“Write hard and clear about what hurts.” – Hemingway

Many see writing dialogue as one of the hardest things about creating a story, and hide behind mountains of internal monologue or descriptions to compensate. If you want to create a fast paced adventure (that might not be your cup of tea. That’s fine too.) you’re going to need snappy dialogue.

If you end up having issues writing dialogue, it might stem from not knowing your characters well enough. By knowing your characters, you can speak for them. The more deeply you understand them, the more rich your dialogue becomes. You have to be an actor. You have to get lost in each role and not think like an author or writer, but like a pirate, or sorceress, or assassin, or whatever characters you’ve dreamed up. Take a lesson from the Matrix:

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Spoon boy: There is no spoon.

Neo: There is no spoon?

Spoon boy: Then you’ll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Listen to the spoon boy, my friends.

Dialogue, just as well as internal monologue or descriptions, can propel and illustrate a story in a reader’s mind, while ALSO actively engaging your reader. Readers can follow dialogue more quickly than long winded explanations. If you notice a lot of internal monologues in your writing, most often it can be turned into dialogue and greatly boost the pace of your novel.

When writing dialogue, don’t draw it out. Slash away as many tags as you can. Things like: “she shouted”, “he growled”, “she said angrily”, “he spat”, only serve to bog down the flow.

Typically all you will need are “said”, “asked” and “replied.” But even then, when it’s clear that there are only two characters talking, those tags could also be dropped. Here is an example:

Blubbering Version:

“So what do you want to do today? It’s really sunny and we should go to the beach! Or the lake!” She trilled.

“Oh, well, you know … I don’t know. I don’t really feel like it. Its really isn’t my thing to go to beaches and lakes.” He whined. “I really don’t want to go.” He groaned, “Don’t make me…”

“Oh come on! Don’t be so boring!” She exclaimed. “It’ll be fun! I promise.” she giggled, pushing him out the door.

“Sheesh. Really? You’re going to force me?” He cried.

“Yes! Now move it!” she laughed.

Tight Version:

“It’s so sunny!” She looked out the window. “We should go to the beach! Or the lake!”

“Ain’t my thing.” he replied.

“Don’t be so boring. It’ll be fun! I promise.” She pushed him out the door.

“Got no choice, do I?”

“Nope! Now move it!”

I hope this helped, now go get writing!

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