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Last updated on Sep 21, 2023

How to Write Fabulous Dialogue [9 Tips + Examples]

This post is written by author, editor, and bestselling ghostwriter Tom Bromley. He is the  instructor of Reedsy's 101-day course,  How to Write a Novel .

Good dialogue isn’t about quippy lines and dramatic pauses.

Good dialogue is about propelling the story forward, pulling the reader along, and fleshing out characters and their dynamics in front of readers. Well-written dialogue can take your story to a new level — you just have to unlock it.

In this article, I’ll break down the major steps of writing great dialogue, and provide exercises for you to practice your own dialogue on.

Here's how to write great dialogue in 9 steps:

1. Use quotation marks to signal speech

2. pace dialogue lines by three , 3. use action beats , 4. use ‘said’ as a dialogue tag  , 5. write scene-based dialogue, 6. model any talk on real life , 7. differentiate character voices, 8. "show, don't tell" information in conversation , 9. delete superfluous words, which dialogue tag are you.

Find out in just a minute.

Alfred Hitchcock once said, “Drama is life with all the boring bits cut out.”

Similarly, I could say that good dialogue in a novel is a real conversation without all the fluff — and with quotation marks. 

Imagine, for instance, if every scene with dialogue in your novel started out with:

'Hey, buddy! How are you doing?"

“Great! How are you?""

'Great! Long time no see! Parking was a nightmare, wasn’t it?"

Firstly, from a technical perspective, the quotation marks are inconsistent and incorrectly formatted. To learn about the mechanics of your dialogue and how to format it, we also wrote this full post on the topic that I recommend reading.

Secondly, from a novel perspective, such lines don’t add anything to the story. And finally, from a reading perspective, your readers will not want to sit through this over and over again. Readers are smart: they can infer that all these civilities occur. Which means that you can skip the small talk (unless it’s important to the story) to get to the heart of the dialogue from the get-go.  

For a more tangible example of this technique, check out the dialogue-driven opening to Barbara Kingsolver's novel, Unsheltered .

Screenwriter Cynthia Whitcomb once proposed an idea called the “Three-Beat Rule.” What this recommends, essentially, is to introduce a maximum of three dialogue “beats” (the short phrases in speech you can say without pausing for breath) at a time. Only after these three dialogue beats should you insert a dialogue tag, action beat, or another character’s speech.

Here’s an example from Jane Gardam’s short story, “Dangers”, in which the boy Jake is shooting an imaginary gun at his grandmother:

In theory, this sounds simple enough. In practice, however, it’s a bit more complicated than that, simply because dialogue conventions continue to change over time. There’s no way to condense “good dialogue” into a formula of three this, or two that. But if you’re just starting out and need a strict rule to help you along, then the Three-Beat Rule is a good place to begin experimenting.

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Let’s take a look at another kind of “beats” now — action beats.

Action beats are the descriptions of the expressions, movements, or even internal thoughts that accompany the speaker’s words. They’re always included in the same paragraph as the dialogue, so as to indicate that the person acting is also the person speaking.

On a technical level, action beats keep your writing varied, manage the pace of a dialogue-heavy scene, and break up the long list of lines ending in ‘he said’ or ‘she said’.

But on a character level, action beats are even more important because they can go a level deeper than dialogue and illustrate a character’s body language.

When we communicate, dialogue only forms a half of how we get across what we want to say. Body language is that missing half — which is why action beats are so important in visualizing a conversation, and can help you “show” rather than “tell” in writing.

Here’s a quick exercise to practice thinking about body language in the context of dialogue: imagine a short scene, where you are witnessing a conversation between two people from the opposite side of a restaurant or café. Because it’s noisy and you can’t hear what they are saying, describe the conversation through the use of body language only.

Remember, at the end of the day, action beats and spoken dialogue are partners in crime. These beats are a commonly used technique so you can find plenty of examples —  here’s one from  Never Let Me Go  by Kazuo Ishiguro . 

If there’s one golden rule in writing dialogue, it’s this: ‘said’ is your friend.

Yes, ‘said’ is nothing new. Yes, ‘said’ is used by all other authors out there already. But you know what? There’s a reason why ‘said’ is the king of dialogue tags: it works.

