Dialogue is a key element of a good novel. We like it sometimes lively and witty, sometimes simple and moving. It’s also a double-edged sword: write it too quickly and your story soon loses its rhythm and interest. Edith & Nous share some tips for writing dialogue that hits the mark.
Why write dialogue?
After creating and developing the characters in your novel, it’s natural to want to give them a voice. Dialogue is also a way to bring your text to life and energize your writing. But be careful: dialogue shouldn’t become a systematic recourse or an easy way to bring your characters to life. While dialogue can lighten the narrative or speed it up, for example, after an information-rich explanatory passage, it can also slow it down and disrupt the rhythm of the story if it’s not well-handled. Every spoken line must contribute meaning to the novel.
The author must therefore always keep in mind the value that dialogue between characters can bring to their story. Does it illustrate or reveal a character’s personality? Does it express or reveal a protagonist’s emotions? Does it provide information that will advance the plot? Does it intrigue the reader?
What punctuation should be used?
Quotation marks or dashes? It’s easy to get confused with punctuation rules, which aren’t always clear. However, applying them is important to avoid losing your reader. If you’re sending a manuscript to a publisher, they will also appreciate a text that adheres to typographical conventions.
The rule is that different lines of dialogue must be preceded by a dash. And not just any dash, mind you! It has to be an em dash or long dash. A space must separate the dash from the text, and a line break indicates another character’s response.
And what about quotation marks? The long-standing norm was to begin a dialogue with opening quotation marks, which were then closed once the dialogue was over to return to the narration. In this case, the first line of dialogue doesn’t take a dash. It’s also appropriate to close the quotation marks and reopen them if the narrator intervenes mid-dialogue. In French editions, French quotation marks (“ ”) are generally preferred to English quotation marks (“ ”). However, this convention is no longer systematic in novels and is even tending to fall out of use. With quotation marks and dashes, or just dashes: you can choose the method that suits you best!
Parenthetical remarks are narrative exceptions within dialogue. Used to characterize the intonation or speech of characters (“he cried,” “she grunted”), it is not necessary to enclose them in quotation marks to incorporate them into the dialogue. For example:
“I’m waiting for Marie’s answer,” she said.
“ You’re right, she gives good advice,” he replied, laughing.
An aside can be a way to indicate which character is speaking. However, care must be taken not to repeat them, as this can quickly make the text cumbersome.
At the Proofreading Workshop, a professional editor will analyze the quality of your dialogues and offer you a personalized analysis of your manuscript (genre, characters, narrative structure, plot and style).
6 tips for writing impactful dialogue
Seek naturalness, flee banality
Naturalness is one of the key elements of successful dialogue. If the exchange sounds artificial, the author risks breaking the reader’s spell, which is something to be avoided at all costs. However, naturalness doesn’t necessarily mean identical to reality. The pursuit of realism shouldn’t be confused with an exact transcription of “real life.” Anything that might weigh down the narrative should be omitted; therefore, avoid phrases like “Good morning, Madam,” “How’s the family/the dog/life?” and other banalities that could diminish the reader’s interest. When two characters are talking, the author can begin their exchange with what will interest the reader, leaving the reader free to imagine what isn’t explicitly stated.
Tip: Read your dialogues aloud to check their naturalness.
To distinguish the characters
The characters in your novel are not interchangeable, and this should be reflected in the dialogue. Without resorting to clichés or exaggeration, try to give each of them a distinct way of speaking. Do they use formal or informal language? Are they talkative or laconic? Does their vocabulary reflect their age? What kind of relationship do they have with the people they’re speaking to? Having the answers to these questions will help you write authentic dialogue that highlights your characters in all their uniqueness and captivates the reader.
Tip: Draw inspiration from conversations you hear in everyday life, from people around you. Identify frequently used phrases, ways of speaking, and speech patterns.
Show rather than tell
Dialogue can be very useful for expressing a character’s feelings or illustrating the relationships between different protagonists. These techniques must be implemented subtly, trusting in the reader’s intelligence. It’s generally better to show a character’s emotional state rather than explicitly stating it, or worse, explaining it. To achieve this, consider non-verbal communication. A character’s movements, posture, and expressions can convey as much as their words. This approach to portraying your characters will allow you to avoid overloading your dialogue with adverbial phrases or parenthetical phrases (“he shouted,” “she exclaimed”).
Varying modes of speech
The words, and sometimes the thoughts, of characters can be written in direct or indirect speech. In the first case, the author provides a faithful transcription of what the characters say, presented with specific punctuation (dashes and quotation marks). In indirect speech, the words are reported by the narrator within the narrative; explicitly (“He told them about his vacation”) or implicitly when the content of the speech is not introduced by a reporting verb. Varying these different types of narration can be a way to energize your writing. Each has its advantages and can bring something different to the writing and layout.
Direct speech:
” Hello Marie, how are your parents?”
— They are doing well, thank you! My father is writing a new novel.
” Really? I can’t wait to read the manuscript; I loved his last book. “
Indirect speech:
He greeted Marie and asked her about her parents. She warmly replied that they were well and confided that her father was writing a new novel. His response was immediate: he was very eager to read the manuscript.
These two passages present the same dialogue, but in two different ways.
We notice that direct speech is more lively and faster-paced. It’s a way of introducing a welcome change of rhythm after a more narrative passage and of freeing up space in the layout.
Indirect discourse doesn’t constitute a change of pace compared to the rest of the narrative, but its purpose is to engage the reader’s imagination, as they don’t know what was actually said. It can also allow the narrator to apply a “filter” to the conversation, reporting it ironically or mysteriously, for example. Finally, this type of discourse can be very useful for avoiding repetition (“Marie explained to them what had happened”).
Saying more in fewer words
Conciseness is sometimes the key to conveying the depth of a character’s emotions. Launching a character into a long monologue to demonstrate the complexity of their feelings can be tempting. But it can also be interesting to play with what is left unsaid, with implications. If a character is overwhelmed by their emotions, showing them struggling to find the right words is a subtle way to stimulate the reader’s imagination and empathy. This will also allow you to write sharper, more meaningful lines, often resulting in a more literary effect.
Tip: Take inspiration from film dialogue, which always aims to achieve maximum impact with few words. Writer Brandon McNulty offers an interesting video on this topic on YouTube (in English with French subtitles).
Dialogue at the beginning and end of a novel: a risky gamble
Beginning your story with dialogue can be an engaging way to immerse your reader. However, you must pay close attention to the writing of each line to capture their attention. An introductory dialogue shouldn’t be too long either, as at this stage of the narrative, the reader has no prior knowledge of the context or the characters. Therefore, you need to find a good balance between mystery and impact. The same applies to dialogue at the end of a novel: the final lines should be memorable. For more advice on novel endings, we invite you to read our blog post, ” How Not to (Too) Mess Up Your Novel Ending,” written by author and trainer Raphaël Bischoff.
As you’ve probably gathered, rhythm and naturalness are key ingredients for writing good dialogue and bringing authenticity to the story. Don’t hesitate to play with the conventions and advice we’ve just given you. For example, writing dialogue full of platitudes can be a way to illustrate the artificiality of a conversation. The originality of a novel also lies in the distance it takes from established norms. Once your book is finished, all that’s left is to test your dialogue with your first readers. For this, you can use beta readers or professional proofreading and editing services . You now have all the tools you need to successfully write impactful dialogue!