Writing perfect dialogue

A look at how to write great dialogue and bring your characters to life.

Writers often find that dialogue is one of the more complicated technical aspects of writing. It’s also difficult because it’s not just about what characters say, but how they say it.

To throw more confusing into the mix, it also doesn’t need to mirror real life exactly - and that can make everything more complicated.

Today, I’m sharing some of my top tips for writing amazing dialogue, straight from my experience as a student, writer and editor. The insight ranges from finding a unique voice, utilising accents and idioms, developing subtext and some really important advice about dialogue tags (and their adverbs too)!

Finding a unique voice

A unique voice is really important, and it’s something worth thinking about when you’re planning your characters in depth. I would always include a section in a character plan that denotes their voice and how they talk, because planning this out in advance will make their dialogue easier to write. This is going to help you write their style of speech, sentence length or even any catchphrases they might use.

Not every character needs to sound completely different, of course, but small touches help bring your characters to life. It’s also important to link their voice to who they are: their job, upbringing and culture. You don’t necessarily need to note a character’s upbringing in the story itself - especially a side character - but it will help you to know exactly what they sound like. If you can picture how they’d sound in real life (or even use inspiration from TV/film) then it’s going to help you write effective dialogue for them.