Pro-tip: While we cannot stress enough the importance of "said," sometimes you do need another dialogue tag. Download this free cheatsheet of 270+ other words for said to get yourself covered!

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Upgrade your dialogue with our list of 270 alternatives to “said.”

The thinking goes that ‘said’ is so unpretentious, so unassuming that it focuses readers’ attention on what’s most important on the page: the dialogue itself. As writer Elmore Leonard puts it: 

“Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But ‘said’ is far less intrusive than ‘grumbled,’ ‘gasped,’ ‘cautioned,’ ‘lied.’”

It might be tempting at times to turn towards other words for ‘said’ such as ‘exclaimed,’ or ‘declared,’ but my general rule of thumb is that in 90% of scenarios, ‘said’ is going to be the most effective dialogue tag for you to use while writing dialogue.

So now that we have several guidelines in place, this is a good spot to pause, reflect, and say that there’s no wrong or right way to write dialogue. It depends on the demands of the scene, the characters, and the story. Great dialogue isn’t about following this or that rule — but rather learning what technique to use when . 

If you stick to one rule the whole time — i.e. if you only use ‘said,’ or you finish every dialogue line with an action beat — you’ll wear out readers. Let’s see how unnaturally it plays out in the example below with Sophie and Ethan: 

All of which is to say: don’t be afraid to make exceptions to the rule if the scene asks for it. The key is to know when to switch up your dialogue structure or use of dialogue tags or action beats throughout a scene — and by extension, throughout your book.

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Dialogue isn’t always about writing grammatically perfect prose. The way a person speaks reflects the way a person is — and not all people are straight-A honor students who speak in impeccable English. In real life, the way people talk is fragmented, and punctuated by pauses.

That’s something that you should also keep in mind when you’re aiming to write authentic dialogue.

It can be tempting to think to yourself, “ Oh, I’ll try and slip in some exposition into my dialogue here to reveal important background information.” But if that results in an info-dump such as this — “ I’m just going to the well, Mother — the well that my brother, your son, tragically fell down five years ago ” — then you’ll probably want to take a step back and find a more organic, timely, and digestible way to incorporate that into your story.

Kay Adams is Michael’s date at his sister’s wedding in this scene. Her interest in his family is natural enough that the expository conversation doesn’t feel shoehorned in. 

A distinctive voice for each character is perhaps the most important element to get right in dialogue. Just as no one person in the world talks the same as each other, no one person in your book should also talk similarly.

To get this part of writing dialogue down pat, you need to start out by knowing your characters inside out. How does your character talk? Do they come with verbal quirks? Non-verbal quirks?

Jay Gatsby’s “old sport,” for example, gives him a distinctive, recognizable voice. It stands out because no one else has something as memorable about their speech. But more than that, it reveals something valuable about Gatsby’s character: he’s trying to impersonates a gentleman in his speech and lifestyle.

Likewise, think carefully about your character’s voice, and use catchphrases and similar quirks when they can say something about your character. 

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“Show, don’t tell” is one of the most oft-repeated rules in writing, and a conversation on the page can be a gold mine for “showing.”

Authors can use action beats and descriptions to provide clues for readers to read between the lines. Let’s revisit Sophie and Ethan in this example:

While Sophie claims she hasn’t been obsessing over this project all night, the actions in between her words indicate there’s nothing on her mind  but  work. The result is that you show , through the action beats vs. the dialogue, Sophie being hardworking—rather than telling it.

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As always when it comes to writing a novel: all roads lead back to The Edit, and the dialogue you’ve written is no exception.

So while you’re editing your novel at the end, you may find that a “less is more” mentality will be helpful. Remember to cut out the unnecessary bits of dialogue, so that you can focus on making sure the dialogue you  do  keep matters. Good writing is intentional and purposeful, always striving to keep the story going and readers engaged. The importance lies in quality rather than quantity. 

One point I haven’t addressed yet is repetition. If used well (i.e. with clear intention), repetition is a  literary device  that can help you build motifs in your writing. But when you find yourself repeating information in your dialogue, it might be a good time to revise your work. 

