mundane action of mine, to see –“

Dialogue is an excellent place to get at true motivations. Tallent is being exceptionally vulnerable here, admitting that he doesn’t have honorable medical intentions, but more like he’s curious anthropologically. But he feels bad studying these people, like he’s objectifying them. He’s revealing himself, doubting himself, wrestling with himself — and all out loud!

18. Socratic Dialogue

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

One of the men was shot through the lower chest and he lay propped against the wall in the office. Irving came in and looked at him. What have you done for him? he said. Ain’t done nothin. What do you want me to do for him? Aint asked you to do nothin. That’s good, said Irving. Because there aint nothing to be done.

If Irving had started off telling the other speaker there’s nothing to be done, perhaps the other speaker wouldn’t have accepted it.

But he starts with a series of questions, as if leading the other speaker slowly toward the recognition that nothing can be done.

19. Short Dialogue

A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley

A man and woman are considering whether to start an affair with each other:

He said, “All right?” I nodded. “Really?” “I’m not very used to this.” He pulled back, away from me, the look on his face unsmiling, suddenly cautious. “Yes,” I said. “Please.” It was humiliating to ask, but that was okay, too. Reassuring in a way. He smiled. That was the reward. Then, afterwards, I began all at once to shiver. He pulled away and I buttoned three buttons on my shirt. He said, “Are you cold? It’s only ninety-four degrees out here.” “Maybe t-t-t-terrified.” But I wasn’t, not anymore.

Look at how much isn’t said here. Look at the complex emotions and hesitancy Smiley boils down into so few words. Most lines are only one to five words.

They’re wondering whether they should have an affair, wondering whether to go through with the sex. He wonders whether she’s nervous. Eventually, though, they move toward physical intimacy.

20. Switch between Direct and Indirect Dialogue

Amy Hempel, In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried

“Tell me things I won’t mind forgetting,” she said. “Make it useless stuff or skip it.” I began. I told her insects fly through rain, missing every drop, never getting wet. I told her no one in American owned a tape recorder before Bing Crosby did. I told her the shape of the moon is like a banana — you see it looking full, you’re seeing it end-on.

One of the best techniques of the fiction writer is to avoid having all direct dialogue. Here, we have a line of direct dialogue, in quotes, to start the story. And then we have summarized dialogue (indirect dialogue). Hempel tells us the gist of what the character said, but not the exact words.

Indirect dialogue allows her to:

• Compress information into a tidy shape
• Avoid sacrificing an authentic voice

21. Use Humor

The Plot Against America, Philip Roth

“You’ve been to a bris, ain’t you?” he asked. “You know when they circumcise the baby at the bris, you know what they do, don’t you?” “They cut off the foreskin,” I said. “And what do they do with the little foreskin? After it’s off — do you know what they do?” “No,” I told him. “Well,” said Uncle Monty, “they save them up, and when they got enough they give them to the FBI to make agents out of.”

The nephew is giving the most basic and expected answers, which is basically just set up for the Uncle to deliver his humorous line at the end.

22. Differentiate Between Speakers

John Irving, “A Prayer for Owen Meany”

“Merciful Heavens, Owen!” my grandmother said. “You’ve been in a fight !” “I JUST FELL DOWNSTAIRS,” he said. “Don’t you lie to me, Owen Meany!” Grandmother said. “I WAS ATTACKED BY JUVENILE DELINQUENTS AT HAMPTON BEACH,” Owen said. “Don’t you lie to me!” Grandmother repeated.

Throughout the whole book, Owen Meany’s dialogue is always in all caps, to remind the reader of his high-pitched voice, which is talked about at length in the beginning of the book. Just remember for your own dialogue, it’s a great idea to show one character’s dialogue as different — different punctuation, different spelling, different capitalization, different syntax.

23. Master the Art of the Insinuation

Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson

I shaved my roommate, Bill. “Don’t get tricky with my mustache,” he said. “Okay so far?” “So far.” “I’ll do the other side.” “That would make sense, partner.” “When you were shot right through your face like that, did the bullet go on to do anything interesting?” “How would I know? I didn’t take notes. Even if it goes on through, you still feel like you just got shot in the head.”

Not every dialogue needs huge conflict. This is small conflict. Insinuations that he’s not good enough to shave the mustache. Insinuations that it’s okay — but only so far. Insinuations that he doesn’t know to do the other side. Insinuations that perhaps the bullet had something interesting to do afterwards (as if going through his face was too boring to talk about).

24. Write the Unspoken

Kazuo Ishiguro, “The Remains of the Day”

“I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking, Stevens. A great deal of thinking. And I’ve reached my conclusion. We cannot have Jews on the staff here at Darlington Hall.” “Sir? “It’s for the good of this house, Stevens. In the interests of the guests we have staying here. I’ve looked into this carefully, Stevens, and I’m letting you know my conclusion. “Very well, sir.” “Tell me, Stevens, we have a few on the staff at the moment, don’t we? Jews, I mean.” “I believe two of the present staff members would fall into that category, sir.” “Ah.” His lordship paused for a moment, staring out of this window. “Of course, you’l have to let them go.” “I beg your pardon, sir?” “It’s regrettable, Stevens, but we have no choice. There’s the safety and well-being of my guests to consider. Let me assure you, I’ve looked into this matter and thought it through thoroughly. It’s in all our best interests.”

Stevens the Butler clearly does not approve of the antisemitism of his British Lord. But he doesn’t show it through dialogue, or even through thoughts.

It’s only the brevity of his dialogue, and the shape of his lines as questions, that tip the reader off to the fact that he deeply disapproves.

25. Gently Misspelled Dialect

Edward P. Jones, The Known World

“Don’t know bout no buryin, Marse,” Stennis said of the child Abundance, “gettin them chains off and on. Watchin em so they don’t run away. Lotta trouble for somethin that won’t cause no more trouble in this world.”

Most of the advice you see about writing dialect cautions the reader not to misspell words. Because when you start spelling words phonetically, all your writing veers sharp right into the pit of unreadability.

But here we see Edward P. Jones with very restrained and clear misspellings. He drops a single letter (g’s, mostly) from the end of words, drops an “a” off about, and drops the “th” from them, which is so common everyone understands it. Lastly, he uses the common “lotta”.

There is zero problem with intelligibility with this dialect, yet Jones gets his cake and eats it too — we can really hear the cadence and class of the speaker. So if you do dialect, tread carefully with misspellings, but if you do them, do them like Jones.

26. Develop a Character’s Personality

Robert Ward, Shedding Skin

“Hey, that’s nice, Grandma,” says Phantom as he motions me to come in the circle with him. “I’ll tell you what. You can have a contest too. Sure. I got a special one for you. A sweater contest. You get all the grannies out on the porch some night when you could catch a death a chill, and see which one can wear the most sweaters. I got an aunt who can wear fourteen. You top that?”

Those short sentences, the snappy casual language, plus the weird idea of a sweater contest for grannies. This character is a real character. Just the cadences of his language starts to draw him in the reader’s mind.

27. Contrast Thoughts with Dialogue

Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress

“Com’on over here, Easy. This here’s somebody I want ya t’meet.” I could feel those pale eyes on me. “This here’s a ole friend’a mines, Easy. Mr. Albright.” “You can call me DeWitt, Easy,” the white man said. His grip was strong but slithery, like a snake coiling around my hand. “Hello,” I said. “Yeah, Easy,” Joppy went on, bowing and grinning. “Mr. Albright and me go way back. You know he prob’ly my oldest friend from L.A. Yeah, we got ways back.” “That’s right,” Albright smiled. “It must’ve been 1935 when I met Jop. What is it now? Must be thirteen years. That was back before the war, before every farmer, and his brother’s wife, wanted to come to L.A.” Joppy guffawed at the joke; I smiled politely. I was wondering what kind of business Joppy had with that man and, along with that, I wondered what kind of business that man could have with me. “Where you from, Easy?” Mr. Albright asked. “Houston.”

Characters rarely say what they think. Here we have Easy Rawlings, the detective hero of the story, thinking that DeWitt’s a snake, but what does he say?

He very politely says “Hello” and not much else for the rest of the scene. He only speaks two words in this whole exchange (which is great characterization — he’s a man of few words).

Another way we know Easy is wary of DeWitt is that he continues to call him “Mr. Albright” in his head, or “that man” — he doesn’t want to get on a first name basis with this man.

28. Character Rambling On and On

Alice Munro, Open Secrets

The first thing she reported on, when she got back, was the man situation. “Terrible. They all get married young, they’re Catholics, and the wives never die — they’re too busy having babies.” “Oh they had somebody lined up for me but I saw right away he would never pan out. He was one of those ones with the mothers.” “I did meet one, but he had an awful failing. He didn’t cut his toenails. Big yellow toenails. Well? Aren’t you going to ask me how I found out?”

All three of these lines come from the same character. Instead of paragraph breaks to signal that a new character is speaking, Alice Munro uses them to signal the passage of time. This woman was babbling all night long, and we speed through an entire evening in only three lines of dialogue. It’s beautiful characterization — this woman is a chatterbox.

29. Brevity is Power

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

“And how long do you think we can keep up this goddamn coming and going?” he asked. Florentino Ariza had kept his answer ready for fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days and nights. “Forever,” he said.

It’s surprising how often I see fledgling writers trying to cover all their bases in dialogue, but when I read published books, they make less dialogue do more.

A single word — a single word can wield so much power. Its power is multiplied because it’s standing all alone.

I love how ending this book on the word, “Forever,” says so much about his love. He might have been separated from the love of his life for those fifty-three years, but now that he’s with her, he wants the time to last forever.

30. Highlight the Unspoken

Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing

Jojo is talking to his grandfather (Pop) in this scene.

“Might rain bad up the road.” I nodded. “You remember how to change a tire? Check the oil and coolant?” I nodded again. Pop taught me all of that when I was ten. “Good.” I wanted to tell Pop I didn’t want to go, that I wanted me and Kayla to stay home, and I might have if he didn’t look so mad, if his frown didn’t seem carved into his mouth and brow, if Leonie hadn’t walked out then with Kayla, who was rubbing her eyes and crying at being woken up int he gray light. It was 7 a.m. So I said what I could. “It’s okay, Pop.” His frown eased then, for a moment, long enough for him to say: “Watch after them.” “I will.”

The unspoken in this scene is far great than the spoken.

Ward is writing characters who are tight-lipped, so she keeps their dialogue brief but uses thoughts instead to get at the heart of her character’s emotions. Jojo wants to tell his Pop something, but can’t, so he said what he could.

This is very true to life — what we say is almost never what we really want to say.

Both of these characters are bound by rules of gender and propriety. 

31. Use Dialogue to Create Villains

Sherman Alexie, Indian Education

Betty Towle, missionary teacher, redheaded and so ugly that no one ever had a puppy crush on her, made me stay in for recess fourteen days straight. “Tell me you’re sorry,” she said. “Sorry for what?” I asked. “Everything,” she said and made me stand straight for fifteen minutes, eagle-armed with books in each hand.

The “Everything” line is cruel and excessive. Dialogue like this makes you pity the narrator and makes a villain out of the teacher.

32. Use Dialogue to Hint at Off-Page Action

Peter Carey, The Tax Inspector

He touched her on the forehead between her eyes and ran his finger down the line of her nose. “I’ll make love to you 100 percent safe.” She had never imagined you could say those words and still feel tender, but now she was lying on her side and he was lying on his and he had those clear blue Catchprice eyes and such sweet crease marks around his eyes. “Is there 100 percent?” she asked. “Is this safe?” “Hmm?” “Does this feel safe?” “Jack, don’t.” “Don’t worry. I’ll keep my word. Is this safe?” “Of course.”

What physical things are happening between this couple? The book doesn’t say. We’re left to imagine from the dialogue alone.

This is very suggestive dialogue, hinting at what maneuvers might be happening, but never giving it away.

Imagination can be more more potent than spelling out the specific actions.

33. Use Repetition for Critical Dialogue

Oyinkan Braithwaite, “My Sister, The Serial Killer”

“Perhaps your wife still loves you.” He sighs. “You cannot take back words, once they’ve been spoken.” “What words?” “I divorce you. I divorce you. I divorce you.”

Braithwaite could have written this as a single “I divorce you.” Try reading the passage out loud with just a single one. Gives a completely different feel, doesn’t it?

But the fact that they’re spoken three times makes them seem:

• more irreversible
• spoken in anger
• spoken likely during a fight

34. Oppositional Dialogue

Caryl Churchill, “Top Girls”

Job Interview:

“So just fill me in a bit more could you about what you’ve been doing.” “What I’ve been doing. It’s all down there.” “The bare facts are down here but I’ve got to present you to an employer.” “I’m twenty-nine years old.” “So it says here.” “We look young. Youngness runs in our family.” “So just describe your present job for me.” “My present job at present. I have a car. I have a Porsche. I go up the M1 a lot. Burn up the M1 a lot. Straight up the M1 in the fast lane to where the clients are, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, I do a lot in Yorkshire. I’m selling electric things. Like dishwashers, washing machines, stainless steel tubs are a feature and the reliability of the program.”

Every line here opposes the other line, sometimes in subtle ways, but it’s always there. The interviewee is the model of unprofessionalism. She says it’s in the application. She says her current job involves burning up the road in her Porsche. And the interviewer is droll, critical, firm, and unimpressed.

35. Mishearing

Alice McDermott, Charming Billy

“Look at this little one here,” Billy said again. “She looks like a buoy.” Dennis shook his head gravely. “No, she’s a girl.” “But she looks like a buoy,” Billy said again. “A buoy, a buoy.” He pointed out to the bay, to the black buoys that dotted the horizon until the children saw what he meant and began shouting, “A Buoy, a boo-ee, one of those.” But Dennis continued to shake his head. “How could she be a boy with all that hair piled up on top of her head? You’re a girl, aren’t you?”

Buoy/Boy. What I love is that even after correcting the pronunciation, Dennis continues to misunderstand, but as a joke, not seriously.

36. Repeat a Word to Establish Speaker Identity

Jonathan Ames, Wake Up, Sir

Jeeves transfused himself from the bedroom to the writing room. “Yes, Sir?” “Have you ever had an outer-body experience? “Do you mean, sir, an out-of-body experience?” “Yes, you’re right. Jeeves …. I must have confused out-of-body with outer-borough. Anyway, have you had one?” “One what, sir?” “What do you think? An out-of-body experience! Lifted out of our body and gone somewhere else.” […] “I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve not had an out-of-body experience.” “Really? I’m surprised. Would you like to have one, Jeeves? I’d get one for you if I could.” “No, sir, I don’t want one.”

How many dialogue tags are there in this passage? Look again through it. The answer is zero.

Ames can avoid any dialogue tags because he has a character (the imaginary butler Jeeves), uses the word “sir” in every line. So the reader is always reminded who is speaking.

Those kind of dialogue identity markers are excellent for:

• Giving your characters a unique voice
• Letting you skip dialogue tags (streamline the prose)

37. Historical Dialogue

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

“Just stand back,” Kat advises. “You don’t want bits of Thomas on your London jacket.” No more does he. He backs off. “I wouldn’t care, but look at you, boy. You could cripple the brute in a fair fight.” “It never is a fair fight,” Kat says. “He comes up behind you, right, Thomas? With something in his hand.” “Looks like a glass bottle, in this case,” Morgan Williams says. “Was it a bottle?” He shakes his head. His nose bleeds again. “Don’t do that, brother,” Kat says. It’s all over her hand; she wipes the blood clots down herself. What a mess, on her apron; he might as well have put his head there after all. “I don’t suppose you saw?” Morgan says. “What he was wielding, exactly?”

The trend in writing dialogue from historical issues is to modernize it. To strip away the anachronisms and old English spelling (of course) and only to occasionally pepper it with some phrase that betrays the time period. Essentially, modern authors care more about fluidity when writing historical dialogue than accuracy to the time period.

Look at the quote above: nothing here would be out of place if spoken today, although a word like “brute” seems a touch old fashioned.

38. One-Sided Dialogue

Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat

Mother greeting her child disembarking from a plane:

“I cannot believe that I am looking at you,” she said. “You are my little girl. You are here.” She pinched my cheeks and patted my head. “Say something,” she urged. “Say something. Just speak to me. Let me hear your voice.” She pressed my face against her and held fast. “How are you feeling?” she asked. “Did you have a nice plane flight?” I nodded. “You must be very tired,” she said. “Let us go home.” She grabbed my suitcase with one hand and my arm with the other. Outside it was overcast and cool. “My goodness.” Her scrawny body shivered. “I didn’t even bring you something to put over your dress.”

The daughter never speaks in this scene.

I love that the mother excuses her silence for tiredness, even though the reader expects that it’s shyness.

As far as technique, note that there is description between every line of dialogue, to give the reader a pause from the mother’s dialogue. You need description because the other speaker isn’t talking at all.

39. Contrast High Class with Low Class

Paul Beatty, The Sellout

Supposedly said by a black supreme court justice (without naming any names):

“Racial segregation? Slavery?Why you bitch-made motherfucker, I know goddamn well your parents raised you better than that! So let’s get this hanging party started!”

What makes this dialogue sizzle is the contrast between the dignified office (Supreme Court Justice) and the lowbrow earthy curses of the dialogue.

It’s shocking to see the coarseness — but it can be a good idea to have a character at odds with what the reader would expect. For instance, you could show a blue collar worker with a very high diction level.

40. Dialogue Confession

The Children of Men, P.D. James

“There is no comfort. I killed her.” Miriam’s voice was firm, unnaturally loud, almost shouting in his ear. “You didn’t kill her! If she was going to die of shock it would have happened when you first showed her the gun. You don’t know why she died. It was natural causes, it must have been. It could have happened anyway. She was old and she had a weak heart. You told us. It wasn’t your fault, Theo, you didn’t mean it.” He said: “The worst is that I enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it!” Miriam was unloading the car, shouldering the blankets. “Enjoyed tying up that old man and his wife? Of course you didn’t enjoy it. You did what you had to do.” “Not the tying up. I didn’t mean that. But I enjoyed the excitement, the power, the knowledge that I could do it. It wasn’t all horrible. It was for them, but not for me.”

These two characters are going in opposite directions. Miriam is trying to convince herself that they’re not guilty — and we suspect that she doesn’t believe what she’s saying.

And the other character is discovering some dark part of himself that he didn’t know existed, and confessing it because he’s so ashamed of himself.

It’s a wonderful move to have a character arc for both characters inside a dialogue scene. Miriam is slowly convincing herself that they’re not at fault, and he is coming face to face with his own dark desires.

Dialogue is a place where characters can be the most vulnerable, where they can confess the worse parts of themselves. And here, a good character wrestles with an unexpected pleasure: he felt joy when wielding power over others.

41. Collaborate

Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney

Warning: this is in Second Person point of view.

“Have you ever noticed how all the good words start with D? D and L.” You try to think about this. You’re not quite sure what she’s driving at. The Bolivians are singing their marching song, but you can’t make out the words. “You know. Drugs. Delight. Decadence.” “Debauchery,” you say, catching the tune now. “Dexedrine.” “Delectable. Deranged. Debilitated.” “Delinquent.” “Delirium.” “And L,” she says. “Lush and luscious.” “Languorous.” “Librium.” “Libidinous.” “What’s that?” she says. “Horny.”

I know, everyone harps on how dialogue always needs to include conflict (always!). But every once in a while, dialogue can show collaboration, two character riffing off each other, sharing a human connection.

Here we have two characters flirting through a word game. And it’s spot-on characterization to have recreational drug users to believe that “Deranged” and “Debilitated” and “Delinquent” are positive attributes.

42. Indirect Dialogue

Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres

He kept talking. Harold was feeling a little sheepish, and making Loren tuna-and-mushroom-soup-with-noodles casserole for dinner. Jess had promised to put it in the oven at four-thirty; what time was it now? The farmer near Sac City had called him back, four hundred and seventy acres in corn and beans, only green manures and animal manures for fertilizer, the guy’s name was Morgan Boone, which sounded familiar, did it sound familiar to me? He said Jess could come any time.

What’s great about this indirect dialogue is that it retains the colloquial repetitions and rhythms of actual dialogue, yet while being a summary of dialogue, not dialogue itself. These aren’t his exact words, but an encapsulation of his words.

When do you want to use indirect dialogue? When you want to give a sense for a long stretch of dialogue, but it would bore the reader to reproduce exactly.

43. Make Dialogue Match Your Setting

Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Do you know where we are Papa? Sort of. How sort of. Well. I think we’re about two hundred miles from the coast. As the crow flies. As the crow flies? Yes. I means going in a straight line. Are we going to get there soon? Not real soon. Pretty soon. We’re not going as the crow flies. Because crows dont have to follow roads? Yes. They can go wherever they want. Yes. Do you think there might be crows somewhere. I dont know. But what do you think? I think it’s unlikely.

This is an apocalyptic wasteland where everything has been demolished and the earth is scorched and barren. So McCarthy decides his dialogue should reflect the state of the world.

• He avoids punctuation.
• He choose spare, short lines, emphasizing the scarcity.
• He keeps it simple, because they’re fighting for the simplest of needs

44. Show a Multilogue

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen

Aaron came running from the kitchen. “Dad!” “I’m on the phone, Aaron.” “Dad!” “I’m on the phone, Aaron, as you can see.” “Dave has a colostomy,” Enid said. “You’ve got to do something right now,” Aaron said. “Mom is really hurting. She says you have to drive her to the hospital.” “Actually, Dad,” said Caleb, sidling in with his catalogue, “There’s someplace you can drive me, too.” “No, Caleb.” “No, but there’s a store I really actually do need to get to?” “The affordable seats fill up early,” Enid said. “Aaron?” Caroline shouted from the kitchen. “It’s certainly is noisy in here for a person trying to concentrate,” Jonah said. “Mother, sorry,” Gary said, “I’m going someplace quieter.”

Quick dialogue lesson:

• So a di-alogue is only for two people.
• A tri-alogue is for three.
• A multilogue is trying to handle a host of speakers in a single scene.

In this small excerpt, there are 8 (eight!) characters: Father, grandma on the phone, Aaron, Enid, Caleb, Caroline the wife, Jonah, Gary.

So by necessity, there are a ton of dialogue tags. But you really feel the frenetic energy of the house, how it’s boiling over with interruptions and a crowd’s worth of different conversations. It’s high stress.

