In a post on Killzone, James Scott Bell shares four tips for great dialogue. “No matter how good the concept, flat, flabby, bland dialogue almost always means the writer is lacking in other areas,” Bell says. “Conversely, if your dialogue zings it demonstrates that you know what you’re doing and engenders trust in you as a writer.”
Bell suggests a few ways to spice up your dialogue:
- Foreign Language. A few non-English words can add interest and verisimilitude, especially if your MC lives in a multi-cultural area.
- Interruptions. Interruptions occur naturally in conversation and can create conflict.
- Stylized Realism. “Sometimes a new writer will write dialogue that sounds like a transcript of an overheard conversation at Starbucks,” Bell writes. This never works. Instead, dialogue should be stylized for fiction. “The main purposes are to characterize the speaker and move the plot along,” Bell says. “You want the sound of real speech without the fat or fluff that usually goes along with it.”
- Action Beats and Said. If you need dialogue attribution, use “said.” It’s clear and unobtrusive. But, you don’t need it as often as you might think. Use action beats to show the reader who’s speaking, without using said. You can get away with asked and whispered, since there are no easier ways to convey questions and quieter speech. If you use tags like hissed, growled, or yelled, do it sparingly. Try to use action to convey emotion instead.
