If your narrative has started to feel like a dead fish, you clearly need to employ life-saving measures. Showing readers what happens to the people in your story can help turn around even the most critically-ill piece of writing. So can letting them hear it through solid dialogue.
The key to writing good dialogue is to listen to how people talk. Most of us don’t speak in full sentences. Most of us don’t use proper diction. If we can use a contraction, we do. We interrupt each other. Often. And each of us does it our way, so you’ll want to make sure your characters don’t all sound the same.
Pay attention to how individuals really verbalize their thoughts while eavesdropping on the dialogue happening all around you. Television and movies can also clue you in, but they sometimes miss the mark. (Want some fun? Google worst movie dialogue.) When something doesn’t sound authentic, try to figure out why.
Once you’ve written your dialogue, listen to how it sounds when you read it aloud. If you stumble over the words or if a phrase makes you cringe, figure out why and fix it.
Of course, it doesn’t matter how genuine your dialogue sounds if it’s boring. Readers don’t need to hear every single word that’s spoken, either between real people or fictional characters. We want the highlight reel only, the parts that move the story along, or reveal something about the speaker. That leaves no room for small talk or the meaningless niceties of real life.
Let your words and details about your character’s countenance convey the emotion behind the dialogue instead of relying on adverbs. If someone is sad when they articulate their words, showing them choking out their words as their eyes glisten with unshed tears will be a lot more potent than noting that the person spoke sadly.
If you want to denote that the speaker stops mid-thought, use a dash (— ). To indicate that the sentence tails off, just ellipses.
Although most writers try way too hard to avoid using “said” when tagging their dialogue, that’s the gold standard in most cases. Readers barely notice he said or she said, which is precisely what you want. In many cases, if you’re going back and forth between the same two people and the speaker is clear, you can even leave it out altogether. For emphasis, words like shouted, ranted, whispered or exclaimed can add emphasis. Finally, your characters can say things with a chuckle, a moan or a sigh. But they absolutely can’t chuckle their words. Or moan them. Or sigh them. Ever. Check out my post “Writing Dialogue Rules” for examples on this.
Finally, a new speaker gets a new paragraph.
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