45. How to Write Drunk Dialogue

What We Talk about When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver

“Terri said the man she lived with before she lived with Mel loved her so much he tried to kill her. Then Terri said, “He beat me up one night. He dragged me around the living room by my ankles. He kept saying ‘I love you, I love you, you bitch.’ What do you do with a love like that?” “My God, don’t be silly. That’s not love, and you know it,” Mel said. “I don’t know what you’d call it, but I sure know you wouldn’t call it love.” “Say what you want to, but I know it was,” Terri said. “It may sound crazy to you, but it’s true just the same. People are different, Mel. Sure, sometimes he may have acted crazy. Okay. But he loved me. In his own way maybe, but he loved me. There was love there, Mel. Don’t say there wasn’t.” Mel let out his breath. He held his glass and turned to Laura and me. “The man threatened to kill me,” Mel said. He finished his drink and reached for the gin bottle. “Terri’s a romantic. Terri’s of the kick-me-so-I’ll-know-you-love-me school. Terri, hon, don’t look that way.” Mel reached across the table and touched Terri’s cheek with his fingers. He grinned at her. “Now he wants to make up,” Terri said. “Make up what?” Mel said. “What is there to make up? I know what I know. That’s all.” “How’d we get started on this subject, anyway?” Terri said. She raised her glass and drank from it. “Mel always has love on his mind,” she said. “Don’t you, honey?” She smiled, and I thought that was the last of it. “I just wouldn’t call Ed’s behavior love. That’s all I’m saying, honey,” Mel said. “What about you guys?” Mel said to Laura and me. “Does that sound like love to you?” “I’m the wrong person to ask,” I said. “I didn’t even know the man. I’ve only heard his name mentioned in passing. I wouldn’t know. You’d have to know the particulars. But I think what you’re saying is that love is an absolute.” Mel said, “The kind of love I’m talking about is. The kind of love I’m talking about, you don’t try to kill people.”

Wild admissions. Colloquial banter. Sloppy phrasing. This is dialogue powered by gin, and plenty of it.

Please don’t slur when you write drunk dialogue — it’s so cliche. Take a page from Carver and release their inhibitions.

46. Dialogue as Climax

The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller

Then they held each other for a long time. And he whispered to her: “I have one thing to say, one thing only, I’ll never say it another time, to anyone, and I ask you to remember it. In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live.”

You have to love the warm up here. There are six clauses (six!) before he finally arrives at his point: this certainty about his love will never come again. You can’t get any more romantic than this line.

What is my point? My point is that dialogue often serves as the climax in a book. This profession of love was the most memorable and emotional part in the entire book. That’s how powerful dialogue is.

47. Oneupmanship and Lying

George Saunders, “In Persuasion Nation”

An orange and a Slap-of-Wack bar sit on a counter. “I have vitamin C,” says the orange. “So do I,” says the Slap-of-Wack bar. “I have natural fiber,” says the orange. “So do I,” says the Slap-of-Whack bar. “You do?” says the orange. “Are you calling me a liar?” says the Slap-of-Wack bar? “Oh no,” says the orange politely. I was just under the impression, from reading your label? That you are mostly comprised of artifical colors, an innovative edible plastic product, plus high-fructose corn syrup. So I guess I’m not quite sure where the fiber comes in.” “Slap it up your Wack!” shouts the Slap-of-Wack bar, and sails across the counter, jutting one pointy edge into the orange. “Oh God,” the orange says in pain. “You’ve got an unsightly gash,” says the Slap-of-Wack bar. “Do I have an unsightly gash? I think not. My packaging is intact, weakling.”

So I don’t care if this excerpt involves fruit and … a fruit-like substance, it can still teach us about dialogue.

This style of dialogue is particularly male, I’ve found. Men, in their casual banter, are always trying to outdo one another. And here we have two “characters” competing. The fact that it’s outrageous and hilarious doesn’t hurt. It’s wicked satire of our industrial food machine.

Really, this is an example of a character lying, over and over again, and lying is wonderful for dialogue, especially when the other characters calls them on it.

48. Avoid Talking about What You’re Talking About

Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants

“The beer’s nice and cool,” the man said. “It’s lovely,” the girl said. “It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said. “It’s not really an operation at all.” The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on. “I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.” The girl did not say anything. “I’ll go with you and I’ll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it’s all perfectly natural.” “Then what will we do afterward?” “We’ll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.” “What makes you think so?” “That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that’s made us unhappy.”

This entire short story is about whether or not to get an abortion. Guess what word they never say?

If you said “abortion,” three cheers for you. Dialogue is very powerful when it dances around a topic without ever addressing it head-on — probably because that’s often how dialogue works in real life.

49. Conflicting Character Desires

Mary Gaitskill, “This is Pleasure”

“It doesn’t sound like this girl has a case legally, but, honestly, I can understand why she’s mad. You didn’t touch her, did you? I mean, sexually?” I had not. Just sometimes on the shoulder, or around the waist. Maybe on the knee or the hip. Affection. Not sex. “I so don’t want Carolina to find out,” I said. “She hates male oppression. Hates it.” And Margot laughed.  Laughed.  “Did you really just say that?” she said. “ You? ” I said, “I’m concerned for my wife.” She stopped laughing. She said, “If it wasn’t sexual, you don’t have anything to worry about.” “But it could be made to sound sexual. Or just—she claims it cost her months of therapy bills.” Margot laughed again, more meanly—I’m not sure at whom. “I’d like you to keep quiet about this,” I said. “I mean, don’t tell anyone. Not even Todd.” “I won’t,” she said. “Don’t worry.”

You should always know what your characters want in a scene, and make sure what they want is at odds with what the other character wants.

The man in this scene wants to keep this sexual harassment case hush hush. While Margot is curious, above all else. She’s amused by this entire dialogue, and one wonders whether she’ll keep her promise to not talk at the end. His embarrassment and her curiosity are at loggerheads.

50. Monologue

Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

Michele describing the genius of Lila:

“You see, she really has a bad character. I’m speaking, but she doesn’t give a damn, she pulls out a piece of paper, says she wants to leave. But you forgive her, because she has many good qualities that make up for her bad character. You think you hired a worker? It’s not true. This woman is much, much more. If you let her, she’ll change shit into gold for you, she’s capable of reorganizing this whole enterprise, taking it to levels you can’t even imagine. Why? Because she has the type of mind that normally no woman has but also that not even we men have. I’ve had an eye on her since she was a child and it’s true. She designed shoes that I still sell today in Naples and outside, and I make a lot of money. And she renovated a shop in Piazza dei Martiri with such imagination that it became a salon for the rich people from Via Chiaia, from Posillipo, from the Vomero. And there are many—very many—other things she could do. But she has a crazy streak, she thinks she can always do what she wants. Come, go, fix, break. You think I fired her? No, one day, as if it were nothing, she didn’t come to work. Just like that, vanished. And if you catch her again, she’ll slip away again, she’s an eel. This is her problem: even though she’s extremely intelligent, she can’t understand what she can do and what she can’t. That’s because she hasn’t yet found a real man. A real man puts the woman in her place. She’s not capable of cooking? She learns. The house is dirty? She cleans it. A real man can make a woman do everything. For example: I met a woman a while ago who didn’t know how to whistle. Well, we were together for two hours only—hours of fire—and afterward I said to her: Now whistle. She—you won’t believe it—whistled. If you know how to train a woman, good. If you don’t know how to train her, forget about her, you’ll get hurt.”

Read this out loud. The rhythms of the speech are brilliant, which is not only due to Elena Ferrante’s brilliance, but also due to her translator’s brilliance (Ann Goldstein).

Every single sentence is a different shape, a different length, a different pattern. This is a masterclass in sentence variation. It really sounds like someone talking — Elena has captured the rollicking, galloping patterns of an impassioned speech.

• Colloquial openings (you’ll see)
• Comma Splices (she’ll, she’s)
• Starts with conjunctions (And, But)
• Fragment, Verbs only (Come, go, fix, break)
• Colon sentences (This is her problem:)
• Very short sentences (She cleans it).

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20 comments

Outstanding examples, instructive and inspiring. Thank you, John!

I really love this article, I am writing my sci-fi novel and I have no good ideas about the dialogue, the email came to me just in time.

Thank you very John for compiling the information needed by novice writers. I’m writing my first book and it’s in editing face. I’m sure it will help me a lot. Thanks.

Love it! Beautiful! Thank you John!

I’m not sure who compiled these examples, but I’m sure glad they did, and shared it with me!

Hi Bob, I’m John Matthew Fox, founder of Bookfox, and I compiled them. Very glad you’re benefitting from them!

Thank you, John, for sharing this, and so many other posts. Your posts are always informative and helpful.

I’m beginning the process of writing my mom’s biography — mostly as a family record. I appreciate all of your emails! They’re so relevant every time! They whir through boring work shifts, and remind me of my potential. I hadn’t considered how I will structure dialogue. I typically restructure others’ sentences to sound grammatically acceptable. As well as great dialogue, these examples show me how important voice is to a story. It’s more for a reader to feel like they’ve developed a relationship with a character than for one to be simply bombarded with endless facts and events. Something like a personal diary. I’d like to capture Mom’s stories in the way she tells them while also keeping it reader friendly.

Thank you John Matthew Fox. These are really helpful!

Just completing a Re-Write on a novel and conscious that I haven’t nailed or used dialogue as effectively as I might. So I’m really grateful for this post to set me on the right track for the third draft! Very timely here too.

John, Thank you very much for your research and erudition. Most helpful. Townsend

Damn….another long-ass post by John that causes me to shake my head, grind my grits, roll-up my sleeves and get back to work. #&^% man why you make me work so hard to improve myself. Just when I thought I was there – you show me I was mediocre.

Much love Yoda

Ha ha, you win for best comment. Thanks for the love — and good luck on writing your dialogue!

Your post about writing at 50+ gives me hope and although I don’t feel like I’ve read a thousand books, I’m buoyed by the discovery that I’ve read nearly all the books in this post!

Wow, you’re a walking library. Congrats. Hope your writing is going well!

For the most part, these are solid exemplars. My only objection is the PACHINKO example. Writers who resort to punctuation like that often do so to disguise the fact that have a tin ear for the way in which people talk. And PACHINKO, in addition to being an atrocious novel, has incredibly unconvincing and unbelievable dialogue. Very few people would stammer on “that.” It’s usually conjunctions and prepositions in which people who stammer or are nervous tend to falter.

I loved to read the article. Now, I’m writing a novel and tips in this article will definitely be helpful to me.

i really like reading the artical

Thank you so very much for the plentiful examples. The VARIETY is beyond helpful and GIVES me ideas to consider going forward… Thanks again.

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

Learn how to:

• Nail chapter endings
• Surprise your reader with plot twists
• Describe a character for the first time
• Write a killer ending

A Complete Guide To Writing Dialogue

One of the writer’s most effective tools is dialogue. A story with little or no conversation between characters can sometimes make the eyelids flicker. Too much may leave the reader breathless. Writing dialogue is tough and a skill that takes time to master. 

However, there are plenty of useful tips, tools and methods to help you learn how to write dialogue in a story and how to format it too.

And for your benefit, you can find them all in this comprehensive guide.

Below, you can find the definition of dialogue, tags and formatting guidelines and a discussion on the different ways characters speak and converse.

And you can also find plenty of illuminating dialogue examples to help you gain a clear understanding of the mechanics and how you can apply it to our own writing.

You can jump through this guide by clicking below:

Choose A Chapter

What is dialogue, how to format dialogue.

• Should I Use ‘Said’ And Asked?

How To Write Dialogue Between Two Characters

How to write dialogue readers love, how to write internal dialogue, an exercise on how to write dialogue in a story, good dialogue examples from fiction, technical writing tip – how does dialogue impact the pacing of a story, how do you edit dialogue, more guides on creative writing.

Dialogue is defined as a conversation between two or more characters , particularly in the context of a book, film or play.

Specific to writing, dialogue is the conversation between characters.

A n author may use dialogue to provide the reader with new information about characters or the plot, delivered in a more natural way. They may also utilise it to speed up the pace of the story.

As we’ll see below, there seems to be one pervading guideline when it comes to writing great dialogue and that is clarity reigns supreme.

What Is Internal Dialogue?

Internal dialogue is that which happens within a character’s mind . This can sometimes be reflected in fiction with the use of italics. For example:

I hope they don’t come down here, Mycah thought.

Internal dialogue is a great way of delving deeper into a character’s mind and perspective and is a powerful weapon when it comes to characterization. We explore it in more detail below.

Writers have different stylistic preferences when it comes to dialogue. Below, we’ll take a look at some of the best practices and common literary conventions, such as the use of a dialogue tag and quotation marks. 

Using Quotation Marks

If sticking to the principle of clarity reigns supreme, then for me, using double quotation marks is the most effective way of communicating dialogue.

They’re universally recognised as a means of conveying dialogue, and they stand out more on the page in contrast to single quotation marks. There are more reasons for using them, however, and that involves a criqute of the single quotation mark.

Writing Dialogue With Single Quotation Marks

This does come down to a matter of style.

The best format I’ve found, and by best I mean the approach readers find clearest, is to use speech marks (“) as opposed to a single apostrophe (‘).

If, for instance, a character is speaking and quotes someone else, single quotation marks can be used within the speech marks, therefore avoiding any confusion, for example:

  “I can’t believe she called me ‘an ungrateful cow.’ She’s got some nerve.”

Format Dialogue On A Single Line

Another helpful approach to help maintain clarity is to begin a piece of dialogue on a new line whenever a new character speaks. For instance:

“Who was at the door?” Nick asked. “A couple of Mormons,” Sarah said.

Adding Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags are simply a piece of prose that follows a piece of speech that identifies who spoke. You can see it in the example above featuring Nick and Sarah.

You can use a dialogue tag in lots of useful ways. For example body language.

If a character reacts to something another character says or does, to maintain clarity, pop the reaction on a new line, followed by dialogue. So for example:

“We’re all sold out,” Dan said. Jim sighed. “Have you not got any in the back?”

Do You Always Need To Use Dialogue Tags?

Something I’ve noticed some of my favourite writers doing—James Barclay and George R.R. Martin, in particular—is, when possible, avoid using an attribution altogether. Less is more, as they say. If just a couple of people are talking, it may already be clear from the voices and language of the characters who exactly is speaking.

Again, to aid clarity, if there are a number of people involved in a conversation, it helps to use an attribution whenever a different character speaks. Nobody wants to waste time re-reading passages to check who’s speaking. I don’t enjoy it and I’m sure others don’t either.

Repetitive use of attribution may grate on a reader. It can suggest a lack of trust in them to follow the story. It helps when editing to look for moments where it’s unclear who’s speaking and if necessary add an attribution.

A brief point on the styles of attribution. If you read a lot, you may notice some writers prefer the order “John said,” and some prefer “said John”. Sanderson is of the view that the character’s name should come first because that’s the most important bit of information to the reader. But the likes of Tolkien adopted the latter version. It’s all personal preference. Why not mix and match?

Should I Use “Said” And “Asked”?

When it comes to the questions I often see asked on how to write dialogue, this is perhaps the most common.

An attribution, also known as an identifier or tag, is the part of the sentence that follows a piece of dialogue. For example: “John said.” In his creative writing lectures, Brandon Sanderson shares a few useful tips.

• Try to place the attribution as early as possible to help make it clear in the reader’s mind who is speaking. This can be done mid-sentence, such as: “I don’t fancy that,” Milo said. “What else do you have?” Breaking away like this works well if a character is going to be speaking for a few lines or paragraphs. You can also use an attribution before the dialogue, though there’s something about this that I find jarring. Used sparingly it works well, but too often just seems annoying and archaic. It’s all personal preference though.
• Try using beats, but not too many. What’s a beat? A beat is a reaction to something said or done. So for example facial expressions like frowning, smiling, narrowing of the eyes, biting of the lip, and hand gestures such as pointing, clenching fists, and fidgeting. And then you’ve got physical movements, like pacing up and down, smashing a glass, punching a wall.
• Don’t worry about using ‘said’ and ‘asked’. To the reader, these words are almost invisible. What they care about is who exactly is speaking.
• When a character first speaks refer to them by name, but after that, it’s fine to refer to them as he or she, provided they’re still the one speaking. It’s even desirable to use the pronoun; repeating a name over and over can irritate a reader.

Remember the overarching principle for when it comes to writing dialogue: clarity reigns supreme. Using ‘said’ and ‘asked’ is often the clearest way of getting your point across.

What To Use Instead Of Said In Dialogue

Remember, there’s no problem with using the word ‘said’ after a piece of dialogue. But if you find when reading your piece aloud that the repeated use jars, especially in a dialogue-rich scene, you may want to mix things up.

Using words other than ‘said’ can help to characterize too—everybody reacts differently to things and those reactions reveal a lot about a person.

So, here’s a list of twenty words that you can use instead of ‘said’ when writing dialogue:

• Pointed out
• Interrupted

So, let’s take a look at how to write dialogue between two characters. If you’d rather have a visual explainer, check out this informative video below.

A useful distinction to make is between everyday dialogue and the dialogue we find in fiction.

The chatter we hear in real life is full of rambling, repetitive sentences, grumbles, grunts, ‘erms’ and ‘ahs’, with answers to questions filled with echoes (repeating a part of the question posed, e.g. “How are you?” asked A. “How am I?” B answered).

When we think of the dialogue we read in books, it contains little of the things we find in these everyday exchanges. According to Sol Stein, there’s a reason for this—it’s boring to read.

If it holds no relevance to the story, we don’t care if a character’s cat prefers to eat at your neighbour’s house instead of your own, or if they think their nail job isn’t worth the money they paid, or if they think the window cleaner isn’t cleaning their windows. There are some snippets we overhear on the street that are interesting—an unusual name, a section of a story we want to know more about. Rare diamonds in a mine miles deep. I’ve fallen into the trap of trying to achieve realistic dialogue and it makes for drawn-out scenes and boring exchanges.

According to Stein, dialogue ought not to be a recording of actual speech, but rather a semblance of it.

What is this semblance of dialogue why should we try and achieve it?

So, how do we write  good  dialogue?

When we scrutinise a person as they’re talking (all the boring stuff aside) we discover a lot about their character: who they are, what they believe in, and sometimes, if they reveal them, their motives. We glean all this from word choice, sentence structure, choice of topic, their behaviour as they say something.

It’s these little details we as writers must dig for, so when it comes to writing our own dialogue, we can use them to help characterise our own characters and, if possible, develop the plot. The key to mastering dialogue , according to Stein, is to factor in both characterisation and plot.

How do we do it? Let’s look at some dialogue writing examples:

Milford:                       How are you? Belle:                            How am I? I’m fine. How are you? Milford:                       Well thanks. And the family? Belle:                            Great

I had to stop myself from stabbing my eyes out with my pen. This example is mundane, riddled with echoes, and gives us no imagery about the characters involved. How about this version?

Milford:                        How are you? Belle:                            Oh, I’m sorry, didn’t see you there. Milford:                        Is this a bad time? Belle:                            No, no. Absolutely not.

See the difference? Milford asks Belle a question, which Belle doesn’t answer. This is an example of oblique dialogue . It’s indirect, evasive, and creates conflict.

It’s a great tool for when it comes to looking at how to write dialogue in a story using different approaches. Our character is not getting answers. Oblique language helps to reveal a bit about the characters and the plot, namely that Belle could be a bit shifty and up to something unsavoury.

Writing Realistic Dialogue

When it comes to knowing how to write natural dialogue, the question to ask yourself is whether or not this style is going to fit your story.

Natural dialogue suits some stories wonderfully. However, it can also work against your story, maybe confusing things for your readers or making it too difficult to read.

When it comes to writing natural dialogue, it’s important to bear in mind the principles discussed here. Give your conversations purpose, make them oblique or intriguing, and don’t give information up cheaply.

You can achieve this in a natural or more casual or informal style.

If you’re looking for more visual tips and advice on writing dialogue, check out this excellent video below:

Say It Aloud

When you’ve written a piece of dialogue, one of the best and simplest techniques to check how it works is to say it out loud.

In doing so you’ll get a sense of how natural it is or whether it jars, or even if it’s cringy or cliche—we’ve all been there.

If you don’t feel comfortable speaking it aloud, you can use a Text to Voice function, like on a website like Natural Readers which allows you to paste in text and then have it read it back to you (it’s free).

Add Slang From Your World

An effective way to write good dialogue that not only characterizes and drives the plot but adds to your world, is to use slang or world-specific references. This can be particularly useful in the fantasy and sci-fi genres .

For example, in my novel  Pariah’s Lament , I refer to the world in place of phrases that refer to our own. So instead of “What in the world was that?” I’d say something like “What in Tervia was that?”

Small Talk And Hellos And Goodbyes

As a general rule, there’s no need to include small talk, hellos and goodbyes. The reader isn’t really too bothered about these niceties. They just want to get to the action, the conflict.

You can brush over things like small talk and hellos with short descriptions in your prose writing . For instance:

Stef and John stepped into the room. A sea of smiling faces welcomed them and before they knew it, they were shaking hands and embracing. “I wasn’t expecting such a warm welcome,” Stef said. “It’s like they have no idea what we’ve done,” John replied. “Maybe they don’t.” “Or maybe they do, and it’s all a ruse.” Stef looked at him a moment, thoughtful. “You’re getting paranoid.”

See here how the hellos were glided by and we’re straight into more interesting dialogue? You can also cut back on the odd superfluous dialogue tag too if it doesn’t add to your story.

Give Your Characters Their Own Voice

A character’s voice is an important factor in dialogue. Nobody speaks in the same way. Some people have lisps, some people say their ‘r’s’ like ‘w’s’, some people don’t enunciate properly, say words differently, speak in accents, and have a nasal twang. There are so many variables.

Introducing these features to some or all of your characters can help to make them more memorable and distinct.

How To Write Dialogue For A Drunk Character

When we’re writing our stories it’s likely that some of our characters may become intoxicated with alcohol or drugs. This creates the question in a writer’s mind, how do you write dialogue for a drunk character?

We can fall into the trap of spelling out the words that they try to say, factoring in the slurs, the missed words and the mispronunciations. The problem this can create is that it can go against our overarching principle of clarity reigns supreme.

Dialogue that’s too difficult to read can cause frustration in the reader. They may get fed up and stop reading altogether—the last thing we want.

The best technique is to provide a description of how the person is talking. Describe how they slur their words, how certain letters sound in their drunken state and so on. Including body language in this will help a great deal too. You can then write dialogue in a more natural and understandable way.

