If you want to write a book that is impossible to put down, focus on writing powerful dialogue between your characters. Today we’ll share 6 important tips for how to write dialogue that will help your readers create a strong bond to your characters and your story.

Tip #1: Know Your Characters

When you know your characters inside and out, developing their unique voice in the conversation is much easier.

Answering character development questions can help you understand your characters in depth. While you may never write all the details into your story, it will help shape the voice of your characters.

When your characters are well developed, it is
easy and natural to know what they might say in any given situation.
This makes your job as a writer a lot easier! It will also help your
audience connect with your characters as well.

Tip #2: Give Your Dialogue a Purpose

When
characters speak, it better be for a good reason. If you listen to
everyday conversations between people, it can be pretty boring and
mundane without any real purpose.

Avoid small talk between your
characters, as this will most likely only bore your readers, and not
really give much insight into the character’s personalities. Just as you
don’t expect to learn a lot about someone in a real life conversation
of small talk, you can’t expect your readers to form an instant bond to
your characters from a dialogue that doesn’t have a purpose.

Your readers aren’t going to feel very close to your characters
if the dialogue does not go deeper into the depths of their minds,
personalities and motives.

You want to make sure when writing that
every word your characters say has a clear reason for being said. If
the dialogue exchange between two characters isn’t necessary, think
about revising the scene so what they talk about builds anticipation or
suspense.

Tip #3: Remember Dialogue is Not Always Realistic

One of the biggest mistakes writer’s make is adding too many “Ums and Ehs” and other common day expressons into the writing. Dialect is another thing to avoid, as it can be confusing and painful to read.

Pleasantries like “Hello” and “How are you?” can bore readers also.
You want your dialogue to be fast paced and moving – you want to get
straight to the action.

Another thing to remember when keeping
dialogue realistic is to limit your use of profanity, slang, and
stereotypes. Not only can this alienate readers, it can also make your
book seem dated in a couple of years. If you’re in doubt, consider
visiting the Urban Dictionary which has definitions and usage for a lot of common slang words.

If your word is in the Urban Dictionary, you may want to consider using a different word!

Tip #4: Understand That Boring Dialogue Tags are OK

In school we’re taught to use all kinds of different synonyms for the word “said”. However, studies have shown that readers will treat the word “said” as a period – they will not even notice it in use. If you write words that are longer and complicated it can lead to the reader becoming fatigued.

Stick with words like: asked, said, replied.

If it becomes
repetitive, stop using them all together and break it up with sentences
that use action. Remember you don’t always need to put them in every
paragraph, especially if it’s clear who is speaking.

Tip #5: Keep Formatting and Punctuation Simple While Writing Dialogue

Want to turn your readers off fast? Write gigantic paragraphs of dialogue.

Break your dialogue up into short, concise sentences that get straight to the point. A paragraph when writing dialogue should never have more than 2-3 sentences.

Learning how to punctuate dialogue takes some practice, but there are
all sorts of resources online to help you. Having a desk reference of
grammar can be invaluable as a fiction writer.

Tip #6: Study and Practice to Learn How to Write Dialogue!

The
more you study and practice writing dialogue, the more experience you
will have. More experience in writing dialogue will help you naturally
fit conversations into your stories.

Here are some ways you can study and practice writing dialogue:

• Read plays and screenplays.
• Watch movies or television shows.
• Read books with strong character development through dialogue.
• Search through GoodReads for quotes to help you find some interesting book choices.
• Pay attention to your own personal conversations and the conversations you overhear.

Most importantly, practice writing the conversations between your characters. Use writing prompts and exercises to stretch your creativity.

Culled from Think Written