Crafting Authentic Voices: Mastering Dialogue In Your Writing

Dialogue plays an important role in ensuring that readers have a great reading experience. However, it’s so much more than just the conversations between characters. For writers, it’s a tool by which you can develop and reveal characters, increase tension and suspense, and if you’re writing a fantasy or sci-fi, a method of revealing details of your secondary world.

Mastering dialogue is tough, however. Indeed, mastery for many of us is something to aspire to rather than something achievable. With that said, there are best practices and methods we can follow to hellp establish unique character voices that allow your readers to connect with your characters on a deeper level.

So here’s how you master dialogue in your writing.

The Art of Listening

To create an authentic dialogue, listening skills are key. It can help to observe the world around you and listen to the choice of words and actual tone of real conversations.

Try to avoid common pitfalls like unrealistic dialogue and excessive exposition. Dialogues should sound natural and reflect real-life interactions.

Note: dialogue in a fiction writing is NOT reported speech, i.e. “Hi, how are you?” “Fine, how are you?”. Always remember speech in a book is selective, it reveals something about a character, perhaps their education, their mood, their attitude. Avoid being a ‘tape recorder’ in your novel.

Here’s an exercise to try: sit in a coffee shop with a notebook, (inconspicuously) listen to a nearby conversation and write down as much of the real dialogue as possible, the umms and ahhs, the trialling offs, the people speaking over each other. Now imagine telling a story around this dialogue and think what is vital in the conversation? What is revealed? What gives insight into who the people are? Suddenly most of what they say doesn’t seem relevant at all.

So, with dialogue it can help to think “dialogue for a purpose”.

two cartoon characters engaging in animated dialogue

Finding Your Character’s Voice

A key step to mastering dialogue in your writing is to find each of our characters’ unique voices.

Each character should have a distinct voice that reflects their background, personality and motivations. Also, make sure that there’s a balance between authenticity and readability.

Tip: remember you are NOT Irvine Welsh, so it’s advisable to try and avoid capturing the accent of characters by writing it exactly as it sounds.

Rather try this: use one distinctive word from the accent when introducing the character speaking for the first time. An example could be: imagine a Texan cowboy walks in to the story: I can’t even deny this story has been boring with ma presence. Been riding all day just to get here. It just ain’t exciting without me! Y’ll hear me?

The ‘ma’, ‘ain’t’ and “y’all” are all very distinct. But don’t let the dialogue do ALL the work, you can all mention surreptitiously the cowboy’s Texan origins (e.g. “those long hot summer nights in Houston”). This all helps contribute towards characterization.

Dialogue Tags and Punctuation – he said/she said

Use dialogue tags and punctuations to enhance the clarity and flow of your story. Creative use of tags can also add depth to character expression, giving the audience a seamless reading experience. Examples of tags include:

said
asked
replied
whispered
shouted
mumbled
exclaimed
inquired
murmured
grumbled
chuckled
laughed
sighed
gasped
groaned
snickered
barked
protested
demanded
sneered

One of the biggest mistakes we see when editing novels (see here for editing advice and classes) is the “he/said/she said” trap – or worse – people finding synonyms for “said”, so the dialogue goes like this:

“I’d like water”, he said.

“Why?” she asked

“Because it’s hot”, he retorted

“But you had a bottle in the car”, she retorted.

In this simple dialogue we see its a simple turning-taking conversation so after the first “she said” the subsequent asked, stated, retorted could all be removed.

To learn more about dialogue tags, see my in-depth guide on how to write dialogue here.

Consider Getting Your Book Edited

There can be a limit to what you can do yourself. It can therefore be helpful to seek the help of a book editor service. Their trained eyes and experience can help improve the dialogue and point out any flaws.

Why? Think about an editor the same way you would think about a medical professional. You wouldn’t consult a friend or someone on the street about a troubling medical issue, so you should rely on experience when it comes to editing your novel.

With the rise of AI and machine learning you may think that something like Grammarly or Prowritingaid would be enough, yes, those get you off the starting blocks but an editor can look at the micro (i.e. language and grammar level) and the macro (big picture level, does the plot flow, are the characters developed, does the timeline make sense?). So there is a place for basic grammar checking apps, but your final draft needs an experienced look over.

Sometimes, one path to mastering dialogue is to get the critical advice of a professional.

Consistency and Continuity

Maintain voice consistency in your novel and be mindful of continuity to ensure a believable dialogue experience. Characters should evolve naturally and purposefully, hence, changes in speech should align with their character development.

You would be surprised how difficult this can be to do, but put yourself in the shoes of the reader, your Scouse villain mysteriously later developing a distinct Cockney lilt! Most offputting and detracting from the story. You always want to maintain that veneer of omnipotence.

Conclusion

Dialogue is a lifeblood of reader engagement. It brings characters to life and contributes to the overall reading experience.

So, keep working on mastering dialogue skills to create a story that feels real and leaves an impact.

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Richie Billing

Richie Billing writes fantasy fiction, historical fiction and stories of a darker nature. He's had over a dozen short stories published in various magazines and journals, with one adapted for BBC radio. In 2021 his debut novel, Pariah's Lament, an epic fantasy, was published by Of Metal and Magic. Richie also runs The Fantasy Writers' Toolshed, a podcast devoted to helping writers improve their craft.

Most nights you can find him up into the wee hours scribbling away or watching the NBA.

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