7 Secrets of Writing Effective Dialogue

Whether you're writing fiction or creative nonfiction, there are three primary elements to a story: action, narration, and dialogue.

Or to put it another way, what they DID, what they SAW, and what they SAID.

Dialogue lets you illustrate themes and convey ideas through a character's spoken response to the situations and people they encounter. Your characters can express deep emotions with what they say, sometimes more than they can with unspoken actions and unvoiced feelings.

Without dialogue, you don't have a story, you have an essay.

But writing dialogue can be tricky, and it's an art unto itself. You want your written dialogue to sound natural, not clunky or forced. You want to share just enough information with your reader, without oversharing or having your characters act as the narrator.

So here are seven dialogue writing secrets to help you master this art.

1. Show, don't tell

Every writer has heard this advice, but it's worth repeating because too many people fall into what you might call the Radio Theater Trap.

Often, old-time radio theater would rely on the actors to narrate what was happening in the story, only they did it very badly. For example, you might hear an actor say, "Why do you have a gun in your right hand?"

This immediately tells the listener what's going on, but it's clunky and unrealistic. No one would actually say that in real life, which is what your dialogue is supposed to reflect. Avoid the temptation to have your characters tell us what the narration or action should explain.

To better convey the same image, you might say: "Jan heard an unmistakable click behind her. 'Watch where you point that thing,' she said."

The phrase "unmistakable click," and Jan's statement "Watch where you point that thing!" gives us enough context about what's going on without having it spelled out through clunky dialogue.

2. Write like people talk

Unless you're writing a story set in late-18th century England, no one sounds like Mr. Darcy from “Pride & Prejudice”: "In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

Yes, it sounds beautiful, but people aren't so stuffy and formal in real life these days. Here's another example:

"I cannot think of a single reason on earth why people would make the decision to sound unnatural when they speak," said Diane.

Compare that to: "Why would anyone would talk like that?" said Diane.

You may have to write in a formal way for work, but it doesn...

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