The same applies to the likes of writing stuttering in dialogue. It can be very frustrating for a person to listen to a person with a stutter. To include it in your writing can cause problems too. So again one of the best solutions is to describe the stutter first and then write dialogue naturally.

Hopefully, these tips will help you with how to write dialogue for our intoxicated characters.

An Author May Use Dialogue To Provide The Reader With Information, But Don’t Info Dump

An author may use dialogue to provide the reader with useful information. However, if done incorrectly it can have a negative effect.

In his book The First Five Pages , Noah Lukeman says that one of his biggest reasons for rejecting a manuscript is the use of informative dialogue. In other words, using dialogue as a means for conveying information, or info-dumping . He says it suggests the writer is lazy, too unimaginative to convey the information in a subtler way. If you’d like to learn more about avoiding info dumps, check out my guide on natural worldbuilding .

Sometimes dialogue will give us no information at all. Sometimes snippets. Often if you overhear a conversation between two people you’ll find you understand little of what they discuss. It’s the little details they reveal that are most interesting. Take the example of someone mentioning they went to the hospital. The person they’re with may know why they went, but you don’t. Give the reader pieces of the giant puzzle and leave them wanting more.

Lukeman suggests a few solutions to mend instances of informative dialogue. One is to highlight pieces of dialogue that merely convey information and do not reveal or suggest the character’s personality or wants. Break them apart and find a way to let them trickle into the story.

Understanding how to write internal dialogue can prove a key weapon in your writing arsenal.

This style of dialogue can be employed effectively in scenes or stories focused on lone characters. It can break up the monotony of long paragraphs of exposition, which provides welcome relief to readers. Unlike other forms, you don’t need to use a dialogue tag as such.

There are a couple of common ways that you can employ internal dialogue in writing:

• The first option is to italicise the comments made by your character internally. For example: “A door downstairs slammed shut.  It’s not windy tonight. How the hell could that have happened?” The main idea here is that the italicised words make it clear to the reader that this is internal dialogue.
• Another option is to write internal dialogue as you would normal dialogue, with speech marks. The difference is what follows that passage of conversation. Usually, it’s something like, “I really do need to get that fixed,” Halle thought to herself. Here, you simply identify that the dialogue was spoken in the mind and not aloud.

As for which is best for how to write effective dialogue for internal thoughts, it’s all a matter of style. However, my personal preference is using italics. To me, it’s just clearer to readers, and that’s the main aim. So that is how to write internal dialogue.

As a little exercise, try and think of some oblique responses to the following line. I’ll give you an example to start. Remember to factor in Stein’s key ingredients— characterisation and plot:

            Exercise: “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

            Example: “Did you say the same thing to that blonde girl behind the bar?”

In this example of how to write dialogue, we get a response that avoids answering the statement. She could quite easily turn around and say “Thank you,” but that’s boring. Instead, we’re wondering about this man and what he’s about, and a bit more about the woman too, namely that she’s observant.

Let’s take a look at some good dialogue examples from some of the finest pieces of fiction to grave our bookshelves:

Dialogue Example #1 “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris

“Good morning, Dr. Lecter. How are you feeling?”

“Better than your last visit, Clarice. Shall I have a chair brought in for you?”

“No thank you, I’d rather stand.”

“Please, sit. That’s better. You know, you remind me of someone. A young man I met long ago. He was a student like yourself, with a quick mind and a charming smile. I wonder what became of him.”

“I don’t know, Dr. Lecter. I’m here to ask you about Buffalo Bill.”

Dialogue Example #2 “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger

“You’re lucky. You’re really lucky. You know that, don’t you?” I said.

“Don’t worry about me,” Sally said. “I’ll be all right. I’m serious.”

“I know you will,” I said. “That’s why I’d like to talk to you for just a minute. This is no kidding. You’re going to have to have yourself a grand time this summer. Especially this summer. Have yourself a real need. Because you’re going to go to a lot of parties, and some of them are going to be quite grim, and you’re going to need that need.”

“I know I will,” Sally said. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I know you will,” I said. “But do it anyway. Do it for me. Okay?”

Dialogue Example #3 “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

“Atticus, are we going to win it?”

“No, honey.”

“Then why-”

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win,” Atticus said.

One of the most important things to know when it comes to looking at dialogue is the impact it has on pacing.

Dialogue has a knack for increasing the pace and moving the story forward. Readers can find themselves tearing through pages laden with dialogue. As if with all tools of the craft, it pays to know how best to use it. Literary agent Noah Lukeman said a writer must learn how to use restraint when it comes to dialogue, “to sustain suspense and let a scene unfold slowly.”

Again, it’s all a matter of preference.

It’s one thing to know how to write dialogue, it’s another to know how to edit it.

For sound editing advice a good person to turn to is a master editor. In his book on the craft of writing, Sol Stein provides a very helpful checklist when going over passages of conversation:

• What is the purpose of this exchange? Does it begin or heighten an existing conflict, for example?
• Does it stimulate curiosity in the reader?
• Does it create tension?
• What is the outcome of the exchange? Builds to a climax, or a turn of events in the story, or a change in relationship with the speakers?
• Has the correct dialogue tag been used for each character, one that enhances the tale.

One additional step Stein recommends is reading dialogue aloud in a monotone expression. Listen to the meaning of the words in your exchanges.

“What counts is not what is said but the effect of what it means… The reader takes from fiction the meaning of words. And above all, they take the emotion that meaning generates.”

So these are a few things that I’ve found helpful when it comes to writing dialogue. As we’ve seen, an author may use dialogue to provide the reader with interesting information, delivered in a compelling and intriguing way.

Perhaps the most important advice I’ve taken away from them all is to always maintain clarity while using obliqueness to give dialogue that snappy, enticing edge. It’s easier said than done, mind.

Before I leave you, I wanted to point you in the direction of some other guides I think you may find useful.

• Great Examples Of The 5 Senses In Writing
• Men Writing Women
• How To Avoid Duplicate Content Issues – if you need help with plagiarism or making your content unique, head here
• How To Plot A Story
• More Dialogue Writing Examples   from Florida Gulf Coast University, with useful advice on making the best use of a dialogue tag

For more writing tips and guides , head here. Or you can find lots of links on all types of creative writing topics on my home page . Thanks for reading this guide on how to write dialogue that readers will love.

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8 thoughts on “A Complete Guide To Writing Dialogue”

I think crafting one’s own “book on writing” is a great exercise for any writer, regardless of whether or not they want to publish it. The act itself is a great way to organize one’s thoughts and ideas about writing, and compare one’s existing ideas to those one may encounter through others (books, blogs, interviews, etc.). I don’t know if mine will ever be fit for publication, but I find it very helpful to write such things down, instead of worrying about whether or not I’ll remember it.

Definitely! That’s one of the main reasons I’m doing it. We’ve got nothing to lose!

Mmm. And writing it out, organizing it, really helps us retain it afterwards. I feel like I rarely need to consult my notes, but the act of writing them out really helps.

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• Dialogue Writing

Dialogue Writing - Style, Format and Examples

Are you a good speaker or a great listener? If you are, you should have definitely come across multiple instances where something you said or you heard someone say stuck to your mind. This happens mainly because those words touched your heart or made you think. That is the effect of a good dialogue. Even a simple conversation with your family, friends or even an unknown group of people can give you ideas and thoughts to ponder on.

This article will introduce you to the art of dialogue writing and give you information about all that you need to know. Furthermore, go through the sample dialogues and analyse how they make an effect.

Table of Contents

What is dialogue writing, the purposes of writing a dialogue, inner dialogue, outer dialogue, basic format and structure of a dialogue, punctuation, what not to do when writing a dialogue – points to remember, dialogues from stories and plays, dialogues from movies and tv shows, frequently asked questions on dialogue writing in english.

The term ‘dialogue’ is something all of you would be familiar with. As social beings, people (irrespective of being young or old, male or female) communicate with each other. Such a communication where both parties involved in the conversation have something to say about the topic being discussed can be said to be dialogue. A dialogue can be on any topic – a very simple talk about a daily chore, a serious talk about a social or medical problem, a discussion about what has to be done for an event and so on. The only point that you should remember is that a dialogue isn’t just any conversation but a conversation between two people specifically.

The Collins Dictionary defines the term ‘dialogue’ as “a conversation between two people in a book, film, or play”. Transcribing a dialogue in writing or presenting a conversation in text is referred to as dialogue writing.

What do you think is the reason behind writing dialogues in a story, play or film? Is it mandatory to include dialogues in a story? There are stories where you have a third person narrator or one of the characters of the story presenting the story from their perspective. What difference does it make when there are dialogues instead of just someone narrating each and everything that is happening in the story?

Having dialogues along with stage directions instead of just narrations can be said to be a better writing technique as it gives the readers a clear picture of the characteristics of the various characters in the story, play or movie. It also gives your characters life, and above all, a voice of their own. Dialogues portray the emotional state, mindset, background information and attitude of the speakers. This will always be more effective as it would let the readers connect with the characters on a more personal level.

Dialogue writing is also one area where the writers get to be creative even to the extent of breaking some conventional grammatical rules. For instance, elongating a word or writing the whole word in capital letters or using multiple question marks or exclamation marks to stress on whatever is being said. For example: YESSSS!!

Another component of dialogue writing is adding stage directions. Stage directions are short phrases written in brackets that give the reader an idea of what the character is doing as they engage in the dialogue. For example: Dan (rubbing his eyes): I am still tired.

Types of Dialogues

Dialogues can be classified into two main types namely,

The term ‘inner dialogue’ refers to the individual character’s thoughts which are not spoken aloud; in other words, said to anyone else. They can be something a character is thinking as the other character is speaking and their thoughts about what is going on or what the other character is doing. These inner dialogues are not placed within quotation marks .

As the name suggests, ‘outer dialogues’ are thoughts that are spoken aloud. They refer to everything the two characters involved in the dialogue say to each other. Outer dialogues are usually placed with quotation marks.

Fundamental Rules to Be Followed When Writing a Dialogue

Dialogue writing can look and sound simple; however, when actually putting dialogue in writing, there are certain rules regarding the structure and format you need to follow. Go through each of these in detail in the sections given below.

Dialogues can be part of a story, a play or a movie. Each one has a different structure and format in which the dialogues have to be presented; however, there is a basic structure that can be followed. Go through the following points to learn the essential attributes a dialogue must have.

• The first thing you have to do before you write a dialogue is to decide who the characters are.
• You should also have a clear idea of the plot of the story, or in general, the context of the dialogue.
• Dialogues can be just a sentence, two or three lines or even a short paragraph. Whatever be the case, always remember that each character’s dialogue, no matter how short or long, has to be written on the next line. In other words, no two dialogues should appear on the same line. Also see to it that you indent each dialogue.
• If the dialogues are one-liners, you can write them one after the other. On the contrary, if each of your characters are speaking in chunks (short or long paragraphs), it is mandatory that you show the difference by using an optimum line spacing.
• Be very careful with the tense used in the dialogue.
• It is better to skip the small talk (including greetings) and start off with the point of discussion unless the small talk is crucial to setting the mood of the conversation.

In every form of writing, punctuation is an important factor that makes it sensible. In the same manner, dialogue writing also would not make any sense without proper punctuation. Learn how to punctuate dialogues by going through the following points.

• The first rule would be adding a colon after the name of the character to indicate that the particular character is the one speaking at the moment. Sometimes, a hyphen is used instead of a colon.
• The name of the character should always start with a capital letter as it is a proper noun. Sometimes, you will have characters such as villagers, student 1, student 2, etc. In these cases also, you will have to use a capital letter.
• Dialogues are to be placed within quotation marks.
• If you are including a character’s dialogue in another character’s dialogue, it has to be placed within single quotation marks. For example: “Don’t you think Rakesh saying ‘I will take the lead’ has some hidden agenda?”
• Also remember that any punctuation mark corresponding to the dialogue should always be placed within double quotation marks. For instance, if the dialogue is an interrogative sentence , the question mark has to come first marking the end of the sentence followed by the double quotation marks marking the end of the dialogue.
• When you insert the tag in the middle of the dialogue, make sure you close the quotation marks before the tag. The tag is preceded and followed by a comma . When you open quotation marks to continue the dialogue, see to it that you use a small letter to begin with if it is the continuation of the dialogue, and close the quotation marks once the dialogue is complete. For example: “Do you know”, he shouted to everyone, “who the new manager is?”
• If the dialogue tag is positioned in the beginning of the sentence, see to it that you start it with a capital letter as you are starting a new sentence. Place a comma after the dialogue tag followed by open quotation marks, the dialogue starting with a capital letter followed by the punctuation mark of the quote and close quotation marks. For example: Josh mumbled, “Nobody understands the main problem here.”
• A dialogue can also appear at the end of the sentence. In this case, the quotation comes first. Once you punctuate the quote and close the quotation marks, place the dialogue tag. Note that the dialogue tag is not capitalised. For example: “Are you coming with us?” Sarah asked.
• If a character’s dialogue is being interrupted by another character, use a dash to indicate the interference. For example: “I was wondering –”

“Are you ready to go?”

• Actions and body language of characters can be described in sentences and they can appear in between dialogues. For example: “I am not interested.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But, I will do it just for you.”

Now that you know how to write a dialogue, let us also look at what all you are not supposed to do when writing a dialogue.

• Using dialogue tags does give some clarity about the action and body language of the characters, but see to it that you do not use dialogue tags with every single dialogue. Also, make sure you don’t use too little.
• Using colloquial language is allowed in dialogue writing, but use them only if it matches the context.
• Dialogues need not be grammatically correct all the time. That does not mean you can write structureless sentences. You can have individual words or phrases as a dialogue. For example: “What?”, “Of course!”, “She started the fight?”

Examples of Dialogue Writing

To help you understand and learn the art of dialogue writing, here are a few examples from some famous stories, plays, movies and TV shows.

A few examples from ‘The Crocodile and the Monkey’ are given below. Go through them and try to analyse how the description and dialogues are written.

• The crocodile’s wife thought to herself, “If the monkey eats only these sweet rose-apples, his flesh must be sweet too. He would be a delicious dinner.”
• When they reached, the monkey climbed up the tree to safety. He looked at the crocodile and said, “Now you can go back to your wicked wife and tell her that her husband is the biggest fool in this world. Your foolishness has no parallel. You were ready to take my life because of an unjust demand from your wife. Then you were stupid enough to believe me and brought me back to the tree.”

Here are a few examples from the short story, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O. Henry. Check them out.

• “Twenty dollars,” said Mrs. Sofronie, lifting the hair to feel its weight.

“Give it to me quick,” said Della.

• “Jim, dear,” she cried, “don’t look at me like that. I had my hair cut off and sold it. I couldn’t live through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow again. You won’t care, will you? My hair grows very fast. It’s Christmas, Jim. Let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I got for you.”

Here are a few quotes from the play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare.

• Shylock: Three thousand ducats; well.

Bassanio: Ay, sir, for three months.

Shylock: For three months; well.

Bassanio: For which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound.

Shylock: Antonio shall become bound; well.

Bassanio: May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? shall I know your answer?

Shylock: Three thousand ducats for three months and Antonio bound.

• Bassanio: And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?

Gratiano: Yes, faith, my lord.

Bassanio: Our feast shall be much honour’d in your marriage.

Gratiano: We’ll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.

Check out the following section to learn how dialogues from movies and TV shows are written. Furthermore, analyse the style and language used.

The following sample conversation is from the Disney movie ‘Moana’. Check it out.

Maui: Boat! A boat! The Gods have given me a (screams)

Moana: Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea. I am Moana…

Maui: Hero of Man.

Moana: Wh..What?

Maui: It’s actually Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, hero of man. I

interrupted, from the top, hero of man. Go.

Moana: I am Mo…

Maui: Sorry, Sorry, sorry, sorry. And women. Men and women. Both. All. Not a guy-girl

thing. Ah, you know, Maui is a hero to all. You’re doing great.

Moana: What? No, I came here to…

Maui: Oh, of course, of course. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Maui always has time for his fans.

When you use a bird to write with, it’s called tweeting. (laughs) I know, not every day you

get a chance to meet your hero.

Moana: You are not my hero. And I’m not here so you can sign my oar. I’m here because

you stole the heart of Te Fiti and you will board my boat, sail across the sea, and put it

The following example is taken from the series ‘Anne with an E’.

• Diana: Anne!

Anne: Hello, Diana!

Diana: My, what have you done to your hat?

Anne: Well, I wanted to make a good first impression and it was so plain.

Diana: You’re making an impression all right.

Anne: I’m glad you found your way.

Diana: I expect we should be able to walk together soon.

Anne: We can’t?

Diana: I’m sure it won’t be long until my parents accept you, now that you’re a Cuthbert and all.

Also check out: Conversation between Teacher and Student │ Conversation between Doctor and Patient │ Conversation between Two Friends │ Conversation between Shopkeeper and Customer

What is dialogue writing?

A dialogue isn’t just any conversation but a conversation between two people specifically. Transcribing a dialogue in writing or presenting a conversation in text is referred to as dialogue writing.

What is the definition of a dialogue?

The Collins Dictionary defines the term ‘dialogue’ as “a conversation between two people in a book, film, or play”.

What is the format of dialogue writing?

The basic structure and format of a dialogue is as follows:

• Every speaker gets a new paragraph.
• The name of the character is followed by a colon and then the dialogue within quotes is written.
• If dialogue tags are used, use a comma after it if it comes in the beginning, a comma before and after if it comes in the middle and place it immediately after the quotation marks if it comes at the end.

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Dialogue Examples — Film, TV, Theatre, Fiction & Video Games

D ialogue, or a conversation between two or more people, is something that dominates just about every work of fiction. So, why is dialogue so hard to write? We’re going to explore the nature of dialogue by breaking down a series of dialogue examples, from literature to games. Hopefully, by the end, you’ll know how a breadth of mediums tackle the indomitable task of writing dialogue.

Dialogue Basics

A quick primer on dialogue.

Most of us understand what dialogue is and how it works. But just to make sure we're on the same page, let's start by defining it. Then we will review some dialogue examples from across multiple media.

DIALOGUE DEFINITION

What is dialogue.

Dialogue  is a written or spoken exchange of words between one or more characters. Most narrative stories feature this verbal communication, which is often easily identifiable by either quotations in literature or dedicated spaces in scripts. Dialogue has various uses, though it is most often for the purposes of advancing the plot and building character. For example, it lets the audience learn more about a character, their history, feelings, and viewpoints.

Dialogue Characteristics:

• Used for advancing the plot
• Captures the "voice" of a character
• An opportunity for subtext and verbal irony

There are two basic types of dialogue — inner dialogue and outer dialogue. Inner dialogue is a conversation a character might have in their head with themselves. Granted, this will often overlap as a monologue or even an aside . 

Outer dialogue is what we typically see — a conversation between two or more characters. Now, let's see some of the best dialogue examples in action.

Dialogue Examples in a Story

Meet the parents.

Dialogue Examples  •  Meet the Parents

Words cannot articulate how much I love this scene from Meet the Parents . The dialogue is simply ~chef’s kiss~ magnifique . The tone ? Awkward as all hell. The acting? Couldn’t be better. 

“Whew, she is a tomcat.” Writers of all disciplines should study this scene for guidance on how to write comedy .

DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO CHARACTERS EXAMPLE

Naruto: shippuden.

Dialogue Examples  •  Naruto: Shippuden

Anime – particularly Shonen anime – is known more for its action than its dialogue. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t great anime dialogue. Quite the contrary, in fact, some of the best moments in Shonen anime come in the form of dialogue. 

This interaction between Naruto and Pain is regarded as one of the greatest dialogue-driven scenes in anime. As you’re reading, think about how the dialogue mirrors real-world themes relating to imperialism, war, and vengeance.

DIALOGUE WRITING EXAMPLES

Oxenfree , firewatch , and other games.

Dialogue Examples  •  Most Innovative Dialogue in Games by Game Designer Plays

Video games designers have the unique ability to give players the agency to influence dialogue in their games. Over the years, we’ve seen designers implement branching dialogue trees in popular games like Mass Effect and The Witcher 3 . 

We’ve also seen designers implement innovative dialogue systems in games like Oxenfree and Firewatch . In all of these examples, players are given agency to influence the narrative of their world, all via dialogue.

FICTION DIALOGUE EXAMPLES

A streetcar named desire.

Meaningful Dialogue Examples  •  A Streetcar Named Desire

Sometimes, dialogue works best when it’s extremely one-sided. Wait, no that can’t be right? Yes, it is! One-sided dialogue is like a tea-kettle that simmers and simmers until it explodes. 

Tennessee Williams is regarded as one of the great dialogue writers of all-time. This example from A Streetcar Named Desire is a perfect example why. Click the image link to read the scene in StudioBinder's screenwriting software .

Dialog Conversation Examples  •  How to Write Good Dialogue via A Streetcar Named Desire

Dialogue between two characters example, hills like white elephants.

Dialogue Examples  •  Hills Like White Elephants, Read by Stephen J. Pena VO

Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” contains one of the most famous literary examples of dialogue. In this story, dialogue plays an essential role. 

Hemingway doesn’t outright tell us what’s going on, but rather asks us to interpret the content of the two characters’ conversation. The end result is something naturalistic .

Dialogue Format Examples  •  How to Write Good Dialogue via Hills Like White Elephants

Sample dialogue, kill bill & other tarantino films.

How Kill Bill Keeps Us Hooked  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films aren’t exactly known for their sharp dialogue – but there are some gold nuggets hidden underneath the blood and gore. In our video on Tarantino dialogue, we show you how high stakes, plot structure, and anecdotes grip readers in scenes 10 pages or longer. 

Check out the Kill Bill: Volume 2 confrontation scene below, and consider how dialogue paces the scene. 

Dialogue Sentence Examples  •  Dialog Conversation Examples via Kill Bill: Volume 2

Dialogue examples in literature.

Dialogue Examples in Literature  •  Macbeth

Macbeth is a great play to study if you want to learn about dialogue. The conversations between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are particularly insightful for writers because they represent an ever-shifting power dynamic. 

This scene from Act Three, Scene Two shows the deterioration of Macbeth’s mind – and Lady Macbeth’s desperate attempt to restore order.

Fiction Dialogue Examples  •  Macbeth

How to edit a dialogue scene.

Inspired by these examples? Ready to work on your own dialogue scene? Use our next article on “how to edit a dialogue scene” as a reference for your work. We’ll show you a variety of creative and technical strategies for turning a simple exchange into an unforgettable one. By the end, you’ll know how to approach a dialogue scene in a myriad of ways.

