The Secret to Better Dialog

riting dialog can be very frustrating. We spend our lives listening to people talk, so writers often assume that dialog should be the easiest thing to write. Not so! Writing natural, motivated dialog is a real skill that takes time to develop. The first step is understanding this simple secret: If your characters sound like they have no personality, it’s because you haven’t given them one!

Strong dialog requires well-defined characters. Imagine a comic strip where all the characters were stick figures. It would be pretty hard to tell who’s who! Dialog works the same way. If you want your readers to be able to connect with your characters, they can’t have “stick figure” personalities. They have to have well-defined, individual features.

So, to write better dialog, try these six steps to well-developed characters:

1. Become your character’s biographer. If you’re having trouble with a character’s dialog, write his biography. You don’t have to write his complete life story, but you should be detailed enough to allow you to really get to know him. First, write down your character’s physical characteristics: age, gender, height, weight, hair color, etc. Your character’s appearance influences what the other characters think about him, and how they interact with him. Also, your character’s personality is affected by what he sees in the mirror, and how he thinks about himself.

4. Write down a little about the character’s childhood. Was she happy, or did she come from an abusive family? Was her family rich, or did her parents work two jobs? A character’s childhood influences how her personality and views develop, and how she think about the world.

5. Write about your character’s world. Where does she work? Who are her friends? (Those that don’t appear in the story.) Where does she live? What kinds of things does she own? What does she keep in her pockets or purse?

6. Create your character’s extended story. What was your character doing before the story began? What will she do after? What was your character doing before the story began? What does she plan to do after the story ends? Imagine that you are writing a story about two young women working in a funeral home. They will say different things if they plan to work there forever than if, say, they were planning to quit in a week and return to college.

7. How does your character feel about the other people in the story? Your character will say very different things to her boyfriend than to her boss. If she loves her boyfriend, she will talk one way, but if she is cheating on him, she will talk another way.

8. Characters might change how they speak if they are talking to someone of a different age, or someone of a different educational level, or a different economic class. Your characters should have strong, individual personalities. These personalities include opinions about the other characters.

Once you are familiar with your characters and how they relate to one another, you can better understand their motivations. Just like their actions, your characters words should be strongly motivated. They should have a reason to say everything they say, even if they aren’t consciously aware of it themselves. Characters with strong personalities will almost automatically form opinions about each other. These opinions guide their relationships and how they interact. After time and practice, your characters will interact in ways that will surprise you.

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