Writing Good Dialogue 3: Make It Flow

The two keys to writing good dialogue I have already looked at are...

1. Giving the dialogue a purpose
2. Keeping the novel's conversations concise

The third key to writing good dialogue is to make it flow, and that means making the conversations in your novel read effortlessly and look good on the page.

There are three ways to achieve this...

1. Watch How You Use Dialogue Tags

You know what dialogue tags are - he said, she said and the like.

They're useful little things. But beware of overusing them. Conversations in a novel will sound like games of ping-pong if you have a tag after every single line...

On the other hand, beware of using too few dialogue tags as well. Because there is nothing more annoying for a reader than having to count back lines to work out who is speaking.

Another good piece of advice is to stick to the simple tags - like said and asked. Using dialogue tags like exclaimed or interjected or screeched makes the dialogue sound amateurish.

Adverbs make it sound amateurish, too (as in, "Mary said excitedly"). If you want to demonstrate Mary's excitement, describe her fidgeting in her chair or bouncing on the balls of her feet while she speaks.

2. Vary the Length of the Lines

Writing good dialogue in a novel is ultimately about keeping the readers reading.

Boring them is likely to have the opposite effect, which is why it is so important to make your passages of dialogue flow beautifully.

Here is why varying the length of the lines matters:

• If Character A says something using half a dozen words
• Then Character B replies using a sentence of the same length
• Then Character A says something back using another short sentence

...it can all sound a bit same-ish. A better conversation would look like this:

• Character A says something
• Then Character B replies using a longer sentence. Maybe a couple of them. Or even three
• Character A just shrugs here
• So Character B says something else, something long again that goes on and on and on
• Until Character A cuts them short with a quick line of their own

(I should point out, by the way, that the example right above isn't a blueprint, merely one example of how to shake up your novel's conversations. This section might be full of rules on writing good dialogue, but you should never follow them slavishly at the expense of using your natural instincts.)

3. Break Up the Dialogue With Prose

Having one line of speech, followed by another, then another, then another can sound like ping pong again - even if you do vary the length of the speeches.

To overcome this problem, try freezing a conversation for a few sentences while you...

• Describe what one of the characters is thinking (this is called interior monologue)
• Describe the sound of the rain hitting the window or a dog barking in the distance
• Write anything at all, in fact, except another line of dialogue

Writing Good Dialogue by Making It Flow - A Recap

This before/after example demonstrates all of the key points to remember when writing dialogue that flows...

Next Step: One of the biggest problems beginners have with writing great dialogue is stopping all the characters sounding the same.

I tackle this problem head-on in How to Write Dialogue With Distinction...