Up Next: Tips & Tricks for Dialogue Editors→

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The Best Examples of Good Dialogue

Writing “good” dialogue isn’t easy. I mean, even defining what makes dialogue good can trip up the best of writers. It’s the kind of thing that you know it when you see it, right?

But that’s not helpful for authors like us who want to up our writing game.

Let’s be clear, you need to write the best dialogue you can. There is nothing more jarring or disheartening than bad, stilted dialogue. At best, messing up how your characters speak will get you bad reviews. At worst, it will get your book tossed on a DNF pile.

That’s why we’re going to dissect everything that makes good dialogue. That includes:

• Defining “good”
• Examples of great dialogue in authors, movies, and TV shows
• What good dialogue brings to your story
• Practical tips for writing good dialogue.

But before diving any deeper, understand that quality dialogue can’t exist without quality characters. So be sure to bookmark this link so you can learn everything you need to know about writing great characters.

That’s for later, though. Let’s dive into awesome dialogue.

What is “Good” Dialogue?

Like we said, defining good dialogue can be tricky. If you ask 100 different writers and readers to give you a definition, you’re likely going to get 100 different answers. But we need something to work with, right?

So here’s the definition we’ll be working with:

Dialogue that feels natural and authentic while also advancing the plot or revealing something about a character.

I know that reads a little vague, but let’s take a moment to understand it.

Natural and authentic - If your characters are speaking like robots or with weird pacing, it’s going to come across as robotic and weird. Unless your character has some flaw or quirk that makes them do this, you’re going to want them to speak like actual people.

Advancing the plot - Basically everything in your novel should advance the plot in some way. Sure, you can have some details thrown in to make your world seem alive, but adding in a bunch of superfluous details into your novel, especially in your dialogue, will bog it down and confuse the reader. Unless you are…

Revealing something about a character - If you aren’t driving the narrative forward with your dialogue, you should use it to let the reader know a little bit more about a character. Reveal their motivation or part of their backstory . Progress their arc a tiny bit. Make the dialogue worth reading by making it meaningful.

Does all the dialogue in your story need to be good (by our definition)? No, not technically. But the vast majority should be. Again, too much meaningless content makes your book worse.

Don’t fill your book with “Good morning” and “How are you?” and “Traffic was rough.”

That’s boring and wastes the reader’s time. Aim, whenever possible, for good dialogue.

Examples of Good Dialogue

I’ve compiled a heck of a lot of good dialogue here for you to analyze. While we’ll briefly go over why each is considered good, try to identify what each brings to its respective story.

You’ll see that most of these examples are pretty short. You don’t need paragraphs of text to write something great. With a lot of dialogue, it’s quality over quantity.

Good Dialogue in Books

We have to start with books. It’s a legal obligation, since we’re all writers here.

"I cannot make speeches, Emma… If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." - Mr. Knightley, Emma by Jane Austen

This line from Emma is a great example of how dialogue can reveal a character's emotions and personality. Mr. Knightley's confession to Emma is sincere, heartfelt, and reveals his inability to articulate his feelings. In fact, it’s the lack of dialogue that makes this line so dang good.

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will." - Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

How else could Jane express her strength and resolve? Not only is this line eloquent, but it makes great use of a clear and understandable metaphor. Jane's declaration of independence and refusal to be constrained by societal norms is a powerful statement of her character.

"So it goes." - Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

This recurring phrase from Slaughterhouse-Five is a great example of how dialogue can be used for thematic effect. It's a simple, understated statement that appears throughout the novel to underscore its message of fatalism and the inevitability of death.

"'You're not the first to go through this, you know.' 

'I know.' 

'You think I don't know how this feels?' 

'No, you don't know how it feels! Your wife did not die!' 

'My son did! He was four years old! You're right, you're not the same. But you can take some comfort in that.'" - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

This exchange between two characters in The Lovely Bones is a great example of how good dialogue can be emotional and impactful. The back-and-forth between the characters reveals their shared experience of grief and loss, while also highlighting how each character embraces the grieving process differently. Even if you haven’t read the book, you can tell just how much each character is hurting.

Good Dialogue in Television Shows

TV is a great place to look for good dialogue since, unlike books, you can hear people speak. You understand tone, inferences, body language, and everything else that goes into communicating.

Here are some of the best pieces of dialogue from television shows you might know.

"I'm not a psychopath, Anderson. I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research." - Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock

Sometimes dialogue not only reveals something about a character, but it basically defines the character. It’s hard not to perfectly envision Holmes saying this line, right down to the accent and smug look. Not only that, but in just one sentence, we learn that Sherlock is not only highly intelligent, but he also has a tendency toward anti-social behavior.

"I declare bankruptcy!" - Michael Scott, The Office

Sometimes good dialogue does the job while being funny and memorable. Michael Scott's declaration of bankruptcy in The Office is a prime example of how a well-crafted line can be equal parts hilarious while showing the reader how oblivious Michael is.

"I have been and always shall be your friend." - Spock, Star Trek: The Original Series

This line from Star Trek is an excellent example of how dialogue can evoke emotion and leave a lasting impact on the audience. Spock, while being characterized for a lack of emotions from half his heritage, shows how strong his relationship with Captain Kirk is. This single piece of dialogue shows the impact these characters have had on one another.

“Who are you talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? Do you know how much I make a year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly decided to stop going into work? A business big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ goes belly up. Disappears! It ceases to exist without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're talking to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that is me? No. I am the one who knocks! - Walter White, Breaking Bad

I still remember the first time I watched this scene in Breaking Bad . It was one of the most powerful moments on television and showed us just how much Walter had changed from meek chemistry teacher to a powerful drug kingpin. If that’s not character development revealed in dialogue, I don’t know what is.

Good Dialogue in Movies

Just like television, movies give us the opportunity to understand more about dialogue than just the words.

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." - Vito Corleone, The Godfather (1972)

This line from The Godfather is a great example of how good dialogue can reveal character and advance the plot. It's a statement made by Vito Corleone that highlights his power and influence in the criminal underworld, while also setting up the main conflict of the story.

"What we do in life echoes in eternity." - Maximus, Gladiator (2000)

Good dialogue is more than just basic prose, and this line from Gladiator shows us exactly that by being a great example of how dialogue can be poetic and profound. The statement made by Maximus encapsulates the themes of honor, legacy, and mortality that run throughout the movie, all of which are tenets that he holds dear.

"That's my secret, Captain: I'm always angry." - Bruce Banner, The Avengers (2012)

I’m a big Marvel fan, so I had to include this line from The Avengers . Throughout the entire movie, we see Bruce struggling to control the Hulk or accept who he is. That’s why this piece of dialogue is so good: Bruce has made a major development, turning into someone who embraces who he is instead of being scared of it.

"You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives… You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall." - Col. Nathan R. Jessup, A Few Good Men

This exchange between Col. Nathan R. Jessup and Lt. Daniel Kaffee in A Few Good Men is a great example of how good dialogue can involve multiple speakers and reveal important information about the story and characters. While part of a larger back-and-forth, this dialogue reveals traits of both characters involved: Jessup’s frustration and willingness to do what others can’t, along with Kaffee’s moral hypocrisy, even if it’s subconscious.

Practical Tips for Writing Good Dialogue

Now that you’ve seen some of the best dialogue in pop culture (and some classics), let’s talk about writing your own.

As with everything related to writing, you aren’t going to just stumble into consistently good dialogue. Sure, you’ll have a stroke of conversational genius every now and then, but you want to be a great writer, right? That means you should understand and practice writing good dialogue.

Create realistic characters - We established this at the very beginning: you can’t have good dialogue without good characters. If you want what someone says to be meaningful and help your story, the person saying it has to be well-developed. We have a ton of articles on writing great characters, but here are a few places to get you started:

• Fleshing out a character
• How to write complex characters
• How to write realistic characters
• Writing characters your readers will love

Show, don’t tell - This should be a guiding principle in all your writing, but it’s especially important when writing dialogue. Which seems contradictory, right? Because speaking is literally telling. But use dialogue to show growth, a plot point, conflict, etc. If you need some show, don’t tell practice, we’ve got some great worksheets right here .

Listen to real conversations - One of the best ways to write natural-sounding speech is to listen to real people having real conversations. Head to a coffee shop or restaurant and (politely) listen to other people, listening for the words they use, their tone, body language, and what they’ve deemed worth speaking about. Understand how everyone’s personality, quirks, and mood affect their speech. Just don’t be weird about it, okay?

Literary devices - The effective use of literary devices and effective prose will help elevate your dialogue from good to great. Toss in a simile or metaphor, use evocative, emotional language to make a speech more impactful. As writers, there are hundreds of different literary devices at our disposal. Check out this link for information on all the options you have available to you.

Time to Write Some Good Dialogue

Remember, you won’t write memorable, effective dialogue without first writing really bad dialogue. It’s unfortunate, but that’s just the way it is. So your next step is the best one: get writing.

To do that, you need a novel-writing platform designed specifically for fiction writers. That’s where Dabble comes in.

Dabble isn’t just a word processor or simple writing tool. In fact, there are even features in Dabble that can help you write better dialogue.

You can keep all your character details just one click away from your writing, making it easy to reference all their flaws, strengths, weaknesses, and backstory to integrate into their speaking.

If there’s a really important piece of dialogue you want to refine later, highlight it, add a sticky note next to it, or leave a comment to make sure you get it just right.

And to really nail the flow and style of your writing, let ProWritingAid —integrated directly into Dabble—let you know where and how your words can improve.

All that is just the tip of the iceberg of the tools and resources Dabble brings to the table to help you write your best story. And you can try it out for fourteen days, totally free of charge, by clicking here .

Doug Landsborough can’t get enough of writing. Whether freelancing as an editor, blog writer, or ghostwriter, Doug is a big fan of the power of words. In his spare time, he writes about monsters, angels, and demons under the name D. William Landsborough. When not obsessing about sympathetic villains and wondrous magic, Doug enjoys board games, horror movies, and spending time with his wife, Sarah.

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Dialogue Writing – Tips, Style, Format and Example

“Are you good at talking or listening well? If so, you’ve probably had moments where something someone said, or you said, really stood out to you. This happens because those words touched your heart or made you think. That’s the power of a good conversation. Even a simple chat with family, friends, or strangers can give you ideas and thoughts to think about Dialogue Writing.

This article will teach you about the skill of writing dialogues and provide you with all the information you need to know. Additionally, you can read some examples of Dialogue Writing and see how they create an impact.”

What is the purpose of writing a dialogue?

Types of dialogues, some common examples of ‘direct dialogue’, some common examples of ‘indirect dialogue’, fundamental rules of writing a dialogue with example, faqs about dialogue writing.

Table of Contents

What is dialogue writing?

Dialogue writing is the art of creating conversations between characters in a written work, such as a story, play, or script. It involves capturing the way people speak, expressing their thoughts, emotions, and interactions through written words. Effective dialogue should sound natural and authentic, reflecting the unique voices and personalities of the characters.

In dialogue writing, punctuation, formatting, and the choice of words are crucial to convey the tone, rhythm, and dynamics of a conversation. It plays a significant role in advancing the plot, revealing character traits, and engaging the readers or audience. Good dialogue enhances the overall flow of a narrative and contributes to a deeper understanding of the characters and the story.

Writing a dialogue serves several important purposes. Firstly, it brings characters to life by allowing them to communicate, sharing their thoughts, feelings, and personalities with the reader. Through dialogue, characters become real and relatable, forming a connection with the audience.

Secondly, dialogue moves the story forward. It’s a powerful tool for advancing the plot, revealing key information, and creating tension or resolution. When characters engage in conversation, it propels the narrative, keeping readers interested and invested in the unfolding events.

Moreover, dialogue adds authenticity to a story. By mimicking the way people speak, it makes characters and their interactions more genuine. This authenticity makes the fictional world more immersive, allowing readers to fully engage with the narrative.

In essence, the purpose of writing a dialogue is to breathe life into characters, propel the storyline, and create a vivid and authentic reading experience for the audience.

The two main types of dialogues are direct dialogue and indirect dialogue .

• Direct Dialogue: Direct dialogue involves the characters speaking for themselves. It is presented within quotation marks and includes the exact words spoken by the characters. This type of dialogue provides a direct and immediate connection between the characters and the reader, allowing the audience to hear the characters’ voices directly. Example:Sarah exclaimed, “I can’t believe we won the game!”
• Indirect Dialogue: Indirect dialogue, on the other hand, conveys the substance of the conversation without quoting the exact words. It is often presented in a narrative form, summarizing what was said rather than providing a verbatim account. This type is useful for conveying information efficiently without focusing on the specific wording. Example:Tom told Mary that he was excited about the upcoming trip.

Understanding when to use direct or indirect dialogue depends on the desired effect, pacing, and the information the writer intends to convey to the audience.

• Expressing Surprise: Sarah gasped, “Oh, I didn’t see that coming!”
• Sharing Excitement: Jake shouted, “I got an A+ on my test!”
• Asking a Question: Emily wondered, “What time is the party?”
• Expressing Disappointment: Alex sighed, “I didn’t win the competition.”
• Showing Happiness: Lisa smiled, “This is the best day ever!”
• Giving a Greeting: Tom waved and said, “Hi, how are you?”
• Expressing Confusion: Mark scratched his head, “I don’t understand this at all.”

Direct dialogue helps bring characters to life by allowing them to speak directly to the reader, making the conversation more engaging and relatable.

• She said, “I love chocolate ice cream.”
• She said that she loves chocolate ice cream.
• Tom said, “I will go to the park tomorrow.”
• Tom said that he would go to the park tomorrow.
• Mary exclaimed, “What a beautiful sunset!”
• Mary exclaimed that it was a beautiful sunset.
• He asked, “Can you help me with my homework?”
• He asked if I could help him with his homework.
• They shouted, “Happy Birthday!”
• They shouted that it was a happy birthday.

In indirect dialogue, we use reporting verbs like “said,” “asked,” “exclaimed,” and adjust the tense and pronouns accordingly.

Writing a dialogue involves a few fundamental rules to make it effective and engaging. Here’s a step-by-step guide with examples:

• Identify the Characters:
• Clearly establish who the characters are in the dialogue.
• Example: Sarah and James are sitting in a café.
• Set the Tone:
• Determine the mood or atmosphere of the conversation.
• Example: The air was filled with tension as Sarah hesitated to speak.
• Use Proper Punctuation:
• Include quotation marks to indicate speech.
• Example: Sarah said, “I have something important to tell you.”
• Keep Sentences Short and Simple:
• Avoid long, complicated sentences. People speak in a more straightforward manner.
• Example: “I need your help,” James stated.
• Show, Don’t Tell:
• Use descriptive language to convey emotions and actions.
• Example: Sarah sighed, “I’ve been feeling lost lately.”
• Add Action Beats:
• Intersperse dialogue with actions to make it dynamic.
• Example: James raised an eyebrow, “Lost? What’s going on?”
• Be Consistent with Character Voices:
• Each character should have a distinct way of speaking.
• Example: Sarah spoke softly, “I didn’t expect things to get so complicated.”
• Include Interruptions and Pauses:
• Mimic natural speech patterns with interruptions and pauses.
• Example: James interrupted, “Complicated? How so?”
• Avoid Information Dumps:
• Provide information gradually, avoiding long monologues.
• Example: Sarah hesitated, “Well, you see, it’s about the job offer I got…”
• If appropriate, use dialects or slang to make dialogue authentic.
• Example: James grinned, “You’re gonna rock that job, no doubt!”
• Conclude the dialogue with a purpose or a question, encouraging continuation.
• Example: Sarah smiled, “I hope so. What do you think I should do?”
• Read through the dialogue, ensuring clarity and relevance.
• Example: James pondered, “Maybe take the job and see where it leads?”

Remember, the key to writing engaging dialogue is to make it sound natural and true to the characters. Experiment with different styles until you find what works best for your story or scene.

Examples of Dialogue Writing

To help you learn how to write dialogue, here are some examples from well-known novels, plays, films and television shows.

• Elizabeth Bennet: “You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”
• Hamlet: “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them.”
• Rick Blaine: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
• Don Vito Corleone: “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
• Chandler Bing: “Could there be more pressure on this jam?”
• Walter White: “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.”
• Andy Dufresne: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
• President Josiah Bartlet: “What’s next?”
• Rhett Butler: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
• Tony Soprano: “It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that and I know. But lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.”

These examples showcase the diversity of dialogue in different genres and mediums. Each line is memorable and contributes to the overall impact of the story or character. Studying such examples can offer insights into effective dialogue writing and characterization.

1. From “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994): Scene: Andy Dufresne and Red are talking in the prison yard.

Andy: You know, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Red: Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

Andy: Well, I guess I’m gonna have to be insane then, because I have hope. Hope that one day you’ll see those bars, and you’ll say, “I was in Shawshank.”

2. From “Friends” (TV Series): Scene: Chandler and Joey are in their apartment, having a conversation about relationships.

Chandler: You know, it’s always better to be the one who loves less than to be the one who’s loved.

Joey: Says who?

Chandler: Says everyone. It’s like relationship law.

Joey: Well, maybe I’m not a love expert, but the more you love someone, the crazier you’re willing to act for them.

Chandler: Oh, so you’re saying love makes you crazy?

Joey: No, man, love makes you want to do crazy, stupid, ridiculous stuff. There’s a difference.

3. From “The Dark Knight” (2008): Scene: Batman and the Joker are having a conversation in an interrogation room.

Joker: You have nothing, nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength.

Batman: Don’t worry. I’m gonna tell them the whole thing was your idea.

Joker: Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it. You know, I just… do things.

Batman: You’re garbage who kills for money.

Joker: Don’t talk like you’re one of them! You’re not, even if you’d like to be. To them, you’re just a freak, like me. They need you right now, but when they don’t, they’ll cast you out, like a leper!

These dialogues are memorable moments from iconic movies and TV shows.

Dialogue writing is the creation of conversation between characters in a narrative, such as a story, script, or play. It serves to advance the plot, reveal character traits, and engage the audience.

In English, use double quotation marks to enclose spoken words. Punctuation like commas and periods go inside the quotation marks, and each new speaker gets a new paragraph.

To make dialogue sound natural, listen to real conversations, pay attention to speech patterns, and avoid overly formal language. Use contractions, pauses, and interruptions to mimic real-life speech.

Dialogue serves several purposes, including advancing the plot, developing characters, providing information, creating tension, and engaging readers or viewers on an emotional level.

Use unique speech patterns, vocabulary, and tone for each character. Consider their background, experiences, and motivations to shape how they express themselves in conversation.

Instead of repeatedly using “he said” or “she said,” incorporate action beats and context to indicate the speaker. This makes dialogue flow more naturally and reduces redundancy.

Avoid unrealistic dialogue, excessive exposition, overly formal language, and lack of conflict. Also, be mindful of each character having a distinct voice and purpose in the conversation.

Dialogue length varies, but it should be concise and purposeful. Break it up with action and description to maintain a balance and prevent it from becoming monotonous.

While dialects or accents can add authenticity, use them sparingly to avoid making the dialogue difficult to understand. Clearly convey the character’s speech without sacrificing clarity.

Focus on subtext, create tension, and let characters speak with intention. Show, don’t tell, and use dialogue to reveal emotions and conflicts, making it a dynamic and integral part of your narrative.

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Home » Blog » How to Write Dialogue that Engages Readers in 9 Steps

How to Write Dialogue that Engages Readers in 9 Steps

TABLE OF CONTENTS

As a writer, you need to constantly improve your writing and draft. You need to work on characters, plot, and story to create your best work. This includes how to develop characters, what writing software to use, and importantly, how to write dialogue.

Dialogues are essential for writing and are the backbone of your story. No New York Times bestseller ever made the list with bad dialogue.

Lauren Grodstein says:

“I like writing dialogue – I can hear my characters so clearly that writing dialogue often feels as much like transcribing something as it does like creating it.”

If you want to hear your characters and if you want to have your readers hear them, you should know how to write dialogue in a book, script, or short story. Dialogues make your story interesting, they hook readers, they make your writing reader-friendly, and have several other benefits (discussed below).

So how to incorporate dialogue in your book? How to write them? What steps you should follow to write a great book with compelling dialogue?

All these and many other questions will be answered in this in-depth and actionable guide on how to write dialogue, good dialogue examples, their benefits, and more.

By the time you’ll finish reading this guide, you’ll become a better writer than you are now as the writing tips are useful and valuable.

What is Dialogue?

Dialogue is a conversion between two or more characters. The purpose of dialogue is to exchange information. It isn’t meant to convince someone. Dialogue in writing is two-way communication that’s cooperative and is meant for the exchange of information.

There are several reasons you should use dialogue in your book and how to write a conversation that will keep readers engaged and persuade them to keep reading.

The major benefits of using dialogue in your book are covered in the next section.

The Benefits of Writing Dialogue in Your Book

The leading benefits of writing dialogue in your book are:

• Grabs attention
• Character development
• Information
• Advance your story

1. Dialogue Grabs Attention

Using dialogue in your story helps you grab the reader’s attention. Interesting conversation is something that readers love. What you can achieve with a dialogue (even a short one), you can’t do the same without dialogue.

A story without dialogue will get boring. To hook readers, you have to add dialogue in your book. You need to master how to write a conversation in your book and that’s what makes all the difference.

Here is an example from The Secret History by Donna Tartt :

‘It was Julian and Henry. Neither of them had heard me come up the stairs. Henry was leaving; Julian was standing at the open door. His brow was furrowed and he looked very somber, as if he were saying something of the gravest importance […].

Julian finishes speaking. He looked away for a moment, then bit his lower lip and looked up at Henry.

Then Henry spoke. His words were low but deliberate and distinct. ‘Should I do what is necessary?’

To my surprise, Julian took both Henry’s hands in his own. ‘You should only, ever, do what is necessary,’ he said.’

The suspense Tartt developed with dialogue couldn’t be done without dialogue. It shows an agreement between Julian and Henry which, in the absence of dialogue, wouldn’t be possible to communicate effectively.

This is what makes dialogues so crucial for your story. If you’re ever stuck on finding a good piece of dialogue, try using a writing prompt generator . This will give you some random ideas that may just spark an entire scene or conversation.

2. Character Development

You can write pages upon pages to describe your character or you can use a simple dialogue to show readers everything about your character. Here is an example :

Reported speech: He asked her what she was doing. Dialogue 1: “What’cha doin’?” Dialogue 2: “What the bloody hell are you doing?” Dialogue 3: “W-w-w-what are y-y-you doing?” Dialogue 4: “If I may be so bold, may I ask what the young Miss is doing?” Dialogue 5: “By the bloody battleaxe of the war god Sarnis, what on earth are you up to now?”

