Young Writers Society

Hey! The title's pretty self-explanatory, but I'm just wondering how I can spice up my dialogue and make it interesting, realistic, and fun to read. Especially writing funny banter or two characters that get along very well or don't get along at all. Do you guys have any tips or suggestions?

1: Body Language.

We pay a lot of attention to body language when we're communicating with others. It makes up something like 70% of communication. Obviously not every single line a character says needs movement to go with it, but if they cross their arms and turn away, or they stomp their foot, or their spine suddenly goes straight -- that's a vital part of communicating with other characters (and the audience).

2: Dialogue Tags.

Don't use so many of these. Take the following example:

"Don't!" she shouted. She turned away from him and walked over to the window that overlooked the bay. Below, thousands of people had begun work for the day, unaware they were doomed.

"Please," he said, following her to the window, "don't take it this way."

"I'll take it whatever way I want," she said.

"Don't!" She turned away from him and stalked over to the window that overlooked the bay. Below, thousands of people had begun work for the day, unaware they were doomed.

His hands rested on her shoulders. "Please—don't take it this way."

"I'll take it whatever way I want."

Dialogue tags aren't a bad thing, especially in scenes with 3 or more characters where it can get hard to keep track of who's talking. But especially in quiet scenes, or those with 2 or less characters, they can usually be cut and the dialogue can be followed directly by action. This makes things happen a little snappier and allows the exchange to have a more emotional bent.

3: Said Isn't Dead, and Adverbs Aren't Bad

When you do use dialogue tags, it's tempting to go all-out with "snapped" and "pleaded" and "begged" and "whimpered" until you hit the funny ones like "smiled" (how do you smile words?) and "bequeathed".

It's not a crime to use "said", and you shouldn't be afraid to use adverbs, but be careful how you use them. For example:

"I hate you," she said angrily.

"I hate you," she said sadly.

"I hate you," she snapped.

In example 1 here, it's redundant—we assume she's angry, because she's saying to the other character "I hate you". We don't need to be told she's angry, but we do need to be told if she's experiencing other emotions, which is why example 2 works. In example 3, we're given a tag that tells us exactly how she says it—so it's like example 1, but without the effect of ""I'm angry," she angered angrily".

4: Funny Banter

Don't write something for the express purpose of it being funny unless it's a comedy or parody novel -- that's my advice, at least. There can be witty moments and light, funny moments, but "funny" and "witty" banter between characters tends to fall flat with readers.

Write the natural progression of the conversation with the characters. If one of those characters is a smart-aleck, then it makes sense for them to be cracking jokes or being sarcastic about the situation at hands. But if all your characters are more serious, then it doesn't make sense for them to suddenly be falling into "funny" banter.

5: Character Relationships

Something that helps me is, when I'm writing, I ask myself "What kind of relationship do these characters have? How would they interact with each other?" and that helps me inform what their dialogue is going to look like.

One of my main characters is very quiet, and goes non-verbal when she gets stressed out. Another main character is loud and anxious, and tends to stress the other one out. So in dialogue, it falls on me to show that while furthering the story.

6: Fun to Read

Dialogue is part of your story. If it stalls the story for the sake of being witty or interesting, then it doesn't really serve a purpose. In the first draft, I would honestly just write through it and write dialogue that serves the purpose of the plot—when you have a better idea of your story and characters in draft 2, you can go back and edit the dialogue to have a more human feel to it and create the 3-dimensional world they live in through how they speak.

Conversations can be hard to write. It's definitely something to work on ironing out in later drafts, learning from others (lots of reading and looking up articles/examples has helped me), and don't worry about it too much in an early draft.

Hope this helps some!

Thanks for the tips Vervain