How to Write Novel Dialogue That Sounds Right

Aug 17, 2010
James Parsons

How to Write Novel Dialogue - James Parsons

Writing dialogue is an important aspect of how to write a novel. These eight writing tips will help the novice produce dialogue that is realistic.

There’s every chance that 1/3 of any novel will be given over to dialogue. It is an important aspect of story-telling and can add considerably to the charm and success of a good book. When done well, dialogue goes almost unnoticed and sinks into the subconscious in such a way that the reader could almost mentally identify that character’s voice. Done poorly, dialogue can be clumsy, ugly and boring and throw the reader out of the story.

How to Write Dialogue

Dialogue should achieve something. It cannot be a filler. It must further the plot, reveal something important or expand the characterization. As such, hellos and comments about the weather and ‘How’s the family?’ are usually presumed and passed over in favour of the real message in the dialogue.
Dialogue must not be used to dump back story on the reader by having one character tell another what he or she must surely know: “Your mother, Elizabeth Boston, who lives in London, came to see me the other day to tell me about the death of your only brother, Alfred. Do you think your position as head of the family company Williams and Sons is still secure?”

Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags should be ‘invisible’ to the reader. Sure, those tags are there but they must never draw attention away from the words. The reader should be lost in the action, hearing the very voices of the characters. A tag such as ‘she expostulated with consternation’ will drag the reader out of the story and destroy any illusion of reality that the reader has created for him or herself.
Writers who believe that tags should have variety will be distraught to learn that by far the best and most ‘invisible’ tag is the familiar old ‘he said, ’ or ‘George said’. Others in the same category are ‘he replied’ and ‘he asked’. Bear in mind that ‘he questioned’ is an action, and not suitable as a dialogue tag.
It is hard to resist the occasional more specific tag such as ‘he grumbled’ or ‘John whispered,’ but examine each instance to ensure that it adds something valuable to the meaning. Take care with verbs such as ‘he barked’ or ‘she hissed’. Remember that someone can’t bark four lines of text....it pertains to a single word or very few. Similarly, it is impossible to hiss words that aren’t sibilant; ‘You blasted big-headed caricature of a human being!” is not hissable.
Novice writers should ensure that the ‘dialogue tag’ they have chosen is not, in fact, an action tag. Actions can‘t say words and should not be connected to dialogue with a comma as a dialogue tag. Thus, this sentence is wrong: “I want nothing to do with you,” she rejected his advances with a shake of her head. An action tag connected with a comma prior to the dialogue is also wrong: He grabbed a sandwich off the tray, “I’m as hungry as a horse.” In each case, that comma should be a period (full stop).

Writing Dialect in the Novel

Dialect in dialogue should not be so authentic that it becomes impossible for the reader to make sense of it. A Scottish character might justifiably say: ”The bauchle cam ben the hoose; I cood nae sae Awa an bile yer heid! Whit’s a body tae die?” but the average reader might find the effort of interpreting lengthy speeches like this too great and just give up on such a novel.
Similarly, be careful about using snippets of foreign languages to create authenticity and then using some obvious contrivance to explain it to the reader. For example: “Punktlickeit ist Alles!” Helmut said, but it came as no surprise to me that he, being German, valued punctuality above all else.

It is important for novice writers to learn the conventions of dialogue as readers recognise dialogue that doesn’t look and sound right. Such conventions are identical for both short story writing and structuring a novel. Novice writers should not overlook the value of a good writing course.