You can describe your character in a single sentence with a dialogue. The way your characters speak, what language they use, what words they use, how often they speak, etc. helps you develop your characters and it helps your readers better understand the characters.

You don’t have to put a lot of hard work into explaining who, what, why, and how about your characters if you know how to write dialogue in a story.

3. Information

Dialogues let you share information with the readers. You can share information related to moods, personalities, history, and any other important or even unimportant information via dialogues. Readers get the information unconsciously while reading and they don’t feel burdened.

That’s the beauty of dialogues.

Most importantly, the back story can be best explained through dialogue. If you narrate a back story, it will get boring and readers might lose interest. On the other hand, if the same backstory is expressed in the form of a conversation between two characters, it gets a whole lot more interesting. It then becomes a story in the true sense.

Here is a perfect dialogue example by Tennessee Williams from A Streetcar Named Desire:

“Who do you think you are? A pair of queens? Now just remember what Huey Long said—that every man’s a king—and I’m the king around here, and don’t you forget it!” Again, Stanley wants to undermine Blanche to Stella when he reminds her of the good times the two had before Blanche arrived:

“Listen, baby, when we first met—you and me—you thought I was common. Well, how right you were! I was as common as dirt. You showed me a snapshot of the place with them columns, and I pulled you down off them columns, and you loved it, having them colored lights goin’! And weren’t we happy together? Wasn’t it all OK? Till she showed up here. Hoity-toity, describin’ me like an ape.”

Stanley is sharing information about his past and the writer uses dialogue to share the backstory and other relevant information that doesn’t sound like information. This is one powerful reason you should learn how to write dialogues.

4. Realistic

Dialogues make your story realistic. That’s how the world we live in works. We talk. We have conversations, big and small. Generally, we are always involved in some kind of conversation in our lives.

So if you wish to write a story that’s natural and depicts our real world, you need dialogues. It will make your story more organic and it will be easier for the readers to connect with your plot.

5. Advance Your Story

Perhaps the best feature of using dialogue in your writing is that it helps you move the story forward. When you narrate the story, it complicates it as compared to using dialogues that make your job easier.

Here is a dialogue example that moves the story forward by sharing important information with the readers:

The writer explained the situation and advanced the story in a few dialogues. The same could have taken two paragraphs or maybe more if it were to be done without dialogues.

Dialogues help you convey emotions and describe the complete scene without using too many words. This is the real beauty of using them and that’s why you need to know how to write dialogue in a book.

How to Write Dialogue in a Book

Follow these steps to write dialogue in your book:

• Have a purpose for the dialogue
• Differentiate characters
• Use conflict
• Be consistent
• Keep dialogues natural
• Keep dialogues short
• Improve flow
• Check formatting and punctuation
• Recheck and edit

Step #1: Dialogue Purpose

You should use dialogues for a purpose. They should have a reason.

Not all types of writing need to have dialogues. You can’t fit them anywhere based on your liking. That’s not how it works and that’s not how it will work.

The decision to use dialogue in your writing should be logical and must be purpose-driven. The first thing you should do is ask yourself the following questions:

Do I really need a dialogue here?

If so, what is its purpose?

Can I go without a dialogue?

Will it make any difference if I add a dialogue?

Generally, novels and fiction writing need dialogues. Non-fiction, on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily need dialogues. But there isn’t any rule. You’re the best judge. It’s your book so you have to decide rationally what makes more sense – and why.

To make things simple for you, you should use dialogue in your book if it meets one of the conditions:

• Dialogue should provide information that otherwise would be tough to narrate
• Dialogue needs to improve the characterization
• Dialogue is moving the story forward

These are the three primary purposes of using dialogue in your book. It should meet at least one of the conditions above. If it does none of the above, you don’t necessarily need dialogue and you’d be fine without it.

For instance, George Eliot in her novel Middlemarch used the following dialogue between the two sisters and set them apart. The following dialogue shows the difference between the two characters:

Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. “O Dodo, you must keep the cross yourself.”

“No, no, dear, no,” said Dorothea, putting up her hand with careless deprecation.”

“Yes, indeed you must; it would suit you – in your black dress, now,” said Celia, insistingly. “You might wear that.” “Not for the world, not for the world. A cross is the last thing I would wear as a trinket.” Dorothea shuddered slightly. “Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it,” said Celia, uneasily. “No, dear, no,” said Dorothea, stroking her sister’s cheek.

This character differentiation couldn’t be achieved without dialogue. And that’s how you should ensure that dialogues in your story have a specific purpose.

The easiest way to figure out if your dialogue has a purpose is by removing it. If the story still makes sense after removing a specific dialogue, it has no purpose and should be removed. If, however, the story doesn’t make sense anymore or the message gets distorted, you should retain it.

As a writer, you’re the judge and you should define the purpose and reason of the dialogue before you initiate a conversation.

Step #2: Differentiate Characters

One of the first things you need to understand while learning how to write dialogue is to set your characters apart using dialogue. You can write several pages explaining different characteristics of the characters which might not work well as opposed to a dialogue.

You can express several types of important information about your characters via dialogue such as:

• The character’s background and accent
• Character’s personality, mood, feelings, thoughts, and other traits by the tone and word selection
• How often a character speaks and information on whether he/she is introverted or extrovert

Dialogue helps you define your characters and differentiate them from one another. If you are writing a novel or a screenplay , I’m sure you know how important character development is and what role it plays in novel writing .

You should use dialogue to differentiate characters, set them apart, and for character development. You should also use dialogue to describe changes in motives, feelings, and intentions as the story moves forward. When these changes are conveyed via dialogue, it makes them more meaningful and notable as opposed to the writer narrating the changes a character is going through.

Here is an example from Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White :

“Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

“Out to the hog house,” replied Mrs. Arable. “Some pigs were born last night.”

“I don’t see why he needs an ax,” continued Fern, who was only eight. 

“Well,” said her mother, “one of the pigs is a runt. It’s very small and weak, and it will never amount to anything. So your father has decided to do away with it.”

“Do away with it?” shrieked Fern. “You mean kill it? Just because it’s smaller than the others?”

Mrs. Arable put a pitcher of cream on the table. “Don’t yell, Fern!” she said. “Your father is right. The pig would probably die anyway.”

The difference in their personalities is evident- no line of dialogue is out of character. This is a perfect way to use dialogue to differentiate characters and who they are.

Use Squibler’s AI tools to create new characters, settings, and objects. You can also develop your elements by adding descriptions and visuals. Then Squibler lets you seamlessly integrate the characters into your dialogues and narrative as you create chapters and scenes.

Step #3: use conflict.

Imagine your characters are sitting on a couch spending time watching birds in the sky. You can narrate the scene and explain it in detail. You can add dialogue but if everything is moving smoothly and there isn’t anything new or conflicting, what’s the point of having a dialogue?

It won’t add value.

When dialogue doesn’t add value, it should be removed. This is the first rule.

And when there is a conflict or disagreement between two or more characters at any level and of any kind, there has to be a dialogue. This rule is really important.

When there isn’t any conflict and everything is pleasing and normal, and the dialogue doesn’t raise the eyebrows of the readers, they will start losing interest. The fact is: We all do chitchat and conversations in our daily lives that have no purpose. That’s fine.

But if you do the same in your novel will bore your readers. It doesn’t just work.

This is why you must learn how to write dialogue that uses conflict between two characters. It doesn’t have to be severe conflict rather it should be two opposing views. If you’re not using conflict and the dialogue doesn’t advance the story, you don’t need one.

That makes sense, right?

Things, however, get challenging when there isn’t any conflict and the conversation is pleasant and lively. You can’t skip it. That’s also a part of the novel because removing these types of pleasant conversations from your story will ruin it.

What do you do to narrate lively conversations?

You need to keep these conversations brief. Better yet, narrate them. This is something you have to learn. This is why reading is crucial if you want to become a better writer. Check dialogue examples from other writers and see how they write dialogue when characters are happy and when there is a conflict.

You’ll notice that pleasant conversations are kept to a minimum while conflicts are covered in detail because stories rely on conflicts and that’s how it moves forward. When everything is fine and there aren’t any conflicts, that’s the end of the story.

Here is an example from Fat City by Leonard Gardner:

“That’s a good one.” Tully placed the meat in the black encrusted frying pan, pushing in the edge of fat until the steak lay flat.

“I heard what you said.”

“Then why’d you ask?”

“You think I’m lying to you.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You don’t trust me, do you?”

“All I’m trying to do,” said Tully, now opening a can of peas, “is make us our supper.”

It is a perfect example of how to use dialogue to create conflict in your characters and move the story forward.

Use Squibler if you lack at building more conflict and adding more depth. With advanced AI technology, you can select a certain section of your dialogue and command Squibler to add more conflict and intensity to it and see how your work unfolds before your eyes in a matter of seconds. 

Step #4: Be Consistent

One of the basic lessons of dialogue writing that you’ll learn in every book or screenwriting course on how to write dialogue and how to write a conversation is that dialogues need to be consistent. That is, it keeps characters consistent throughout the book unless you want to depict a change in a character’s behavior.

This means the words your character uses, his attitude, personality, taste, feelings, and language should be consistent. Make them as humane as possible. That’s the key to bringing a story to life.

After spending time with someone, you can anticipate their reaction to a situation and you can anticipate their behavior. This is what exactly readers do. They anticipate the reaction of your characters.

How do you get to know you’re being consistent in dialogue writing?

If readers can anticipate the reaction of your characters, you’re doing a great job. If dialogue surprises them, readers will lose interest. It will become confusing.

Sometimes, it’s essential to keep a character or two mysterious. And that’s fine. When you have such a character, readers expect a different response from him every time – and that’s what you should do.

The thing is: Readers expect characters to behave in a certain way. This expectation is developed by dialogue, narration, and the plot. You need to ensure that the dialogue is consistent and is as per readers’ expectations that you have developed in your book.

The tone, word choice, structure, language, voice, etc. need to be consistent with the character’s personality and with the situation they’re dealing with. If a character is talking to a stranger, he will use a different tone as compared to when he is talking to his wife. You can use the same tone.

Consistency isn’t just relevant to the character but it should be relevant to the situation, the character he is talking to, and the scenario.

Use Squibler to develop your writing piece and the AI technology lets you seamlessly maintain the consistency of character traits and plot elements. You can store all the characteristics in elements next to your editor and later recall the character with just their name and the AI will develop the content based on the ongoing dialogue and traits you provided. AI takes care of the matter, and this way you put less focus on maintaining consistency and more time into writing the story. 

Step #5: Keep Dialogues Natural

While you’re trying to be consistent with the character’s personality and scene, it is equally important to keep dialogues natural as people communicate generally daily.

For instance, you need to use slang appropriately as people use slang all the time. Here is an example of how to make dialogue appear natural and realistic:

Jenna Moreci has created a slang for the novel which fits perfectly.

Make sure dialogues don’t appear alien to the readers. For instance, if you use formal language, it won’t fit well because people don’t use formal language.

Here is an example :

People don’t talk like this. Writing dialogue like this will make readers roll their eyes from boredom.

An easy approach to keeping your dialogues natural and realistic is to listen to how people talk. Spend time in a park or a hotel lobby and record snippets of conversations people have. You can even visit a high school to learn how teenagers talk. You’ll be able to figure out how people talk and communicate. Alternately, check dialogue examples from top authors. See how they make dialogues realistic and world-like.

Needless to say, you don’t have to keep dialogues natural and realistic all the time. You have to, at times, switch to unrealistic dialogues. This is something that fiction writers do a lot especially when they build a new world.

Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, you have to adjust dialogue accordingly. At the end of the day though, speech patterns need to stay consistent otherwise characters will lose believability.

Step #6: Keep Dialogue Short

If there is one thing all new writers should know about how to write dialogue, it’s this: Keep them short.

As much as you can.

Here is what Nigel Watts says about dialogues:

“Dialogue is like a rose bush – it often improves after pruning. I recommend you rewrite your dialogue until it is as brief as you can get it. This will mean making it quite unrealistically to the point. That is fine. Your readers don’t want realistic speech, they want talk which spins the story along.”

Why keep it concise?

To make it reader-friendly. When you cut the dialogue, it might not appear realistic because that’s not how people talk. So there is a fine line between realistic dialogues and short dialogues.

You have to write dialogue like it sounds in real life and then shorten it. Remove anything and everything excessive. Get rid of the unnecessary stuff, that once removed doesn’t change the meaning of the dialogue.

Try shortening the dialogue as much as you can. This is something that you’ll learn with time. Practice. Check dialogue examples.

Here is an example. Check the following dialogue that’s not shortened.

Now here is a revised version of the same dialogue:

Both versions have the same meaning. Readers don’t miss anything. That’s what you have to do with your dialogues. Keep them short. This is one of the basic lessons on how to write dialogue in a book.

Here is what you should do to make dialogue concise. Small talk may happen in real life, but it’s not necessary to include it in your novel. It halts the flow and doesn’t add much value.

Edit dialogues multiple times during the editing process. If you use editing software , make sure you edit dialogues manually and make them short. Once you’re done, ask someone else to reduce the word count of the dialogues. Finally, compare the original version with the new version and see if they still deliver the same message.

Avoiding common mistakes like fluffy dialogue is paramount to a good story. 

Use Squibler if you struggle with writing compact and natural dialogue. You can write however you want not worrying about the errors and mistakes, and then select the text and ask AI to rewrite it or summarize based on your instructions. It will generate the dialogue exactly according to your instructions. 

Step #7: Improve Flow

If you have ever written a book or a novel and have used book editing software , I’m sure you’ll know the importance of flow in writing. Dialogues are no different. The flow of the dialogues needs to be taken care of specifically. You need to master how to write dialogue that flows well and can be read effortlessly.

What does dialogue flow mean?

It means the dialogue should flow logically and the readers don’t have to put an effort to understand anything. It should move from one character to another smoothly.

There are several ways to improve the flow of the dialogues such as:

• Improve dialogue tags. Too many or too few tags (e.g. she said, he asked, etc.) ruin the flow. Always tag a piece of dialogue when it’s the first time a character is speaking in the conversation, but refrain from adding tags in every single line as it gets too monotonous. Using too few dialogue tags isn’t a good idea either as readers will have to move back after a few lines to identify whose line they’re reading. There has to be a balance. Be smart with tags.
• Describe the character’s actions as to what they’re doing. That makes dialogue natural and that’s the correct way on how to write a conversation in a book. Naturally, when people talk, they’re always doing something like staring at the wall, playing with the key, chopping vegetables, etc. These are the actions that you should explicitly mention to make dialogues appear natural and to improve flow.
• Don’t add long lengthy paragraphs in dialogue. This ruins the flow. And it never happens. When a person is talking continuously, you have to mention the action of the other person. For instance, add umm, ahh, I see, etc. to maintain the flow and to avoid large paragraphs of text.

Follow these three steps to improve the flow of your dialogues and you’ll be able to write better dialogues that make sense.

If you want to enhance the flow in a matter of seconds without much effort, use Squibler’s advanced AI tools that are modeled in a way that maintains the integrity of the dialogue and keeps the plot binging. 

Step #8: Check Formatting and Punctuation

You can’t hook a reader with poorly formatted and punctually incorrect dialogue. It won’t happen. If you want to know how to write dialogue, you also need to learn how to format dialogue and how to punctuate dialogue.

Here are a few basic punctuating rules that you should always stick with when formatting dialogue:

• Add comma and period within the quotation marks.
• Use a comma between the dialogue and the tag.
• Double quotation marks are used for regular dialogue.
• Use single quotation marks if you have to use a quotation inside a dialogue. Single quotes help the quote stand out within the dialogue.
• When quotations extend and move to another paragraph, don’t close it at the end of the first paragraph rather close it towards the end of the last paragraph.
• Start a new paragraph for new lines of dialogue.
• Em dashes can be used instead of a comma at times for extra emphasis. This also creates variety and improves readability. 
• Pay attention to the proper use of uppercase and lowercase letters when appropriate.
• If you’re ending the dialogue with ellipses, don’t add any other punctuation. 

Poorly written dialogues don’t make sense. When the punctuation isn’t correct, it will ruin the flow and the meaning too. For instance, inner dialogues are put in italics and if you aren’t putting them in italics, readers won’t know if they’re inner dialogues.

Simple things like a period, question mark, and exclamation point all need to be placed perfectly. Basic errors like these are inexcusable.  These types of mistakes can change the meaning and context of the book altogether.

Great dialogue starts with perfect dialogue punctuation and formatting.

If you use an editing tool like Grammarly , it will identify the formatting and punctuation-related issues. However, you’ll still need to go through it manually because there are several errors that the software can’t identify and fix.

The best approach is to check dialogue formatting and punctuation as you write. Once you finish writing your novel or screenplay, you can then go through all the dialogues to check their formatting and punctuation.

Step #9: Recheck and Edit

This is the last step in the dialogue writing process where you have to check dialogues for errors. You can set a schedule as to when you need to recheck written dialogue. You can do it daily, weekly, monthly, or after completing a specific word count or chapter-wise.

But you should do it regularly as you write.

What to check?

Everything ranging from character development to story to flow to dialogue length to formatting. The best approach is to check dialogues individually for Step #1 to Step #8. This will perfect dialogues and your book leaving no room for errors.

Using a writing tool like Squibler will make it easier for you to recheck and edit dialogues as managing your draft gets easier. You can easily edit and tweak your document and keep track of the changes.

In the end, it all comes down to how you write dialogue and how you format dialogue. It’s difficult to tell if you’ve written effective dialogue until readers have gotten their hands on it. All you can do is arm yourself with the best information and write the best dialogue you can. 

Spice Up Conversations with Dialogue

Dialogue is essential for fiction writing and if you’re a fiction writer, you should master the art of writing dialogue. It’s an asset to your writing skills.

What you can achieve with dialogue can’t be achieved otherwise. Dialogue gives life to your manuscript. Dialogue gives life to your characters. Dialogue helps you grab the reader’s attention. Dialogue makes your story easy to understand.

You can’t ignore the importance and usefulness of dialogues in writing. I’m confident these 9 steps on how to write dialogue will help you write better novels , screenplays, and books for your readers.

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What is Dialogue? (How to Write, Examples, Grammar, Tips)

What is dialogue in writing? What are examples of dialogue in writing? What are examples of dialogue conversations? Often, writers use dialogue to show how characters relate to one another. The idea of dialogue is mostly how it sounds, conversation (or small talk). Though, most often, characters in a story will have dialogue with each other. And it’s important to learn how they should get written and what the best forms of dialogue are to make your readers comprehend the subject .

What Is Dialogue?

A dialogue is nothing more than an exchange of words between two or more people.

To be precise, the word “dialogue” comes from the Greek word “dialogos.” “Dia” means “through,” and “logos” means “word” or “reason.”

Plato likened dialogue to a stream of meaning flowing between and through people, which would emerge new meanings or understandings. He introduced philosophy to the masses through his dialogues, which you can read more about here .

Renowned painter Erik Pevernagie once said, “A world without dialogue is a universe of darkness.”

He strongly believed that sharing your views and ideas through dialogue allows you to understand the world and appreciate its beauty.

Dialogue is the most fundamental way that human beings communicate. 

In literature, dialogue is what allows us to see characters fight, debate, love, and reconcile with one another.

Famous Examples of Dialogue From Literature

The maltese falcon – dashiell hammett (dialogue example).

Spade grinned sidewise at her and said, “You’re good. You’re very good.”

Her face did not change. 

She asked quietly, “What did he say?”

“About what?”

She hesitated. 

“About me .”

“Nothing.” 

Spade turned to hold his lighter under the end of her cigarette. His eyes were shiny in a wooden Satan’s face.

To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee (Dialogue Example)

“What are you all playing?” he asked.

“Nothing,” said Jem.

Jem’s evasion told me our game was a secret, so I kept quiet.

“What are you doing with those scissors, then ? Why are you tearing up that newspaper? If it’s today’s, I’ll tan you.”

“Nothing, what?” said Atticus.

“Nothing, sir.”

“Give me those scissors,” Atticus said. “They’re no things to play with. 

There are too many passages in books filled with dialogues worth quoting. You can read more here .

How to Write Dialogue (in a story or otherwise)

Different authors have different opinions on what makes a piece of dialogue click . But there are general rules you must keep in mind to ensure your dialogue is easily understood and leaves an emotional impact on readers.

1. Use quotation marks to end and begin your dialogue.

“Like this?” 

“Exactly so.”

Quotation marks are where your character’s voice begins. This simple bit of punctuation brings life to a dull block of prose that would otherwise be soulless and characterless.

“That was easy enough. So what’s next?”

Closing quotation marks should end the single dialogue in the lines of dialogue that make up the conversation between two characters.

2. Keep your dialogue tags outside the quotation marks.

A dialogue tag is what tells your readers that a line of dialogue belongs to a specific speaker.

“Is this what you mean?” asked Alice.

“That is exactly what I mean,” said Bob, nodding.

“What about this asked Alice?”

“Now I have no idea how to read what you said,” said Bob.

3. Keep your punctuation inside the quotation marks.

As a rule of thumb, if you write the dialogue tag first, you want to bring the comma before the quotation mark .

But what if you use an exclamation mark or a question mark?

“Like this one?” asked Bob.

“Yes, exactly like that,“ said Alice.

In this situation, you write the following dialogue tag in lowercase instead of uppercase. 

“Oh, God , punctuation! My mortal enemy!” said Alice, shaking her fist at the skies.

Very good, Alice.

Tip: If your line of dialogue ends in an exclamation point or question mark, the tags that follow should be in lowercase.

3. Use a separate sentence for actions that happen before and after your dialogues.

Any action or movement should be given its own sentence next to your dialogue.

Alice gasped, dropping her glass onto the floor. It shattered into a million pieces.

“That sounds complicated!”

Bob gasped, clapping a hand over his mouth.

“My rug! My expensive wine!”

4. Never use double quotes inside dialogue. Use single quotes instead.

If your character is quoting someone else, make sure you use single quotes, or your text will quickly get confusing.

“I remember a nice Englishman that once said, ‘To be or not to be,’” said Bob, “But I don’t remember the question.”

5. Indicate new speakers with new paragraphs.

Every time you change a speaker, you must start a new paragraph. If you are writing a manuscript, you must also indent the paragraph.

