(Without Making Readers Cringe)
Let’s be real. Dialogue is where a lot of otherwise great stories quietly go off the rails. You could have a brilliant concept, a strong plot, and characters with real potential, but if the dialogue falls flat, readers will start to squirm. Or worse, skim.
Too stiff? It sounds like an instructional manual.
Too real? It reads like a voicemail your aunt left about her cat.
Too much? It becomes a series of dramatic monologues no one asked for.
Great dialogue doesn’t try to mimic real conversation word for word. It’s not a transcript. It’s real life with sharper timing, clearer rhythm, and less filler. The ums, likes, and awkward silences get trimmed. The moments that matter are heightened. The emotions are distilled.
Good dialogue isn’t just about sounding natural. It’s about revealing character, creating tension, building connection, and moving the story forward, often all at once.
Here’s how to write dialogue that does just that.
1. Skip the Small Talk
Readers don’t need to hear the entire “Hi, how are you? I’m good, how are you?” unless something important is hiding in the way it’s being said. Most of the time, you can skip the warm-up and dive straight into the good stuff.
Great dialogue starts mid-beat. It opens with tension, motive, emotion, or subtext already in motion. You don’t need pleasantries. You need purpose.
Ask yourself: what is the real reason this conversation is happening in this scene? If it’s just two people checking in, it might be time to rework the moment. If something is at stake, even something small like a lingering grudge or a half-kept secret, then you’ve got the beginnings of real tension.
Let your characters collide, not chat politely in line at the pharmacy.
2. Every Line Should Do Something
Dialogue should never exist just to fill space or mimic natural chatter. Every line your character speaks should serve at least one clear purpose. Ideally, it should do more than one.
Good dialogue might:
- Reveal something about who a character is
- Create or escalate conflict
- Build intimacy or increase distance
- Deliver necessary information in an emotionally engaging way
- Make the reader feel something, curiosity, concern, tension, joy, dread
If a line of dialogue is not pulling its weight, cut it. And if you’re tempted to include “pass the salt” or “I’m going to the store” just to mimic realism, ask yourself if that’s the best use of your reader’s attention.
Unless “pass the salt” is code for “I know what you did,” there’s probably a better line waiting to be written.
3. People Don’t Speak in Paragraphs
One of the fastest ways to lose momentum in a scene is to let a character speak uninterrupted for an entire page. Unless you are intentionally writing a monologue or a character who loves the sound of their own voice, this can kill the pacing and pull the reader out of the moment.
Dialogue works best when it feels active. That means interruptions, misunderstandings, shifting tones, competing motives, and moments where someone says the wrong thing or hears something the wrong way.
If your character is making a speech, break it up with:
- Actions
- Reactions from other characters
- Questions, objections, or interruptions
- Internal thoughts or beats that ground the moment
Think of your dialogue as a tennis match, not a solo serve. Let it bounce.
4. Read It Out Loud
This is the golden rule, and it works every time. If a line of dialogue sounds awkward when you say it, it will feel awkward when someone reads it. Dialogue lives in the ear, not just on the page.
Read your scenes out loud, alone if you need to. Pay attention to the rhythm. Notice the pauses, the spots where you stumble or squint, and any lines that don’t sound like real speech.
This is also a great way to catch overly formal lines, stiff turns of phrase, or moments where every character inexplicably speaks like a narrator from a historical documentary.
And yes, bonus points if you commit fully and do the voices.
5. Ditch the Fancy Dialogue Tags
Here’s a truth many new writers resist: you do not need to get creative with dialogue tags. You don’t need to say someone “exclaimed” or “retorted” or “interjected loudly” every time they open their mouth.
The word “said” is invisible in the best possible way. Readers skip right over it and stay focused on what’s being said.
Better still? You don’t need a tag at all if the surrounding action or tone makes it clear who is speaking and how.
Consider these two versions:
- “I’m fine,” she said.
- “I’m fine.” She slammed the cupboard shut.
The second one shows tone through action. No tag required. We know exactly how she feels, even though her words say otherwise.
Save the fancy tags for the rare moment when tone is truly ambiguous. Otherwise, keep it simple.
6. Let the Silence Speak
Sometimes the most powerful lines are the ones that are never spoken out loud.
Subtext is where good dialogue becomes great. Not everything needs to be said plainly. In fact, some of the most emotionally charged moments come from characters who can’t or won’t speak their truth directly.
Let characters lie, dodge the truth, or imply what they are afraid to say; let one believe something untrue while the other stays silent out of fear, love, or anger.
Here’s a simple example:
- “Sure. Whatever you want.”
Is it agreement? Resignation? Bitterness? Passive-aggression? Love? It depends on the context. That’s what makes it work.
When you let subtext carry weight, your dialogue becomes layered. Readers lean in, trying to decode what’s really going on.
And that is exactly what you want.
7. Give Each Character a Distinct Voice
In real life, people speak differently depending on where they’re from, what they’ve been through, and what they value. Your characters should be no different.
If all your characters sound the same, the dialogue becomes harder to follow and less believable.
Some ways to vary voice without overdoing it:
- Sentence length and structure
- Use (or avoidance) of contractions
- Vocabulary choices
- How often they interrupt or ask questions
- Their sense of humor (or lack of one)
- Their relationship to silence
You don’t need to turn every character into a caricature, but you should be able to identify who’s speaking even without a tag. That’s when you know you’ve nailed it. And if you want to dive deeper into how your own writing voice shapes the page, check out Finding Your Writing Voice — it’ll help you see how voice works on both the character and author level.
8. Less Is Usually More
Great dialogue rarely comes in bulk. It lands best when it’s sharp, tight, and intentional.
If you find yourself writing long exchanges where characters say exactly what they mean, take another pass. Look for places to trim. Trust the reader to infer. Let silence, gesture, or implication do part of the talking.
If a line doesn’t sting, crackle, reveal, or move something forward, consider cutting it.
Remember, you’re not writing conversation. You’re writing story. Every line should earn its place.
Final Thoughts: Make It Matter
Compelling dialogue is not about being clever or witty. It’s about making characters feel real. It’s about creating friction, connection, confusion, intimacy, and truth.
Your dialogue does not need to be perfect. But it does need to be honest.
Let the scene breathe, bite, and bruise, revealing what your characters cannot say with actions alone.
And above all, let it feel like something worth listening to.
Because if your characters are brave enough to speak, your readers will want to hear what they have to say.
You might also enjoy:
Pacing: How not to bore or overwhelm your reader
Understanding character arcs without a film degree
First lines and last chapters: Starting strong and sticking the landing