How to Write Dialogue That Sings

"We need to discuss the upcoming heist, Jonathan," Amelia announced, her tone formal. "Our success depends on meticulous planning."

"Indeed," Jonathan replied. "I have prepared the blueprints for our review."

This is how information is exchanged. It's not how people talk. First-draft dialogue often sounds stiff, on-the-nose, and generic. It serves a purpose but lacks the spark of life. Now, consider this version:

"You're late," Amelia said, not looking up from the schematics spread across the table.

"Had to circle the block. Man in a grey hat." Jonathan dropped a heavy roll of blueprints, the sound echoing in the warehouse. "He's gone now."

Good dialogue does triple duty: it reveals character, advances the plot, and creates tension. It’s one of the most powerful tools in a writer's kit. In this article, we'll discuss five practical techniques to make your dialogue sound natural and give your characters a voice of their own.

1. Write How People Actually Talk (Not How They Write)

The first step toward writing better dialogue is to unlearn the formal rules of grammar that govern prose. Human speech is messy, efficient, and often ungrammatical.

The Natural Speech Trick

Real conversations are filled with shortcuts and imperfections. To capture this, you should:

• Use contractions: "It is" becomes "it's," "do not" becomes "don't." Unless a character is intentionally formal or robotic, contractions are the default.
• Embrace sentence fragments: People rarely speak in complete, perfectly structured sentences. A thought might trail off. Or be a single word. Like this.
• Allow interruptions: Conversations aren't always a clean back-and-forth. People cut each other off, finish each other’s sentences, or talk over one another when emotions are high.

Compare the formal "I would like to go to the city" with the more natural "Hey, let's head into town." The second version feels grounded in reality.

What to Cut

Just as important as what you put in is what you leave out.

• Skip the greetings and small talk: Jump into the scene mid-conversation. Readers don't need to hear characters say "hello" and ask about the weather unless it's crucial to the plot. Start at the interesting part.
• Remove "as you know" exposition: Dialogue is a poor vehicle for info-dumping. Characters shouldn't tell each other things they both already know just for the reader's benefit. Find more organic ways to deliver crucial information.
• Trim filler: Cut any line of dialogue that doesn't reveal character or move the story forward.

The Read-Aloud Test

This is the single best way to catch unnatural dialogue. Read your scenes out loud. If a sentence feels clunky or you stumble over the words, it’s a sign that your characters shouldn't be saying it either. The rhythm and flow should feel effortless.

2. Give Each Character a Distinct Voice

In a well-written novel, the reader should be able to tell who is speaking without dialogue tags. Each character's speech patterns should be as unique as their personality. If all your characters sound the same, they likely sound a lot like you, the author.

Three Quick Differentiation Techniques

• Sentence Length: Does a character speak in long, elaborate sentences, or in short, clipped phrases? A nervous academic might ramble, while a weary soldier might be terse.
• Vocabulary Choices: A character's education, age, region, and profession will shape their word choice. A teenage gamer uses different slang than a retired literature professor. A mechanic will describe a faulty engine differently than a painter would.
• Directness: Some characters are blunt and say exactly what they mean. Others are evasive, using sarcasm, euphemisms, or talking around the issue to avoid conflict.

The Cover-the-Name-Tag Test

Take a page of dialogue from your manuscript and remove all the dialogue tags ("he said," "she asked"). Can you still confidently identify who is speaking each line based on their voice alone? If not, it's a sign that your characters' voices need more differentiation. For more on building out your characters, check out this guide on character development.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Overdoing dialect: Suggest an accent with a few well-chosen words or by altering sentence rhythm. Avoid heavy phonetic spelling ("Ah'm goin' ter th' store"), which can be difficult to read and often slips into caricature. Speaking of which...
• Creating caricatures: A character's voice should be consistent and believable, not a collection of exaggerated verbal tics.

3. Master Subtext: What's NOT Being Said

Direct communication is often boring in fiction. The most compelling dialogue operates on two levels: the surface conversation and the underlying, unspoken meaning. This is subtext.

