Writing Good Dialogue
How to Write Good Dialogue
All writers know that writing good dialogue is one of the factors to a good book, but how to write good dialogue is interpreted differently by different people. Dialogue is also written differently depending on the writer. Some writers use stilted, formal language, and some use a lot of slang in various dialects. The problem with both techniques is both of them get tiresome to read.
I’ve seen writing instructors who tell writers to “go to coffee shops and listen to people talk.” Others say to “tape conversations and listen to how people talk.” The problem with these methods is similar: readers don’t want to read dialogue that sounds like real people talking. Real talking is filled with ” ers, uhms, ahs” and more. That might be okay for one sentence, but that’s about it.
The trick to writing good dialogue is to capture the casual tone of the speaker but not to duplicate the style. So rather than have a suspect say:
- “Uh, I don’t know why he did it, man. Uh, I mean he . . . shit, he did it. The dude pulled out a gun and shot him. I mean . . . shit. He, uh, he just shot him.”
Instead, have him say:
- “I don’t know why he did it. The dude pulled out a gun and shot him, just shot him.”
Writing Good Dialogue Just Needs a Sample of Dialogue
You don’t need to show all dialogue “as is” to make readers think it in their heads. An example of this is how I do it in many of my mystery books. I have several characters who use speak to others in Italian. I make sure the reader understands what’s said, but I don’t want ot go through the entire book using Italian when that character speaks. To resolve this, I have the character speak Italian early in the book, but after ha only occasionally and usually with words the average reader would recognize—words like ciao and buon giorno. The result is the readers “hear” Italian even when it isn’t spoken.
Think of “The Godfather.” Marlon Brando spoke very litle Italian, but his image is strongly etched in viewers’ minds as that of an old Italian man. The same holds true for the rest of the cast.
The logic used applies across the board. If you have a character who speaks using two-dollar words, all you have to do is use them the first few times (and maybe once or twice later), and the readers will “think” that style of speaking later. Whenever that character speaks, they’ll hear the formal, stilted style even when the character doesn’t use it.
The “trick,” of getting the readers to think or imagine the way you want them to is not restricted to dialogue. You can do it with cadence and with action beats. The way a character talks, and the way they act implants an image in the readers’ minds, and it will stay there unless you do something to shake it free.
Dialogue is one of the most significant weapons a writer has to form images in the minds of their readers. All you have to do is use it properly.
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