If your character performs an action, keep the action in the same paragraph. Only then should you move to the following line in the next paragraph when you bring in your new speaker.

“We’re all out of wine!” said Alice. She pointed at the empty bottle in her hands.

“Can you please not break any more glasses?” said Bob as he gingerly picked up pieces of shattered glass with gloved hands.

6. Every time an action interrupts your dialogue, begin with lowercase again.

“At the end of the day,” Alice whispered to herself, placing the bottle tenderly on the table, “why does all the wine disappear?”

7. Indicate an interruption with an em dash.

Em dashes are not the same as hyphens. They are used to show readers that a line of dialogue has been cut off mid-sentence.

You should always place your dash inside the quotation marks, just as you would with all other punctuation marks . If you’d like a refresher on the difference between an em dash and a hyphen , read this . 

Bob returned with a new wine bottle in hand.

“This is a 1787 Chateau Lafite Rothschild,” said Bob, unable to keep the pride out of his voice, “it belonged to my—“

“Gimme!” said Alice, grabbing the bottle from his hands.

Writing Dialogue: Identifying a Speaker

Not all dialogue needs dialogue question.

“Yes. Really.”

But when you use a dialogue question, you must use a comma. You must place a comma, quotation, and dialogue tag, in that order.

Any punctuation in the sentence must come inside the quotes.

“You know,” said Alice, “I think I’m starting to get the hang of this.”

What if you don’t want to put the dialogue tag in the middle of the sentence? You must identify the speaker in advance by bringing attention to an action or gesture before writing their dialogue.

Bob sighed, settling into this chair.

“I’m happy to hear that, Alice.”

Sometimes, you will identify the speaker explicitly.

“And by explicit, you mean telling the reader outright who is speaking, right?” said Alice.

Sometimes, you will identify the speaker implicitly.

“That is exactly what that means, Alice, dear, yes.”

The above dialogue does not have the speaker referenced by name. But with the help of context and preceding dialogue, we can tell exactly who is speaking.

At other times, we will identify the speaker through anaphora.

“What does anaphora mean?” asked the clumsy yet enthusiastic lady.

“It means indirectly identifying the speaker without using their name, dear,” came the unhappy man’s response.

Other times, you can identify the speaker even when a dialogue tag is not used. This happens when the dialogue directly refers to the person being spoken to, making the speaker obvious.

“I’m referring to you now, Alice.”

“I know, Bob, you don’t have to tell me.”

Readers get tired of the whole “he said,” “she said,” business if it’s overdone. You want to juggle different methods of identifying the speaker as you write, making sure to sprinkle in clues about who the speaker is.

This prevents stale and overdone writing. It adds spice to an otherwise repetitive piece of prose and breathes life into the text.

How To Format Dialogue (Formatting Dialogue Examples)

When writing a manuscript, begin the first line of each paragraph indented. 

If using British English, use single quotation marks.

If using American English, use double quotation marks.

But whatever the region, enclose the spoken words inside the quotation marks.

“Quotes are the best way to tell your readers someone is talking.“

“I know, Alice.”

“Why do Americans use double quotes instead of single quotes, Bob?”

Bob shrugged.

“That’s just the way it is. The same reason the English add the letter ‘u’ in many of their words while Americans don’t.”

(If you’d like to read an expert’s opinion on why different regions use single and double quotes, read this )

Always keep dialogue tag/questions out of your quotes

“But enough about grammar , Alice,” said Bob, sinking into his chair. 

“Look at the nice weather we’re having.”

“I can see the sun for once, yes,” said Alice.

“What a sight to behold,” said Bob, smiling.

Don’t forget to use lowercase when following up a dialogue tag that has a quotation or exclamation mark.

“On the whole, this has been a surprisingly good day, don’t you think?” said Alice.

“Except for the part where you spilled my expensive wine all over the carpet!” shouted Bob.

There was a pause as Alice sank into her chair.

Make sure that all actions before and after the dialogue go into a separate sentence.

Alice placed the glass to her lips.

“Hey, this isn’t half bad !”

Bob smiled, pointing to the bottle he’d set on the table.

“It was my grandfather’s. I’m glad you like it.”

Make sure to place all punctuation inside the quotes

“I’m sorry ,” said Alice, setting her glass down, “I was just excited.”

“No, no,” said Bob, waving a dismissive hand, “don’t worry about it.”

The ellipsis deserves a special mention here. If you end any dialogue with an ellipsis, make sure not to add further punctuation, such as a comma after it. (For some extra tips on formatting your dialogue, read this .)

For instance, you would never write:

“I miss granddad…,” said Bob, his eyes misting over.

You would instead write:

“I miss granddad…” said Bob, his eyes misting over.

Always place single quotes within double quotes when referencing something from an outside source. This includes famous proverbs, cliches, and dialogues that other characters in your story have used in the past .

“’Save it for a special one, boyo,’” said Bob, smiling, “that’s what my granddad said when he gave me that.”

Start a new paragraph when changing speakers.

“What’s special about today?” said Alice, tilting her head. 

“You don’t remember?” said Bob.

“No,” said Alice.

“Are you serious?” said Bob.

Alice frowned, trying to remember. She looked up at him and shrugged.

Writing Compelling Dialogue

1. subtext is king..

People in real life often have wide gaps between what they say and think. There are also gaps between what a character understands and what they refuse to hear.

Two characters that know each other often have more unspoken dialogue than spoken dialogue. These are vital and valuable territories that writers can take advantage of to create drama and tension. 

2. Good dialogue advances the plot and reveals character.

Characters speak for a reason. Desire forces characters to interact; through this interaction, we witness the unraveling of events and scenarios.

These events either push them away or toward achieving the story’s primary goal. Dialogue is also best to show how your characters feel instead of just telling your readers how they feel. You introduce context through dialogue and use it to reveal how a character thinks about someone.

3. Dialogue reflects your character’s background.

Each person has their way of speaking. A brute and a scientist have noticeably different syntaxes of speech where readers can peer into their thought processes by examining the words they use and how they say them.

Social class, upbringing, personality, and coping mechanisms also factor into how a character speaks.

4. Keep your dialogue tags simple. 

The most straightforward dialogue tags are often the best. While many critics believe that writers should never use words other than “said,” others believe it’s okay to have a little variety.

A few dialogue tags like “called” or “muttered” can be illustrative and draw attention to critical moments and emotions.

Others believe mentioning a single adverb is an outright sin, but they have their place in descriptive prose. You can read more about writing engaging dialogue here .

Internal Monologue Versus External Dialogue

An internal monologue is nothing more than the character’s innermost thoughts that the writer is exposing to the audience. This monologue contains the character’s voice and serves as a way for readers to understand the character’s thought processes better.

This monologue does not reveal every thought the character has but is used to display selective emotions and thought processes in response to meaningful story events. 

An internal monologue is not omniscient in the same way that a narrator’s exposition is. 

External dialogue is the words exchanged between two or more characters. These are words that are being spoken out loud.

This dialogue is often accompanied by dialogue tags, action tags, and descriptions. 

If you’d like to learn more about how to create a compelling internal monologue, read this .

How to Punctuate Dialogue Correctly

Literary dialogue has its own rules for punctuation. In most instances, commas, periods, question marks, and exclamation marks go inside the quotations.

“It’s a beautiful and happy day today,” he said.

“What a beautiful day!” he said.

“Isn’t this a beautiful day?” he asked.

The one exception to this rule regards question marks.

When a character is referencing a proverb/statement/cliche that contains a question, we place the question mark outside the quotation mark to denote that it is a reference to something.

Did the professor say, “The equation goes here”?

For a more comprehensive list of rules on punctuation, read this .

When and How to Use Quotation Marks in Dialogue

The primary purpose of a quotation mark is to indicate words being spoken by a character or referenced from an outside source.

Using them in literature or formal documentation comes with specific rules. 

• Always use quotation marks in pairs. 
• Always capitalize the first letter of a word used verbatim in a quote.
• Don’t use capital letters when referencing only a fragment of a quote from another source.
• The period or comma always comes before the final quotation mark. The only exception to this is content written explicitly by the Modern Language Association (MLA) style guidelines.

The quotation mark has a long and fascinating history which you can learn more about here .

The Best Books to Learn Dialogue

Emulating the masters is the perfect way for beginners to learn. I’ve compiled this short list of books widely regarded as having some of the best dialogue in fiction.

Once you read these, mimic the style of the masters and add your unique flair to create your style of dialogue.

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
• Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare  
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt

While literary fiction contains some of the best dialogue, screenplays are another source of good dialogue.

Screenplays focus exclusively on dialogue, ignoring literary devices such as descriptions and dialogue tags. You can read more about writing dialogue in screenplays here .

Speak Your Story

Dialogue is an indispensable part of every story. It helps to move a story forward. One character can present new ideas to another. Helping to advance a short story or written novel. Written well helps you create memorable characters and explore fun and dramatic situations.

But poor, overly formal, stilted, or illogical dialogue can quickly drive readers away. The best way to improve your dialogue writing is to talk to more people and read more books.

Read genres out of your comfort zone to see how different stories make characters tick and transform.

”Good morning, Little Red Riding Hood.”

“Good morning, Mr. Wolf.”

“Where are you off so early in the morning?”

“I’m going to my grandma’s with some bread and honey!”

“The dialogue in this movie is more comedy than horror.”

“Socratic dialogue is a conversation between people where questions are constantly asked to make people think critically.”

Inside this article

Fact checked: Content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. Learn more.

About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.

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• Compound Words
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• Common Noun
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• Compound Noun
• Compound Subject
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• Copular Verb
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• Colloquialism
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• Conditional
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Dialogue Writing Examples

A dialogue literally means a talk between two people. It is an exchange of thoughts and opinions on any kind of topic or issue.

A dialogue may either aim to form a concurrence of thought or differentiate one’s point of view from the others.

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The writing of dialogues in English is a useful form of composition for students trying to gain a command of spoken English. In this post, you will find the Top 10 Dialogue Writing Examples.

Dialogue Writing Examples #1

Reporter: Hello, my name is Mr. Thomson. I am a reporter for IBN and would like to meet Mr. Jack.

Secretary: Do you have an appointment?

Reporter: I do not have a formal one, but I spoke to him on the phone and he said that I could come today.

Secretary: You will have to wait for some time since Mr. Jack is in a meeting right now.

Reporter: How long will the meeting last?

Secretary: It should be over in about 15 minutes.

Reporter: That’s fine with me.

Secretary: Would you like some tea or coffee?

Reporter: No, thanks for asking.

Secretary: You’re welcome. Please have a seat. I will let you know as soon as he is free.

Reporter: I appreciate your cooperation.

Also, Read Dialogue Writing Topics

Dialogue Writing Examples #2

Anjuna: Hi Sweta, what a pleasant surprise! It’s a pleasure seeing a school friend after so many years.

Sweta: Indeed it is. How are you and what have you been up to?

Anjuna: I am great. Do you remember the paintings I made for pleasure in school?

Sweta: Yes I do, and I always told you what a great artist you would be one day.

Anjuna: Well, I guess you were right there.

Sweta: What do you mean?

Anjuna: After college, I studied painting at J. K. School of Art and today I am a professional painter.

Sweta: Oh really? That’s great news. I never doubted your potential.

Anjuna: I know, and I believe that the confidence you showed in me was one of the factors which encouraged me to conquer my dreams.

Sweta: Don’t flatter me. This is all the fruit of your hard work.

Anjuna: I am not. Believe me. I never considered my drawings of any consequence. It was you who saw the talent in me and gave me the boost I needed.

Sweta: Well then, I guess I deserve a treat.

Anjuna: You deserve more than that, but a treat is surely in order.

Sweta: Let’s have coffee.

Also, Read Conversation Dialogue Examples for Students

Dialogue Writing Examples #3

Omkar: Hey what are you doing? Would you like to come out to play?

Arvind: No. I’m a little busy right now. I’m writing a story for tomorrow’s storytelling competition.

Omkar: You have been working on that since the last week. How much more will you edit it?

Arvind: It’s a suspense story, Omkar. It has to be perfect or else it will lose its charm.

Omkar: That is true, but I have full faith in your skills. After all, you have been winning this competition for so many years now.

Arvind: That’s true. But that does not give me a reason to be careless with my work, does it?

Omkar: Yes you are right, but overdoing it is also dangerous, don’t you think?

Arvind: What do you mean?

Omkar: I mean you are so focused on this competition that you are neglecting every other thing like food, play, and your studies.

Arvind: I guess you have a point, Omkar. Come on, let’s go out.

Omkar: Finally! Let’s go.

Also, Read Short Dialogue Examples

Dialogue Writing Examples #4

Teacher: Ranita, are you ready for the interschool history quiz?

Ranita: No Miss, I am not. I had jaundice last month, and therefore, I couldn’t prepare for it.

Teacher: You are our best student, Ranita. You have to participate. How long will it take to prepare?

Ranita: Miss, please give me an extension. I am working on it, but I need some more time.

Teacher: Ranita, I would love to give you time. But I’m sorry I cannot; the date for the quiz is finalized by the principals of all the schools participating.

Ranita: I would really love to participate, but I am not prepared and it will be wrong on my part to spoil the school’s name this way.

Teacher: I appreciate your dedication. Also, I am confident that you will be able to do well. You just need to work a little harder. Besides, we are here to help you. Feel free to approach any one of us whenever you need.

Ranita: Thank you for your support, Miss.

Teacher: You are most welcome. Work hard and make us all proud.

Ranita: I’ll try my best, Miss. Thank you once again.

Also, Read How to Write a Dialogue?

Dialogue Writing Examples #5

Priya: Hello! My name is Priya. Can I speak to you for a moment?

Police Officer: Yes, how may I help you?

Priya: I have a robbery to complain about.

Police Officer: What exactly happened?

Priya: My handbag was stolen in the local market this afternoon.

Police Officer: Describe your handbag and give me a list of any important belongings that it contained.

Priya: My handbag is blue. It had my cell phone and about three thousand rupees.

Police Officer: Is that it? Did it have any other things?

Priya: Nothing of much importance. But I need my cell phone; the data in it is extremely important to me.

Police Officer: I will look into the matter and see what I can do. Did you see the thief?

Priya: Yes, I noticed that he was of average height, middle-aged, and wore a dirty grey t-shirt. He had medium-tangled hair and a small bruise over his right eyebrow.

Police Officer: Will you be able to recognize him if we find them?

Priya: I think so.

Police Officer: Okay then. We will call you when we get a lead on him.

Priya: Thank you!

Police Officer: You’re welcome!

You Asked, We Listened – Get Free Access to All Writing Lists 😍😍

Dialogue Writing Examples #6

Bank Manager: Good morning! Please come in. How may I help you?

Raj Singh: Good Morning! I would like to open a savings account with your bank, but I find the process very confusing.

Bank Manager: Please take a seat. The process is very simple actually. All you have to do is fill out a savings account opening form and submit it with photocopies of your ID proofs and two passport-sized photographs.

Raj Singh: Which ID proofs should I get along with?

Bank Manager: We will need one photocopy of each of your ration cards, pan card, and Aadhar card.

Raj Singh: Ok, that sounds easy. Where will I get the account opening form?

Bank Manager: The clerk sitting at the desk opposite the cash counter will give it to you.

Raj Singh: What is the minimum deposit amount for opening an account?

Bank Manager: For a savings account, it is only 500 rupees. However, this amount cannot be withdrawn unless you wish to close your account permanently.

Raj Singh: What are the other facilities that I would be provided if I open an account?

Bank Manager: Apart from your chequebook, SBI will provide you with an ATM/debit card, internet banking, and phone banking facility.

Raj Singh: Thanks a lot! You have really simplified the procedure for me.

Bank Manager: The pleasure is entirely mine.

Dialogue Writing Examples #7

Dr. Sunil: This is the third time in two months you have come to me complaining of stomach ache, Rakesh. Have you been eating frequently from outside?

Rakesh: I have my lunch from the school canteen, doctor.

Dr. Sunil: How is the food in taste and appearance?

Rakesh: The food tastes good, except that it is spicy sometimes. Often, it is soaked in excess oil.

Dr. Sunil: No wonder you are falling sick so often, Rakesh! Eating spicy food regularly upsets your digestive system. Does the oil in the food smell abnormal?

Rakesh: I don’t know really. But yes, my throat often aches after eating a meal that had excess oil.

Dr. Sunil: That is due to the poor quality of oil being used to make the food. Rakesh, you should stop eating from the canteen at once. If possible, eat home-cooked food and for a few weeks only eat light meals.

Rakesh: Okay, doctor. What can I include in my diet for the next few days?

Dr. Sunil: Have home-cooked food with minimum spices. Avoid over-intake of fibrous foods as they are heavy to digest. Have plenty of water and fruit. In a couple of weeks, your system will be back to normal.

Rakesh: Thank you, Doctor. I will avoid eating outside henceforth.

Dr. Sunil: Yes, you should. Here are your medicines. In addition, please also engage in light exercise once a day so that you remain fit.

Rakesh: I will do that, doctor. Thank you for your time and consultation.

Dr. Sunil: Take care and get well soon Rakesh!

Dialogue Writing Examples #8

Mother: Looks like you had a lot of fun at school today. How was the Christmas party?

Riya: It was a truly spectacular mother. The children from the primary section enacted the Christmas story at the assembly.

Mother: Oh! That must have been really beautiful.

Riya: It was! Not only that; after a short speech by our school leader on the significance of Christmas, the school band played carols on their instruments. Mumma, you should have heard them, for a moment I felt like heaven had come down to Earth.

Mother: That does sound exceptional. I understand what you mean. Your school has the reputation for excelling in whatever it does.

Riya: Yes Mumma, it was! After that, we went to our class. There we played games with our teacher. It was great fun. We also had crib-making and classroom decoration competitions.

Mother: So, they kept y’all busy the whole day. Did they give y’all any snacks to eat?

Riya: Yes, they gave us Fruity, samosas, wafers, cake, and chocolates. I got many gifts from Santa Claus as well. He kept throwing them in all directions.

Mother: Well Riya, I’m glad that you had so much fun.

Riya: That I did, wait for Mumma there is more. I forgot to show you the gift I got. Every standard received a different toy. We received Brainvita. Playing this game is so much fun.

Mother: So, I see you opened it in the school itself.

Riya: Yes! Everyone did. We were so engrossed in it that we did not even realize when the bell rang at the end of the day.

Mother: That’s very nice. Be sure to thank your teachers when you go to school next for all the effort they put in.

Dialogue Writing Examples #9

Rajesh: Excuse me, what is your name, sir?

Beggar: My name is Dinesh Kumar. Why do you ask? You don’t need my name to curse me.

Rajesh: I do not wish to curse you, Mr. Kumar. I never saw you here before. You intrigue me; therefore, I want to know more about you. Who are you and why are you begging here?

Beggar: I cannot recollect the last time somebody called me by that name.

Rajesh: Tell me something about yourself.

Beggar: You know my name. Many years ago, I used to be a successful businessman dealing with scrap metals. The business was booming and I was surrounded by friends. I got married to a woman I loved and she bore me two children. I was a very good father fulfilling every desire my children had.

Rajesh: What changed that?

Beggar: I had a daughter and a son. When they got married, things started changing. Both of them vied for my business and property which I bequeathed to them. Once my son had control of my business, he ousted me. My daughter too, whom I gave my palatial house, threw me and my wife out.

Rajesh: Where did you go from there?

Beggar: My friends deserted me since I had no money. So, I begged for a living making enough to buy us two meals a day. My wife eventually succumbed to illnesses leaving me all alone in this world. At this age, I cannot beg. Sometimes I wait for death to catch up with me.

Also, Read How to Write Dialogue Between Two Characters

Dialogue Writing Examples #10

Sushant: Hello! May I speak to Mr. S. Kaushik?

S. Kaushik: Yes, who is this?

Sushant: Hello Sir. My name is Sushant. I saw the advertisement for your activity club in today’s newspaper and would like to enquire more about it.

Mr. Shah: Oh yes! We have recently opened an activity club for children of all age groups. I will be able to explain it to you further if you can tell me what exactly you are looking for.

Sushant: My son has a lot of free time, and since both my wife and I are working we would like to enrol him in a creative club.

S. Kaushik: We would be happy to oblige. What would you like to know?

Sushant: First, where exactly are you located?

Mr. Shah: Our club is located on the ground floor of Pravin Apartments which is about a 2–3 minute walk from the Santa Cruz railway station.

Sushant: Okay, could you give me some more details about the place?

Mr. Shah: We have converted a 1BHK flat into our club area furnished with colourful toys and other amenities . We also have a large garden at the back which can be accessed only through our flat.

Sushant: The place sounds safe enough. What activities do y’all teach?

Mr. Shah: We teach all forms of dance, singing, and craft. It’s an extensive list. I suggest you visit us once since it is impossible for me to list everything we do on a call.

Sushant: Okay, I will do that. Thank you for the information. I will call you back once I make up my mind.

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• Dialogue Writing

What is Dialogue Writing?

If you want to write a story, dialogues are a very important part of the story. Writing a good dialogue requires a set of rules to follow because a bad dialogue can change the story and the dialogue’s meaning as well. Dialogue writing is a very important part of English writing.

Dialogue is basically a conversation between two or more people. In fiction, it is a verbal conversation between two or more conversations. Sometimes it is a self-talking dialogue, they are known as a Monolog.

If the dialogue is bad the reader will put the book down. Without effective dialogues, the whole plot of the story will collapse on its own structure. Therefore, writing dialogue in a way that attracts the reader to be more involved in the story is not a daunting task. We will guide you to write impactful dialogue with correct rules.

Points to be Remember  

1. The students need to read the preceding and the following dialogues.

2. They must understand the topic well and make points.

3. The tenses should be accurate according to the dialogue.

4. It should seem like a natural conversation.

5. The words used should not be vague and should convey the message.

Tips to Write Dialogue

Speak out the Dialogue loudly as it will help you resonate on your own dialogue and make you understand how it will sound to the reader.

Keep your dialogue brief and impactful as adding extra details will only deviate the reader’s mind from the main point.

Give each character a unique way of talking or voice. It will add an extra character trait and readers can identify the character just by reading his dialogue.

While writing the dialogue always remember whom the dialogue is being addressed to.

Dialogues should not be lengthy and confusing for the readers as through the dialogue only the story moves.

Format of Dialogue Writing

New Paragraph for Every Speaker

Every speaker gets a new paragraph. Each time a speaker says something, you have to put in a fresh paragraph, even if it is just one word. 

