Steps to writing more effective dialogue from a long time workshop leader.

The first step to developing effective dialogue is to listen. I know that sounds oversimplified, but if you start developing an ear for conversations, you’ll learn the rhythm and patterns of speech. You’ll learn how to invoke mood into your dialogue.

Effective dialogue only includes the portions that mean something. Readers don’t need to read “Hello” and “Goodbye,” or any other trivialities. Readers want the meat, the lines of dialogue that show emotion, change in opinion, or indicate a thought or future event. The part of a conversation that makes you tip your head towards two old ladies at a bus stop to hear what they’re saying – that’s what you put into your story.

DON’T use dialogue to expound on backstory. (Example of backstory dumping: “Linda, do you know how I came to live on this boat?” “No. Tell me.” “Well, my house had burned….)

Another important facet of dialogue is to create different voices for each character, not to the extent of being a distraction, but in order to define them. One may have a chip on his shoulder and speak in short sentences. One may have an exclamation she uses over and over. Another may be a child with improper grammar, or a farm boy with slang flavoring his speech.

As you create dialogue, don’t use a myriad of tags. (Tags are the words used to indicate who is speaking.) Unless noting that screaming or whispering is important to the dialogue, use said. Readers have grown so used to said that it disappears into the text and becomes invisible. When you use cried, exclaimed, moaned, screamed…. you interrupt the reader’s involvement. You remind him he’s reading instead being part of the story.

I suggest leaving off tags completely, as long as the speaker remains clear without the notation. Or you can place action in front of the dialogue to serve the same purpose: Tom plopped onto the bench. “I’ve had enough for one day.”

Remember, dialogue is one of the most powerful methods of moving a story forward. Use it with a purpose.