How to improve dialogue

Jen

The one problem I've had in my writing is writing good dialogue. I know about reading aloud but what else can I do?
Can anyone recommend any books or resources on this? I don't want to buy any book because I've a few books on writing and some end up not being what I expect

Mrs Bear

One way is to write the dialogue as though it were a script; that avoids all the he said, she said thing (or variations on same) and you concentrate only on the words as spoken by your characters. You can add in the extra information about who is saying what, as and if it's needed, later. You really can't beat reading it aloud.
This seems like a good guide:
http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/crafttechnique/tp/dialogue.htm

Carol

The best thing you can do is listen, whenever you go out tune into the voices around you, if you have the tv or radio on pay attention to how they sound, form sentences-does their language/word choice/use tell you something about them.

You'll soon do this automatically and you should find it will start to help your dialogue writing.

Then you can improve on it in the editing stage.

Balazs

Yep, Mrs Bear's advice is good. That's how I write dialogue too.

mike olley

Vocalise and record an improvised conversation; keeps the flow natural. If you make a mistake, or take a wrong turn, just go back to a key line and start again but keep the recorder running - you can listen back and edit later.

Phots Moll

Read lots of good dialogue too and try to see how yours compares. Are you not using enough, or maybe you're giving your characters huge chunks of speech, or perhaps yours is to real? Most actual conversations wouldn't make for interesting reading so we need to cut to the good stuff, yet still keeping it seeming natural.

Tiny Nell

I wrote a book which was quite good. I then re-wrote it as a script, the process of which made me realise that the dialogue in the original book could be improved. Once I had perfected the script, I re-wrote the dialogue in the book. It is so much better now - so take heed of Mrs Bear who gives very good advice at all times.

Bill

It is an interesting experience/experiment to watch a film, or a drama, without sound and with subtitles. Films tend to have synchronised subs which makes it easier.
It is surprising how little dialogue there is. The info you are getting visually is the narrative and when you get to make assumptions about the characters - what their aims are, what they are hiding, etc etc you see that the dialogue only needs to be minimal.

The film you watch could be new, or perhaps one you are familiar with.

The rolling sea is the narrative, the breaking waves the dialogue. [cant remember the writer of that quote - a famous American]

Sometimes when reading I have lowered my book and pondered, feeling that I have been in the room and heard, witnessed, a long, revealing conversation, that I have been part of it. Then, when I look back to see how the writer did this, there is hardly any dialogue at all -at least, not as much as I remember. The answer must be that so much is implied, that I have been skilfully led to infer, so much in the narrative.

Generally, I think dialogue needs to be clean and uncluttered and arranged on the page so that it is clear who is speaking without using names. And no ADVERBS!

datco2014

The secret to good dialogue is to have 2 things - 1. Meaningful discussion between the characters& 2. It should move the plot along - john Grisham - love him or hate him is a master at this. I'm not!!

Jen

I just can't seem to get what they're saying sounding natural. I guess practice makes perfect really

dora

There is some really useful advice here.

Noodlehendon

I had trouble writing dialogue until I decided to write two or three short stories ONLY in dialogue. Having done that, dialogue now is much easier.

Carol

Reading aloud will help that, Jen. The human ear is a wonderful editing tool.

Jediya

I usually record myself reading on my phone's sound recorder and play it back.

I've also recorded myself reading established authors books (or just audiobooks in general) for comparison .... and fun.

Liz

That reminds me. I compared my reading of Billy Collins' 'litany', (You are the Bread and the Knife) with a 3 year old from YouTube. The three year old won. My whole family voted.

Here he is:

Dwight

Bloomin heck, Liz, that is fantastic!

Claudia

The advice on dialogue in one of my 'How to Write' books was to write oblique replies. i.e. when one character asks a question, the second character doesn't give a direct answer:
'How are you?'
'Do you think I should change my hairstyle?'
That sort of thing.

markwill212

I believe reading a lot would help to improve your dialogue.