Fiction Writing
Easy Ways to Fix Dialogue
Make stories more engaging with these tips for top-notch dialogue.
Dialogue can be deceptive. It’s just fictional characters talking to one another. Easy, right?
Don’t fall for that trap.
Good dialogue should be snappy, slightly unexpected, and dynamic, but what usually flows out in a first draft is, well, boring.
For most writers, good dialogue takes multiple revisions and tweaks to get it right — but it’s doable, and absolutely worth the effort in reader engagement.
Get the words down on the page for your first draft, and then when you’re ready to revise, take your dialogue from boring and flat to colorful and fun.
Here are some common mistakes and easy ways to fix them.
Dialogue Should Feel Real, but Should Not Be Realistic
What does that mean?
Skip the small talk about weather, the greetings, and the back-and-forth verbal badminton as they call each other by their names.
Sure, we do that in real life, but it’s boring to read. (Admit it — how many times have you skimmed over dialogue that didn’t seem to add anything to the moment?)
Unless that exchange is filled with bubbling subtext and/or innuendo — such as between characters from Fargo — following such conventions is a quick way to lose the reader’s interest.
We make small talk all day long, often out of habit. So readers know that when one character greets another, the expected response is a greeting in return.
“Hey, Andros.”
“Hi, Georgia. How are you?”
“I’m good, Andros, and you?”
“Can’t complain, Georgia. How’s the family?”
I’ll stop there because I’m bored already. When all the dialogue flows as expected, readers are tempted to skim.
Consider this conversation starter instead:
“Hey, Andros.”
“What do you want?”
Aside from losing the annoying repetition of each others names, when Andros doesn’t play to convention with his answer, the reader’s curiosity is piqued. No temptation to skim.
Which leads us to the next element…
Make Responses Unpredictable
Unpredictable dialogue is interesting.
Readers want to know why responses are unexpected. Even if they think they know why, their curiosity will drive them to confirm those suspicions. And every page turn is another win for a writer.
Additionally, characters should be unpredictable because people are unpredictable. Think of the last time you had an unexpected encounter with someone. Or maybe a friend gave you advice that countered everything you knew about them. That moment probably stuck with you for a while afterward — it made you pay attention.
Unpredictability can be the difference between a “flat” character and one that feels so real readers feel like they know them. When a character is true to themselves, regardless of convention, that’s where they come to life.
Readers crave this type of excitement in dialogue, so keep them turning the page for more.
And to keep them turning those pages, make the act of reading easy through the following mechanical methods.
Single vs. Double Quotation Marks
For fiction, and creative nonfiction, the Chicago Manual of Style reigns. And for dialogue, one of the easier rules to remember for publishing in the U.S. is:
Double quotes = Dialogue
The only time single quotation marks are used are when one character is quoting another — which is pretty rare. There are a few exceptions, like emphasis, but even emphasis can be achieved using another technique like italics.
If a character is speaking, they’re using double quotation marks.
Correct: “Put down the gun.”
Not: ‘Put down the gun.’
Action Beats vs. Dialogue Tags
There are two ways for readers to know who is doing the speaking: through action beats or dialogue tags.
Action beats are the movements accompanying what a character is saying. These are the balled fists, the body turning away, and the picking at a beer bottle label details that let the reader know there’s more going on than what’s being said.
How a character responds clues the reader in to subtext. When the action beat betrays an emotion that wasn’t spoken aloud, that screams subtext and again, piques the reader’s curiosity.
A word of caution on action beats, though: Don’t settle for the first action that comes to mind.
Actually, do settle for your first draft — just get the words on the page! — but then when you go back and revise, look for something the character can do that communicates something more complex than smiling, scratching their chin, or scowling.
And while we’re talking about smiling and scowling… these are actions, not dialogue tags.
A dialogue tag is the “he said” and “she said” to identify the speaker. While it can be tempting to get creative (“he growled” or “she shrieked”), use that color sparingly. “Said” disappears into the text, simply cuing the reader to the speaker to avoid any confusion as they focus on what’s being said. But creative dialouge tags require more effort from reader to figure out exactly how those words were delivered.
Make it easy for the reader — the dialogue itself should indicate the delivery, not the tag.
One Speaker Per Paragraph
This is where action beats can lead writers astray. It can be easy to get caught up in action when a character delivers a line, and then have the reaction directly follow...
But if a reader can’t easily follow who is saying what, they will lose interest or get frustrated. So make it easy on the reader so the pages keep turning:
Every time the conversation bounces from one character to the next, that’s a new paragraph. If the action beat is that same character’s action, it can stay in that same paragraph, but as soon as the action or dialogue switches to someone else, start a new paragraph.
The exception — when a character is speaking, acknowledges a reaction from another but continues speaking.
This is one of the more common issues I’ve seen with newer writers. It can take some practice to master, but anything that makes it easier for the reader to get lost in your story is worth the effort.
Don’t Forget the Purpose
Remember, dialogue only belongs in a manuscript if it develops either a character or the plot.
Again, every word spoken should move the plot forward, or give the reader additional insight into a character.
Keeping this in mind helps writers avoid the conversation preambles about the weather (unless weather figures prominently into the plot, but even then, keep it interesting and unique to the character’s point of view).
Dialogue is a great way to reveal a character’s opinions, which builds a more robust character and avoids the pitfall of “flat” or “cardboard” characters.
And Lastly… Have Fun!
Dialogue should be creative and interesting, and the best way to achieve that is to have fun with it. Play around with voices, how the words sound, and building tension.
If you as a writer are having fun writing the dialogue, it shows. And generally the reader will have fun, too, and that’s exactly what keeps them coming back for more.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of fixes for bland dialogue — for that there are great books on the craft. (Feel free to reach out for recommendations, I have a bookshelf of great resources.)
Hopefully this gives you a good starting place to take your dialogue from blah to zing in revisions. Are there any other dialogue tips that have changed the way you write?
Happy writing!