Punctuations Come under Quotation Marks

All the punctuations used with dialogue must be put under the quotes. 

Remove End Quote if the Paragraph is Long

If the paragraph of dialogue is too long and you need to change the paragraph, then there is no need to put end quotes. 

Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags i.e. He says/she says are always written outside the dialogue and is separated by a comma. When dialogue ends in a question or exclamation mark, tags that follow start in lower case.

For eg- He says, “We should start our own business.” 

Use Single Quotation Mark to Quote Something with a Dialogue

If you have to quote something within a dialogue we should put single quotes as double quotes are already enclosing the main dialogue.

For eg- Bill shouted, “ ‘boo!’ you lost the game.

The Dialogue Ends with an Ellipsis

If the Dialogue ends with an ellipsis, we should not add a comma or any other punctuation. For eg- She stared at the sunset. “I guess you’ll go back to doing what you do and I will…” her voice drifted off.

Solved Example

1. Write a Dialogue between You and Your Teacher about which Course to Study at Vacations. 

Child- Good Morning Sir, how are you?

Teacher- I am completely fine. What about you?

Student- I was wondering which course to learn in my vacation.

Teacher- It can be confusing with so many options online. You should make a list and narrow it down as per your interest.

Student- I have tried that but still I am left with three options- Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning or Data science.

Teacher- Well! All of them are very interesting courses, but as far as I remember you have always been interested in Artificial Intelligence.

Student- Yes! I do because I feel it is our future.

Teacher- Well then its no harm in pursuing it and later if you find it less interesting you can always switch.

Student- Yes it sounds like a great idea. Thanks!

2. Complete the following Dialogues-

Megha calls up Rajat to make a plan for New years. Complete the dialogue between Megha and Rajat by filling in the gaps.

Megha :  (i) ………………….. this New year?

Rajat:  I don’t have any plans.

Megha:  How do you like the idea (ii) …………………. the  Sapna’s party?

Rajat:  That sounds fantastic, But I (iii) ………………….my parent’s permission.

Megha:  I’ll come to your house this evening and request your parents to allow you to join me to go to a party.

Rajat:  Ok.

Megha :  (iv) …………………….. in the evening?

Rajat:  Yes. They will be at home.

Rohit:  Then I’ll surely come.

Basic Rules for Discussion All Writers Should Follow

Here are some basic rules for writing a conversation:

Each speaker receives a new category - Every time someone speaks, he shows this by creating a new category. Yes, even if your characters say only one word, they get new categories.

Each category has an indent - The only exception to this is at the beginning of the chapter or after the break, where the first line has not been postponed, including the discussion.

The punctuation marks are inserted into the quotes - Whenever punctuation is part of the spoken word, it enters the quotation marks so that the reader can know how the dialogue is spoken.

Long sentences with few paragraphs do not have end quotations - You’ll see a lot of this below, but overall, when one character speaks for a long time with different categories, the quotation marks are eventually removed, but you start the next paragraph with them.

Use singular quotes when a speaker quotes another - If a character is present who says, “Rohan, do you like it when girls say,‘ I’m fine ’?”, One quote shows what someone else said.

Skip the small talk and focus on the important information only - Unless that little talk is accompanied by character development, skip and get to the point, this is not real life and you will feel very liable if you have too much.

FAQs on Dialogue Writing

1. Can we write dialogues without Quotes?

No, a quotation mark is very important as it distinguishes between the rest of the text and dialogues. The characters who speak the dialogues are an important source of the quotes because of which we are required to put quotes in the dialogues. Quotations add life to the dialogues by making them more realistic and genuine. It ensures that the interpersonal skills of the people using dialogues is improved. It is an interpersonal discourse with members of your society or your house.

2. What are Dialog Tags?

Dialogue tags are the phrases like, “he said”, “She said'', they attribute the speaker to the dialogue so that the reader always knows who is speaking the dialogue. Dialogue tags are the short lines in a sentence that are used to identify the speaker. The main function of a Dialogue tag in dialogue writing is for identifying who is speaking. The Vedantu website provides all the guidelines as to how the dialogue writing must be planned. Until you use a proper noun, the dialogue tag will not be capitalized. You have to end the dialogue with punctuation marks inside quotes.

3. What is Ellipsis in a dialogue?

Three dots are used at the end of the sentence to show that something has been omitted. Using ellipses in dialogues is done to indicate a disruption at the end of a line of dialogue. The general rule of adding ellipses at the end of dialogue or line is to indicate that a speaker faltered before completing his or her statement. Ellipses are the most passive-aggressive of all the punctuation marks as when they are used in casual conversation, ellipses connote hesitation, confusion, and apathy.

4. What is the Purpose of Dialogue writing?

Dialogues are referred to as the conversations between two or more characters and it’s called a monolog if there is only one character speaking which is sometimes used in plays.  There are several factors on which the character speaking depends.

Where they live

The period in which they live

The dialogue should move the story forward. It may increase suspense, show readers a trait(s) of the character(s), and/or change the situation or conflict the characters are in.

5. Why choose Vedantu to refer to the rules of dialogue writing?

Till now the students must have reviewed the entire website of Vedantu and also must have found the answers to whatever they must search for. Vedantu without any doubt is the best website as it provides comprehensive solutions to all the doubts of the students. The experts at Vedantu are not only providing concepts related to the base building of the students but also are giving the students the ability and urge to read and write more. Hence, the students are highly recommended to use Vedantu.

Dialogue writing examples from top books vs AI (2023)

Dialogue writing examples from popular reads and AI teach us interesting things about what makes human-written dialogue better, juicier with voice, viewpoint, and balance between elements. Learn more.

• Post author By Jordan
• 18 Comments on Dialogue writing examples from top books vs AI (2023)

Read dialogue writing examples from diverse genres as we compare them to examples AI gave given the same scenario, for seven ultimate insights:

How we chose the dialogue examples for this study

We took the first seven books listed under the Kindle Unlimited ‘Featured’ section on Amazon for a cross-section of authors writing in diverse genres such as dystopian, regency romance, mystery, and thriller.

This gave the following list of titles to explore for dialogue writing lessons and ideas:

• The House at the End of the World – Dean Koontz (dystopian)
• The Echo of Old Books – Barbara Davis (historical mystery)
• A Girl Called Samson – Amy Harmon (historical)
• Layla – Colleen Hoover (romantic suspense)
• The Quarry Girls – Jess Lourey (thriller)
• I’ll Stop the World – Lauren Thoman (coming-of-age, mystery)
• You’ve Reached Sam – Dustin Thao (YA, fantasy/romance)

Dialogue writing examples (plus insights)

Let’s dive into an example from each book.

The method: We found the first dialogue (discounting solo utterances/inner monologue) in each of the above books.

We summarized the scenario and asked ChatGPT4 to write a piece of dialogue given the scenario and genre for each. This gave comparative talking points on what sets human vs AI-written dialogue apart (as of May 2023).

Is AI (as of 2023) capable of writing story dialogue approaching the voice, personality, style and focus of human-authored conversation? Tweet This

Keep reading for insightful comparisons.

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Dystopian dialogue example: Dean Koontz

The scenario: Katie has fixed a leaky faucet and her mom thanks her dad for fixing the tap over dinner, assuming it was the dad who did it.

That night at dinner, Katie’s mother smiles at Father and says, “Oh, by the way, thank you for finally fixing that faucet.” When he says he hasn’t had the chance yet, Katie admits to the deed. Mother is suitably amazed. Father, however, is not surprised. “She’s an artist.” “Yes,” says Mother, “and not a plumber.” Dean Koontz, The House at the End of the World (2023)

Dialogue example generated for this scenario

We gave that scenario to ChatGPT4 with this prompt:

Write dialogue for the following scenario: A girl, Katie, has fixed a leaky faucet. Her mother thinks Katie’s father fixed it, not Katie, and thanks him for fixing it over dinner. Genre of the novel: dystopian.

This is the dialogue we got as output (note that the prompt is quite broad, we could specify that all three speak, that ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ are named as such in narration, etc.).

Katie scraped her fork against her plate, her gaze flickering between the chunk of dehydrated potato on her plate and her mother. A low hum of the purifiers outside, working to cleanse the fallout-laden air, acted as a somber symphony for their meager meal. Her mother, Joan, leaned back in her chair, sighing contentedly. “John, I noticed the faucet in the kitchen doesn’t leak anymore. Thank you for fixing it. We couldn’t afford to lose more water.” Her father, John, paused mid-chew, his gaze moving from Joan to Katie. He was a man of few words, his strength silent, hidden under a ragged exterior. His weathered face turned toward his wife. “I didn’t fix it.” Joan’s brow furrowed. “Well, if not you, then who?” Katie cleared her throat, setting her fork down. The soft clatter echoed in the room. “It was me, Mom,” she admitted, her voice soft but firm. “I fixed the faucet.” Joan looked at Katie, her eyes wide with disbelief. “You? But how did you…” Katie shrugged, a small, determined smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “I found an old plumbing manual in the rubble. Spent a few nights by the flicker of the solar lamp studying it. It wasn’t as hard as you’d think.” Her mother stared at her, a mixture of surprise and admiration flickering in her eyes. After a moment, Joan nodded, a small smile gracing her lips. “Well, it seems like you’ve been underestimating yourself, Katie.” Dialogue example generated using ChatGPT4.

Comparison between dialogue examples

Comparing Koontz’s dialogue to ChatGPT’s dialogue output, the striking differences are:

• Length/wordiness: Koontz’s human-written dialogue says more with less . For example, mother’s ‘Yes, and not a plumber’ could be read as a pointed jab at her husband that he was the one who was meant to fix the faucet, not their daughter. You could cut Father’s ‘He was a man of few words, his strength silent, hidden under a ragged exterior’, leaving Katie’s dad’s words themselves to show these traits.
• Pacing: An astute editor looking at the second version may suggest cuts to keep the pace flowing . The second has a crush of detail which almost reads as shoehorning in the genre at every opportunity (the intrusive hum of the purifiers cleaning the ‘fallout-laden’ air outside, for example). The AI-written dialogue has too much unnecessary detail.
• Intrigue and implication: Koontz’s original dialogue establishes succinctly in the conversation how Katie’s mother’s and father’s expectations of her differ (between surprise and non-surprise). The AI version focuses more on descriptive detail and how Katie was able to fix the faucet, which reads as more ‘on-the-nose’ (saying exactly what the situation is and what happened, without subtleties and ambiguities to engage the reader’s imagination).
• Tone and mood: The ChatGPT dialogue example reads as hammering home genre, a dystopian tone and mood. Koontz’s dialogue, by contrast, suggests how even in a dystopian world the ordinary and mundane – dinner table talk – can take place. Genre doesn’t need to announce itself in every line.

Historical mystery dialogue example

Let’s move on to Barbara Davis’s historical mystery, The Echo of Old Books .

Scenario: A woman named Ashlyn Greer has owned a bookstore called ‘An Unlikely Story’ for four years. She has a shock-like physical response to a book at a nearby store. She works up the nerve to tell the owner Frank about the reaction. Frank reveals sad details about the book Ashlyn touched and shares his thoughts on books in general.

“Books are like people, Ashlyn. They absorb what’s in the air around them. Smoke. Grease. Mold spores. Why not feelings? They’re as real as all those other things. There’s nothing more personal than a book, especially one that’s become an important part of someone’s life.” Her eyes had gone wide. “Books have feelings?” “Books are feelings,” he replied simply “They exist to make us feel […]” Barbara Davis, The Echo of Old Books (2023)

AI-generated historical mystery dialogue

We asked ChatGPT4 to create dialogue from the same scenario. This time, we told it to sandwich Ashlyn’s response between Frank’s explanation, to aim for a similar length:

Ashlyn cleared her throat, shifting uncomfortably. “Frank, there’s something…odd about one of the books,” Ashlyn confessed, her voice shaking slightly as she cradled the old, hardcover novel she’d picked up from the mystery section. Her fingers tingled where they touched the worn-out spine, an unsettling sensation that had not subsided since she first picked it up. Frank looked up, his glasses gleaming under the soft store light. His gaze fell on the book in Ashlyn’s hand, and his smile faded. He sighed heavily, a profound sadness seeping into his blue eyes. “Ah, that one. ‘The Silent Symphony.’ You know, it belonged to my dear wife, Eleanor. She used to read it to our son before he…before he passed away in the accident. It was his favorite, you see. Now, whenever I touch it, it feels like I can still hear Eleanor’s voice, soft and soothing, filling the room…like a phantom symphony.” Seeing the puzzled look on Ashlyn’s face, Frank smiled gently, pointing at the book. “Books, Ashlyn, they’re more than just paper and ink. They carry memories, emotions, lives. That book… it carries a piece of my Eleanor, my boy. You’re not just feeling the book, Ashlyn. You’re feeling them.” Dialogue example generated using ChatGPT4.

Comparing Barbara Davis’s dialogue to the attempt ChatGPT4 had at creating dialogue to this scenario, key differences are:

• Length/wordiness: Even when you ask the AI model to limit number of responses between speakers, the writing is still slow and cluttered with detail. Some of this could be trimmed (such as specifying for how long Ashlyn has had the tingling sensation since touching the book). Human writing has flow, musicality. A deeper understanding of rhythm.
• Predictability: The book having belonged to Frank’s late wife, the reference to her voice and the emotions it triggers – these are all somewhat predictable responses for the given scenario. In Davis’s dialogue, Frank talks about books absorbing ‘smoke, grease, mold spores’. There is a sense of the unexpected – a fresh and striking sense of an individual’s fuller, more idiosyncratic voice and viewpoint when comparing the concepts ‘book’ and ‘absorption’.
• Character involvement: An interesting difference is that ChatGPT4 chose to not give Ashlyn a spoken response. The main character almost fades into the background during Frank’s soliloquy. This could be an authorial choice but given that Ashlyn is the main character and this is the exposition, it makes sense to make her a little more active in this conversation.

The AI did a surprisingly good job, though, of connecting the sensation Ashlyn gets from the book to the sad anecdote that Frank shares. The phrase ‘his glasses gleaming under the soft store light’ had a lyrical quality, too.

Historical dialogue example

Let’s keep exploring human-written vs AI-written dialogue and insights from comparing dialogue examples.

The next example is from Amy Harmon’s A Girl Called Samson .

Scenario: A young woman born to puritan parents in Massachusetts in the 1700s is sent away as a servant after her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support her. The reverend taking her away asks her whether she can read as they travel on horseback.

My legs bounced against the horse’s flanks, and I tucked my skirts more securely around my knees […] “Can you read, Deborah?” Reverend Sylvanus Conant asked. He tossed the question over his shoulder like crumbs for a bird. He hadn’t spoken since we’d set off, and I considered not answering. On the occasions he had visited Widow Thatcher, he had been kind to me, but today I was angry with him. Today he had come to take me away […] “Yes. I can read very well,” I relented. Conversation was preferable to stewing in my discontent. “My mother taught me when I was four years old.” “Is that so?” he asked. The horse that carried us whinnied in disbelief. Amy Harmon, A Girl Called Samson (2023).

AI-generated historical dialogue example

We gave the same scenario to ChatGPT4 and asked for dialogue between the girl and the reverend:

As they journeyed through the dense, New England forest, the reverend broke the silence that hung over them like a heavy cloak. He glanced back at the young woman, her face pale but resolute under her bonnet. “Can you read, child?” he asked, his voice echoing softly through the trees. She held her hands tightly around her worn-out bible, her knuckles white. “Yes, Reverend,” she replied, her voice trembling slightly. “My father taught me, before he…he left us.” The reverend nodded, not commenting on the mention of her absent father. “Good,” he stated, a note of approval in his voice. “Scripture is our guide in these testing times. Being able to read the Lord’s words yourself… it is a powerful tool, especially for a young woman like you.” Dialogue example generated using ChatGPT4.

This is where comparing human-written vs AI-written dialogue gets more interesting. The standout differences:

• Power dynamics: Given the scenario, AI’s predictions assumed a patriarchal lens – that a father would have been the one to teach his daughter to read, for example. The assumption is also that the girl would be fearful and hesitant in this situation, unlike Harmon’s narrator’s deliberate silence and resentment (which is the less ‘obvious’ response to this dynamic, and more suggestive of individual character, you could argue).
• Descriptive aptness : Part of what makes goo d description , in dialogue or elsewhere, is finding the ‘right’ or apt word. Compare the reverend’s voice echoing through the trees (this acoustic would probably absorb rather than echo sound) with Harmon’s far better simile ‘he tossed the question over his shoulder like crumbs for a bird’. Each description works to convey callous indifference and even taunting on the reverend’s part, defiance on his ward’s part.
• First vs third person: ChatGPT4 defaulted to third person. Note how the first person POV in the original gives an even closer sense of being in the young woman’s shoes, and this uncertain situation.

Keep reading for more dialogue writing examples, and seven insights from these comparisons at the end.

Romantic suspense dialogue example

Moving on to romantic suspense , let’s explore an example by Colleen Hoover.

Scenario: Leeds Gabriel puts tape over a woman named Layla’s mouth and goes downstairs to answer a detective’s questions about how the two of them met, feeling guilty about Layla suffering because of his actions and Layla’s muffled screams being audible from upstairs.

Hoover’s dialogue:

“So,” the man says. “Where do you want to start?” He seems like he’ll be able to work through the noise, but I’m not sure I can. Knowing Layla is suffering because of my actions is not something I can easily ignore. Every sound coming from upstairs makes me flinch. “Why don’t we start with how the two of you met,” the man suggests. I’m hesitant to respond to questions that I know won’t lead to answers, but at this point, I’d rather hear my own voice than Layla’s muffled screams. “We met here last summer. This used to be a bed and breakfast. I was the bass player in the band that played her sister’s wedding.” Colleen Hoover, Layla (2020).

AI-generated romantic suspense dialogue

We gave ChatGPT4 the above scenario and genre. The generated dialogue:

The detective on the other side of the door, a man with an imposing build and a stern face, was a stark contrast to the charming, romantic man Leeds portrayed to the world. “Mr. Gabriel,” the detective greeted, his gaze sharp as he looked at Leeds, “We have a few questions regarding your relationship with Miss Layla.” Leeds forced a smile, his mind racing. “Of course, Detective. How can I help?” As Leeds led the detective into the living room, a muffled sound echoed from upstairs. The detective’s gaze snapped up towards the sound, his eyes narrowing. Leeds felt a knot tighten in his stomach. “I didn’t realize you had company,” the detective commented, his tone casual, but his gaze intense. Leeds tried to keep his voice steady. “Oh, it’s just the television. I was watching a movie before you arrived.” The detective’s eyes held Leeds’s for a moment longer before he nodded, pulling out a small notepad. “Alright. Now, let’s talk about how you and Miss Layla met.” Dialogue example generated using ChatGPT4.

When you compare Hoover’s dialogue with the AI-generated material for her scenario, core differences are:

• Lead-in vs starting in medias res : The conversation begins with an arrival at the door in the generated version. In Hoover’s, the detective is already seated, action already underway, with the added background tension of Leeds having put tape over Layla’s mouth moments before. Time feels more malleable, in Leeds thinking back to actions moments before that make the reader suspenseful regarding what the detective’s reaction will be.
• Tense and person: Note how Hoover’s choice of present tense and first person makes the narration and asides surrounding the dialogue feel more immediate, presently unfolding. Leeds’s private thoughts create a suspenseful disconnect between what he chooses to share vs what he keeps to himself.
• Suspense: In Hoover’s version, it’s unclear whether the detective can hear Layla’s muffled cries too, and the reader wonders whether he can. The generated version diminishes suspense by comparison, by making more details of mutual knowledge/understanding clear between Leeds and the detective. It all reads a little more ‘obvious’ in meaning and inference, losing subtleties and ambiguities.

Thriller dialogue example

Moving on to Jess Lourey’s The Quarry Girls , let’s look at the first dialogue that appears in the book.

Scenario: Beth’s friend Karen asks her if she’s attending a party at the quarry, where there are granite cliffs with polls below, but Beth is unsure. She’s been planning to break up with her boyfriend Mark all summer, but it’s hard because they move in the same circles.

“Hey, Beth, you swinging by the quarries tonight?” Elizabeth McCain stretched her aching arms overhead until her shoulders popped. It felt exquisite. “Maybe. Dunno. Mark’s coming over.” Karen leered. “Oooh, you gonna give him the good stuff” Beth hooked her hair behind her ears. She’d been planning to break up with Mark all summer, but they traveled in the same crowd. Jess Lourey, The Quarry Girls (2022).

AI-generated thriller dialogue

Beth was sitting on the porch, her mind lost in a whirl of thoughts when [her friend Karen] approached, a casual smile on her face. “Beth, you’re coming to the quarry party tonight, right?” [Karen] asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Everyone’s going to be there. The cliffs, the cool water…it’s going to be epic.” Beth looked up, her eyes filled with uncertainty. “I don’t know, [Kar],” she confessed, her gaze wandering over to the distant quarry. The granite cliffs and inviting pools were a siren’s call to the carefree summer youth, but for her, it was a battleground. [Karen] frowned, her gaze following Beth’s. “Is this about Mark?” she questioned, her tone softer. “Beth, you’ve been planning on breaking up with him all summer.” Beth sighed, running a hand through her hair. “I know, [Kar]. But it’s not that simple. We share the same friends, attend the same parties. I don’t want to cause a scene or make things awkward for everyone else.” Dialogue example generated using ChatGPT4.

[ Ed’s note : Thanks go to Dominika who in the comments identified a mistake in the scenario summary that created a confusing output. Editorial changes to the AI’s output are in square brackets above to account for and correct the error. ]

Looking at Jess Lourey’s dialogue example compared to the generated output for the same scenario, what’s different?

• Pacing: Lourey gets to Elizabeth’s question immediately, right beneath the chapter heading. The AI output gives unnecessary lead-in about Elizabeth’s approach that doesn’t add much the following conversation can’t give (e.g. signs of Beth’s troubled state).
• On-the-nose dialogue: Note how Lourey’s example implies what the friends already know about each other’s lives (e.g. Karen’s leering question) as well as what they don’t know (that Beth is considering breaking up with Mark, which is a private burden). The dialogue in the generated version is more obvious, going straight to the most telling details with fewer subtleties, less intrigue.
• Tone/mood: The tone and mood in Lourey’s dialogue example above is more casual and breezier, with a sense of contrast between the teasing, idle chatter between friends and Beth’s private, darker burden. It’s fitting of the situation. It creates suspense’s hallmark feature of tonal differences between exterior and interior, a speaker’s public vs private fears and desires.