Why Direct Communication is Boring

In real life, people rarely say exactly what they feel, especially when the stakes are high. They hide their motives, protect their feelings, and manipulate situations. A conversation about what to have for dinner can really be about a deep-seated resentment in a failing relationship. The tension lies in the gap between what is said and what is meant.

Creating Subtext in Your Dialogue

• Characters dodge questions or change the subject: When a character avoids a direct answer, it reveals they are hiding something or are uncomfortable.
• Characters have conflicting goals: One person may be hunting for a fugitive. The other might be trying desperately not to reveal that it's them. This creates immediate friction.
• Power dynamics are at play: An employee speaking to their boss will choose their words more carefully than when speaking with a friend. This creates a layer of tension.

The Iceberg Principle

Think of your dialogue as the tip of an iceberg. Only 10% of the meaning is in the words themselves. The other 90% is the history, the emotions, and the secrets beneath the surface. For example, the line "Make sure you lock the door" can be a simple reminder. Or, depending on the context, it can mean "I don't trust you to keep us safe." Honing this skill is a key part of the editing process, and an area where an in-depth manuscript critique from a tool like Inkshift can provide valuable feedback.

4. Use Action Beats, Not Constant Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags ("he said," "she whispered") are functional, but overusing them or using overly descriptive ones can pull the reader out of the story.

Why "Said" is Your Friend

The word "said" is largely invisible to readers. Their brains are conditioned to skim over it, allowing them to focus on the dialogue itself. Resist the urge to use showy alternatives like "exclaimed," "hissed," "intoned," or "groaned." Let the dialogue itself convey the emotion. And never use tags that describe an action, such as "she laughed" or "he shrugged."

Action Beats: The Better Choice

Action beats are brief descriptions of a character's actions woven between lines of dialogue. They are often a more powerful choice than a simple tag.

• Why they work: Action beats ground the conversation in a physical space, reveal a character's inner state through body language, and help control the pacing of the scene.
• Comparison:
  • With Tags: "I can't believe you did that," she said angrily. "It was a mistake," he said defensively.
  • With Action Beats: She slammed the cabinet door. "I can't believe you did that." He refused to meet her eyes, focusing instead on a crack in the plaster. "It was a mistake."

The second version is more immersive and emotionally resonant.

Finding the Balance

Not every line of dialogue needs attribution. In a rapid back-and-forth between two characters, the reader can easily keep track of who is speaking. Use tags or action beats when necessary for clarity or to intentionally slow the pace and add visual texture to the scene.

5. Add Conflict to Every Conversation

Agreement is the enemy of engaging dialogue. Even conversations between friends and allies should have some form of friction to keep them interesting.

Why Agreement is the Enemy

Conflict doesn't always mean a shouting match. It means tension. Each character in a scene should want something, and those wants should not be perfectly aligned. Every conversation should have stakes, however small. If two characters are just agreeing with each other, the scene has no momentum.

Quick Ways to Add Tension

• Characters misunderstand each other: A simple misinterpretation can create a ripple of conflict.
• They have different goals for the conversation: One wants to confess a secret, while the other wants to borrow money.
• Someone is hiding information: The tension comes from the character trying to maintain their secret.

Consider a scene where two characters agree on a plan. It's flat. Now, rewrite it so one character is enthusiastic while the other is secretly terrified but trying not to show it. The dialogue might be similar, but the scene is now charged with tension.

We've written extensively on how to craft tension in fiction. If you need a refresher, including how to add stakes to scenes and create meaningful character motives, here's the link to the article.

Conclusion

Writing dialogue that feels alive is a skill that improves dramatically with practice. By focusing on natural speech patterns, creating distinct character voices, mastering subtext, using action beats effectively, and injecting conflict, you can transform your conversations from simple exposition into compelling, memorable scenes.

Every writer's first-draft dialogue needs refinement. The revision process is where your characters truly find their voices and their conversations begin to sing.