Coming-of-age dialogue example

What about a dialogue example from a coming-of-age story? Let’s look at Lauren Thoman’s I’ll Stop the World .

Scenario: Justin and his classmates are listening to a speech where the Mayor, Rothman, is being introduced to announce the recipient of the Buford County Citizenship award, and he and a classmate Dave annoy each other, disinterested in the speech.

“As you all know, Mayor Rothman won this award back when he was a senior at this very school,” she chirps into the microphone, tossing her blonde curls like she thinks she’s in a Target ad. “ Whocares ,” Dave Derrin coughs loudly from the seat in front of me. I kick the back of his seat, not because I care, but just because it’s Dave and why not. He spins around and waves his middle finger in my face; I, in turn, make a show of dropping my head onto Alyssa’s shoulder […] He’s had a thing for Alyssa since sophomore year, and it kills him that she’d rather hang out with me than him. Lauren Thoman, I’ll Stop the World (2023).

AI-generated coming-of-age dialogue example

We gave the same scenario to ChatGPT4. The resulting dialogue:

As Mayor Rothman took the stage, Justin sighed, slumping in his seat. Beside him, his classmate Dave was flicking a paper football between his fingers. “The recipient of this year’s Buford County Citizenship award is someone truly deserving,” Mayor Rothman began, his voice booming throughout the assembly hall. “Bet you five bucks it’s Angela Martin again,” Dave whispered, smirking at Justin. Justin rolled his eyes, stifling a laugh. “You’re on. But if it’s Timothy Atkins, you owe me five.” As Mayor Rothman droned on about the virtues of citizenship, Justin and Dave kept themselves entertained, trading light-hearted jabs and guesses about who the winner might be. Dialogue example generated using ChatGPT4.

Comparing human vs AI-generated dialogue examples

Comparing Thoman’s dialogue above between classmates to the generated version, key differences:

• Personality: Dave’s badly disguised heckling of ‘who cares’ is typical of kids in an assembly or other stuffy school meeting. There is more of a sense of personality in the characters present in the scene.
• Communication via gesture: Notice how Thoman uses gestures extensively for communication between the two boys where to speak might get them in big trouble. From waving a middle finger in Justin’s face (Dave) to Justin miming putting his head on the shoulder of the girl Dave likes to annoy him. Almost an entire conversation happens using gesture, non-verbal signs.
• Point of view: Thoman’s version also has more point of view, through having a chosen viewpoint narrator (Justin) instead of free-roaming third person. We get a sense of how he feels about Dave, the speech, and more, rather than a flatter, less characterful tableau and it fits the ‘coming-of-age’, school scenario.

YA/Fantasy dialogue example

Lastly, let’s explore a YA/fantasy dialogue example from Dustin Thao’s You’ve Reached Sam .

Scenario: Julie works in a bookstore. A boy from her English class, Sam Obayashi, visits for the third time since she started working there two weeks prior. She catches a smile through the stacks from him and hurries to the back. When she comes back, he’s gone but someone has left her an origami cherry blossom on the front counter. Two weeks later she runs into him in the coffee shop where he works. She works up the nerve to approach him.

I spread out my notebooks, summoning up courage to approach him, even if it’s only to order my drink. But when I look up from the table, he’s there beside me, holding a steaming cup. “Oh-” I’m startled by his sudden presence. “This isn’t mine.” “Yeah I know, you ordered this last time,” Sam says, setting it down anyway. “A honey lavender latte, right?” I stare at the cup, at the busy counter, and back at him. “Should I pay up there?” He laughs. “No. I mean, it’s on the house. Don’t worry about it.” “Oh.” A silene between us. Say something, Julie! Dustin Thao, You’ve Reached Sam (2021).

AI-generated YA/romance dialogue example

We gave ChatGPT4 the above scenario and character names and genre and this is what it put out:

As Julie walked into the café, her heart pounded with a mix of anxiety and anticipation. Behind the counter, Sam Obayashi was busily serving customers. He had an easy, charming smile that made her stomach flutter. Gathering her courage, she walked up to the counter. “Hey Sam,” she greeted, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Sam looked up from the espresso machine, his smile broadening when he recognized her. “Julie, hi. What can I get you?” Julie hesitated, her hands fiddling with the edge of her jacket. “Actually, I wanted to talk about something,” she confessed, her gaze darting towards the counter. Sam looked curious but nodded, stepping away from the machine. “Sure, what’s up?” Julie took a deep breath, pulling out the folded cherry blossom from her pocket. “This… I found this at the bookstore after you left last time. Was it you?” Dialogue example generated by ChatGPT4

Comparing dialogue examples

When we compare Thao’s dialogue with the generated version, striking differences:

• Person: The choice of third person in the generated version has less immediacy. We’re with Julie in the moment as she has her private anxieties, then thrown into the unknown (from her side) of what Sam will say when he speaks. The effect is stronger with Thao’s choice of first-person POV.
• Less surprise: Thao’s original dialogue example has the element of surprise (for example, in Sam knowing Julie’s order, appearing beside her). There is an element of the magical and fortuitous in this. The happenstance that is a hallmark of romance and many a meet cute.
• Tonal/mood differences: The generated dialogue example plays up Julie’s anxiety a lot with fidgeting, obvious signs of distress. The Julie of the original dialogue appears more in-command (for example, saying ‘this isn’t mine’ fairly confidently) yet also a little dazed/dazzled. It’s more suggestive of the awkwardness of bashful attraction than out-and-out fear. Sam also has less personality in the AI version, his lines less suggestive of the attraction implied by the scenario.

Human vs AI dialogue writing examples’ lessons

The comparisons between the dialogue writing examples above show that to write effective dialogue, you should:

Avoid making every line of dialogue hammer home your genre or plot exposition. On-the-nose dialogue tells too many matter-of-fact details. Real speech implies, suggests, infers.

Where do characters move to or appear from, between the stacks or in a coffee shop? Involve your setting to take dialogue in unexpected or sudden directions where appropriate.

What do your characters say that only they would say in a given situation? What unexpected or fresh associations do they draw sometimes? Look to their histories, vocations, fields of reference.

Communicators may converse by pulling faces and poses, too, depending on their situation.

In boxing, an ‘on-the-nose’ blow may be a knockout punch in many instances. In writing, crowds roar for the hooks they don’t see coming.

In first person in particular, dialogue introduces an unknown variable in how things will go for your viewpoint narrator.

Dialogue reads faster, naturally picking up pace. Watch out for diminishing pace with descriptive clutter or one too many asides.

🗣️ What do you think about the comparisons above? What insights did you draw from them? Share in the comments!

Read more on writing dialogue in our complete guide to dialogue .

Get workbooks on everything from plot and characterization to dialogue, plus daily drop-in writing sprints to make real progress when you join Group Coaching, a six-month course to write your novel. See what Group Coaching Alumni loved .

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Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

18 replies on “Dialogue writing examples from top books vs AI (2023)”

That’s a great piece Jordan. Whilst the AI writing is eerily plausible, it’s flat, lacking in personality – which I find oddly reassuring!

What’s really helpful in the piece is the takeaways about what makes writing interesting – the holding back, the reasoning out little details, not giving it all away in exposition that was a hallmark of the AI passages.

I’ll be looking out for anything AI-sounding in my own writing from here on in!

Hi Mark, thank you very much for this feedback. I agree that there is a degree of plausibility but it lacks the essential ingredients. I said yesterday, to someone who was saying how wonderful it is to be able to distil a complex thought or emotion to its essence as a writer, that AI can do that too, but it gives a sort of chemical essence, like vanilla essence when the flavor is much deeper when you use the real thing. It has its uses but my worry is how it may shape style to norms and lowest common denominators, rather than encouraging both individual style and standing out from the herd. That sounds like an excellent plan.

Humans rule. Speech makes poetry of us all… We need to keep writing human.

Hi Crawford, I love the line ‘speech makes poetry of us all’. Thanks for sharing.

I notice the 2023 in large brackets for this post, a reference to the well understood presumption that AI will improve faster in a literary arms race than humans. In the small samples given – yes, an artificial mind is detectable but tolerable. I imagine trying to read an entire book in that incredibly clunky style would be torturous – having staid that, it was the AI’s attempt to insert context and composition that made the paragraphs onerous. Does AI know what the reader knows? Does the composition give way to plot as the story progresses in an entire AI-written text? Overall, what I find scary is that not all readers are as discerning or fussy as authors are trained to be. AI will take over or force a literary elite. Writers will need to move into a whole new creation space and *use* AI rather than compete with it. This experiment was interesting, timely and the words of encouragement are appreciated, however I’m not yet soothed.

Hi Vanessa, thank you for this thoughtful feedback. I love ‘torturous’ – there’s a mot juste ! I’m not soothed yet, either, though I have found AI useful as a sort of ‘second brain’ (perhaps the brain of an intern who needs a lot of editing) when I get stuck, or to ask about concepts and help me expand my thinking in directions it wouldn’t have otherwise gone. (One does have to fact-check it, though, as it tends to make up facts which I highly dislike). I’m glad you found this interesting and encouraging! Thank you for reading our blog.

I accidentally pressed the “back and forth like a tennis match” button for the poll. In fact, good dialogue has silences, layers of meaning and varying emotional intensity. It should indeed be more brittle than real life, where we mostly use mundane, repetitive language. It must not slow the pace of the novel, so every word counts. I think you should also “hear” what your characters are saying so their uniqueness is conveyed in their use of language.

Really useful and rather a lot of information you’ve given us here! Intriguing examples with the AI. Thanks, as always.

Hi Heather, I’ll remember that when collating the responses to share in the next newsletter (thank you for reading it and subscribing!). Absolutely, regarding ‘silences, layers of meaning and varying emotional intensity’. Italo Calvino wrote something, I think in his letters, about how writing is not only what is said but also ‘the halo around what is said’, which connects nicely to Toni Morrison saying that she never says ‘she says softly’ but leaves space around what the character says so that one can hear that it is soft. That speaks to your suggestion to ‘hear what your characters are saying’ (to speak – or write – well is to be a good listener in this way, I’d say).

I’m glad you found this useful! It’s a pleasure.

An interesting post. It has taught me something. Less is more. (Yes, a cliché, I know.) I’ll be looking at my dialogues for wordiness, and also giving too much info.

Hi Vivienne, thank you for your feedback. That it is, I’m glad you found this interesting. Thanks for reading!

Hi, Great article, but I’m confused about the scenario in The Quarry. It sure seems like Elizabeth and Beth are the same person and the friend’s name is Karen in the original dialogue. Also, I think the title is Quarry Girls.

Hi Dominika, thank you so much. The author’s switching from Beth to her full name in the intro led to my mistake (less haste, more speed!). I’ve corrected my errors and also credited you with the eagle-eyed observation (I read through this several times – it just goes to show you should never be your own editor, error blindness is a thing). It’s interesting, I don’t like this way of introducing a character’s full name as it draws one’s attention to the author’s hand (I would rather introduce it elsewhere and stick with ‘Beth’ in the opening). Thank you for reading and for sharing your helpful feedback.

Very interesting. In these examples, AI definitely seems wordy and bland, with a lot of telling rather than showing. It also made a number of the female characters timid, anxious, and whispering. Since it’s learning from existing writing, that probably says as much about our society as it does about AI.

Hi Kris, thank you for sharing this great observation. I thought the same, it reminded me why we need deliberate curation of libraries, deliberate amplification of underrepresented voices and perspectives, why representation matters. Norms flatten but they can even (and this was maybe what disturbed me most in this exercise) create reductive bias. This is why the individual voice matters.

Love the comparisons, this helped my understanding of dialog and pacing as well. the fact is AI can only create crude mimicry of dialog, and even story, it’s great for creating ideas or even scenarios you maybe would’ve have thought of but humans are needed to put life into the characters and the scenes.

We know what personality and dialog looks, feels and sounds like, where as AI’s don’t.

great post!

Hi Freefly, thank you for your feedback! I’m glad this was helpful and agree – I’d far rather read something human-written than something that emulates human voice, so while AI can be helpful for faster ideation, it does still need editing the same as most human or rather individual authors.

I’ve been super busy so this is a bit late of a response, but I recently sat down with some friends who work in the computer industry and they say that even those involved in AI feel like it is moving too quickly. It isn’t just in writing, either. My wife’s boss (an orthodontist) just used computer generated models for his most recent advertisements instead of paying real models…and you can’t even tell that they aren’t real. As someone who works as a model for a side gig, and has hopes of writing, I am feeling like I may be too human for the future! Great article, Jordan.

Hi Billy, thank you for sharing this. I’m in that same boat being in the humanities 🙂 I think the future will mean having to embrace AI for better or worse to some extent (unfortunately faster/cheaper tend to win as far as technological/business movements go, historically). I was saying to friends the other day how strange it is to have a sample of what factory workers must have felt when mechanical assembly arms came in. (I will say I haven’t seen anything AI-written with as much voice, personality, and shape as the drafts of yours I’ve read!) Thanks for reading.

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Dialogue Writing for Class 10 with Format and Examples

Dialogue writing is a crucial aspect of language learning, especially for students in class 10. It serves as a fundamental tool for expressing conversations and interactions between characters in a story or a play. Dialogue writing, report writing , and notice writing format are important skills that every student should have. It is important for students of class 10 to master the art of dialogue writing as it not only enhances creative writing skills but also helps in effectively communicating thoughts and emotions. In this blog, we will explore the basics of dialogue writing, its importance, the writing format, and some useful tips and examples for class 10 students to improve their skills.

Table of Contents

What is Dialogue Writing?

Dialogue writing is the process of writing a conversation between two or more people, sharing their thoughts, feelings, actions, or any other things. It is generally used in various content forms such as stories, novels, plays, and scripts to bring life to the characters and make the narrative more engaging and relatable.

How to Write Dialogue for Class 10?

To write effective dialogue for class 10, it is essential to follow a structured approach. Begin by understanding the characters’ personalities and the context of the conversation. Use simple language and avoid complex jargon to ensure clarity. Pay attention to the use of punctuation and formatting to indicate speech and actions. Make the dialogue realistic by incorporating natural pauses, interruptions, and emotions.

Purpose of Dialogue Writing

What purpose do you think dialogue serves in a play, movie, or story? Does a tale have to have a conversation in it? Stories can feature a third-person narrator or a character who tells the tale from their point of view, unlike the format of a debate where two opposing teams argue and defend a certain resolution. What difference does it make if there are conversations rather than a single person telling the entire tale from start to finish?

Having dialogues along with stage directions rather than just stories can be said to be a better jotting fashion as it gives the readers a clear picture of the characteristics of the varied characters in the story, play, or movie. It also gives your characters life and, overall, a voice of their own. Dialogues portray the emotional state, mindset, background information, and poise of the speakers. This will always be more effective as it will let the readers connect with the characters on a more personal level.

Another genre in which authors can express their creativity to the point of violating certain formal grammar norms is dialogue writing. To emphasize a point, you may, for example, lengthen a word, write the term in capital characters, or use several questions or exclamation marks. For instance: YESSSS!

Stage instructions are an additional element of dialogue writing. Brief sentences included in parenthesis that describe the actions of the characters throughout the dialogue are known as stage instructions. For instance, Dan: I’m still sleepy, wiping his eyes.

The Importance of Dialogue Writing

Dialogue writing plays a significant role in storytelling by adding depth and realism to characters and their relationships. It helps in portraying emotions, conflicts, and resolutions, making the narrative more compelling and immersive. Moreover, it assists in conveying information in a natural and engaging manner, facilitating a better understanding of the plot and the characters’ motives.

The Different Types of Dialogue

Dialogues can vary based on the purpose and context of the narrative. Dialogues are classified widely into 2 categories:

• Inner Dialogue
• Outer Dialogue

Inner Dialogue: The quiet ideas that a character has and does not reveal to other characters are referred to as inner dialogue. These might be the internal thoughts or responses of a character to events or acts expressed by another character. There are no quotation marks around conversations within.

Outer Dialogue: Spoken ideas are what the name “outer dialogues” implies. They include every word that the characters exchange with one another in a dialogue. Quotation marks are usually used to surround outer discourse.

Dialogue Writing Format or Structure of a Dialogue

The format for writing dialogue follows specific rules to ensure clarity and coherence. Each character’s speech is enclosed within quotation marks, and a new paragraph is used for each speaker. Proper punctuation, such as commas, full stops, question marks, and exclamation marks, is used to indicate the tone and flow of the conversation. Moreover, tags like ‘he said’ or ‘she asked’ are used to attribute the dialogue to specific characters.

• Every speaker is given a fresh paragraph. You indicate that someone is speaking by starting a new paragraph. Yes, your characters receive fresh paragraphs even if they only utter one word.
• The paragraphs are all indented. This rule only applies when a chapter or scene break occurs, in which case the first line—including dialogue—is never indented.
• The quote marks are used to enclose punctuation for what is spoken. To ensure that the reader understands how the conversation is being delivered, punctuation is placed inside quotes wherever it appears in the speech of the speaker.
• End citations are absent from speeches that are longer than a few paragraphs. Further details on this will be provided below, but in general, when a character speaks for an extended period, you should break up their speech into different paragraphs and remove the quotation marks at the end before beginning the next one.
• If the speaker is citing another person, use single quotes. In the event that your character remarks, “Man, don’t you love it when girls say, ‘I’m fine’?” the single quotes point to the words of another person.
• Ignore the small conversation and concentrate solely on the relevant details. Get to the point and skip the small chat unless it’s necessary for character development. This isn’t real life, and if you have too much, it will feel even more artificial.

The Importance of Punctuation

Punctuation plays a crucial role in dialogue writing, ensuring clarity, conveying emotions, and enhancing the overall reading experience. By mastering the proper use of punctuation marks, writers can effectively bring their characters’ conversations to life and engage their audience.

Clarity and Readability

Proper punctuation in dialogue writing is essential for clarity and readability. Without punctuation, it can be difficult to distinguish between speakers, identify pauses and emphasis, and understand the overall flow of the conversation. 

For instance, consider the following example:

“I love pizza said Emily I could eat it every day.”

Without commas to separate the dialogue tags from the actual dialogue, this sentence becomes confusing and difficult to follow. Adding commas makes it clear who is speaking and what they are saying:

“I love pizza,” said Emily. “I could eat it every day.”

Conveying Emotions and Tone

Punctuation marks also play a vital role in conveying emotions and tone in dialogue writing. Exclamation points indicate excitement or surprise, question marks convey curiosity or uncertainty, and ellipses suggest hesitation or unspoken thoughts. 

For example:

“I can’t believe you won the lottery!” exclaimed Sarah.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” asked Tom, his voice filled with doubt.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” stammered John.

Enhancing the Reading Experience

Effective punctuation in dialogue writing enhances the overall reading experience by making the conversation more natural and engaging. It allows readers to visualize the speakers’ expressions, hear their inflections, and feel the rhythm of their exchanges. Without proper punctuation, dialogue can become flat and lifeless, detracting from the overall impact of the writing.

Common Punctuation Marks in Dialogue Writing

Here are some of the most common punctuation marks used in dialogue writing:

• Quotation marks (” “): Enclose the spoken words of a character.
• Commas (“,”): Separate dialogue tags from the actual dialogue and indicate pauses.
• Periods (“.”): End complete sentences within dialogue.
• Question marks (“?”): Indicate questions within dialogue.
• Exclamation points (“!”): Indicate excitement, surprise, or emphasis.
• Ellipses (“…”): Suggest hesitation, unspoken thoughts, or trailing off.

By mastering the proper use of these punctuation marks, writers can craft dialogue that is clear, engaging, and emotionally resonant, bringing their characters’ conversations to life and captivating their audience.

Tips for Writing Effective Dialogue

• Understand the character’s background and personality.
• Use simple and realistic language.
• Maintain a balance between dialogue and narrative.
• Avoid lengthy monologues and focus on concise exchanges.
• Show emotions through actions and dialogue.
• Use appropriate punctuation and formatting.
• Read the dialogue aloud to check for natural flow and coherence.

Examples of Dialogue Writing

[SCENE START]

INT. LIVING ROOM – EVENING

A couple, EMILY and DAVID, are discussing their plans for the weekend.

EMILY: I’m so tired of being cooped up inside all week. I want to do something outdoors this weekend.

DAVID: I agree. Maybe we could go hiking or for a bike ride.

EMILY: Those both sound great. I’m also open to other suggestions.

DAVID: What about going to the beach? It’s supposed to be a nice day on Saturday.

EMILY: That sounds perfect! We could go swimming, sunbathing, and walking on the beach.

DAVID: Sounds like a plan.

EMILY: I’m really looking forward to it.

DAVID: Me too.

[SCENE END]

INT. COFFEE SHOP – DAY

Two friends, ANNA and BEN, are sitting at a table, sipping their coffees.

ANNA: So, I’ve been thinking about taking a cooking class.

BEN: Oh, that sounds great! I didn’t know that you were interested in cooking, is it a new thing or what?

ANNA: Yeah, I love cooking for friends and family, but I feel like I could learn a lot more.

BEN: There are tons of great cooking classes out there. I’m sure you’ll find one that you love.

ANNA: I’m looking at a class that focuses on Italian cuisine. I’ve always loved Italian food.

BEN: That sounds delicious. I’m sure you’ll learn how to make some amazing Italian dishes.

ANNA: I hope so! I’m also excited to learn about different cooking techniques.

BEN: I’m sure you’ll pick up some valuable tips. Let me know how the class goes!

ANNA: I will!

Dialogue Writing Exercises

Practice is key to mastering dialogue writing. Engage in various exercises such as creating dialogues between friends, family members, or fictional characters. Write dialogues that convey different emotions like joy, anger, fear, or excitement. Experiment with diverse scenarios and settings to improve your dialogue writing skills and develop a deeper understanding of character dynamics. 

• Write a dialogue between two friends talking about their favourite books.
• Write a dialogue between husband and wife about the rising prices of essential commodities.
• Write a dialogue between two friends discussing if science is a blessing or a curse.

Dialogue writing is a valuable skill that enables students to express their creativity and effectively communicate ideas and emotions. By following the prescribed format and implementing the suggested tips, class 10 students can enhance their dialogue writing abilities and create engaging narratives that resonate with their readers. Regular practice and exploration of diverse dialogue scenarios will further refine their storytelling capabilities and contribute to their overall growth as proficient writers.

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