For instance, here’s a scene with Sophie and Ethan later on in the story: 

As I’ve mentioned before, good dialogue shows character — and dialogue itself is a playground where character dynamics play out. If you write and edit your dialogue with this in mind, then your dialogue will be sharper, cleaner, and more organic. 

I know that writing dialogue can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have much experience with it. But that should never keep you from including it in your work! Just remember that the more you practice — especially with the help of these tips — the better you’ll get.

And once you’re confident with the conversational content you can conjure up, follow along to the next part of our guide to see how you can punctuate and format your dialogue flawlessly .

As an editor and publisher, Tom has worked on several hundred titles, again including many prize-winners and international bestsellers. 

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Top 14 Tips and Tools for Creating Unique Character Voices

Creating unique character voices is one of the great challenges of writing fiction. We’re not simply talking about writing good dialogue here (although that plays a major role). We’re also not talking just about developing strong and interesting characters (although that’s a critical foundation). What we’re talking about is taking both your characters and your dialogue that extra mile to make their voices so distinctive and memorable audiences will recognize who is speaking even without dialogue tags or other references.

Last month, I put out a call, asking you all to tell me what topics you’d most like me to post about . (Thank you for all the enthusiastic responses and the inspiration!) Today, I’m writing the first post in response to your requests, this one from AngieElle, who noted:

I would love a post about distinctive character voices.

This is a topic dear to my heart, since creating unique character voices is one of my favorite parts of writing fiction. Sometimes discovering a character’s voice on the page is the only key you need in order for a story to just take off and start writing itself. Other times, finding a character’s voice can be trickier—and until you find it, nothing about the story seems to work.

Today, let’s take a look at the topic of unique character voices from a few different angles and finish up with five tools you can use in your own writing to help you find your characters’ voices.

9 Considerations When Designing Your Character Voices

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)

Vibrant character voices arise out of vibrant  characters . If the voice isn’t working, then the problem may be the foundational issue of the characters themselves. It’s hard to write zippy dialogue for pancake characters. Therefore, gaining a better understanding of your characters is one of the best places to start in creating their voices. The fortunate flipside of this is that if you can come up with an engaging voice for a pancake character, you’re automatically more than halfway to fixing all of that character’s problems.

As you begin contemplating (or troubleshooting) your character voices, keep the following nine aspects in mind. All will influence how the characters speak—and what they speak about.

1. Personality

Often, when we think of voice, the first connotation is that of personality in its most general sense. You can approach personality in many ways, including via personality theory systems such as MBTI and the Enneagram (which we discussed earlier this month).

For starters, however, simply consider your characters’ most defining traits.

• Are they extroverted or introverted?
• Quiet or boisterous?
• Idealistic or cynical?
• Kind or cruel?

One question I always ask when interviewing my characters during their initial development is, “What is the first thing people notice about this character?” Voice will both influence and be influenced by the answer.

Next, you can consider what, in Enneagram terms, is called your character’s “stance.” This has to do with your character’s preferred directional attitude when dealing with the world. This will influence not just what your character says, but when she chooses to speak, and whom she is most likely to engage with.

Is your character:

1. Aggressive (with a  forward emphasis, focusing on the future and moving toward conflict)?

2. Withdrawn (with a  backward emphasis, focusing on the past and stepping back from conflict)?

3. Dependent (with a  lateral emphasis, focusing on the present and reaching out to others for support in conflict)?

(For those interested in the Enneagram connection, the aggressive types are Three, Seven, and Eight; the withdrawn types are Four, Five, and Nine; and the dependent types are One, Two, and Six.)

3. Harmonic Style

The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson (affiliate link)

Another useful Enneagram categorization is that of a character’s harmonic style . In their book  The Wisdom of the Enneagram , Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson explain:

The Harmonic Groups tell us how we cope with conflict and difficulty: how we respond when we do not get what we want. … They reveal the fundamental way that our personality defends against loss and disappointment.

This is specifically useful to know in weighing what your characters most value in themselves and how they will try to communicate this through their dialogue.

Does your character respond most often with:

1.   Competence (looking for logical and practical solutions and answers)?

2. Reactivity (pushing back proactively in the moment to make space before stopping to consider other options)?

3.  Positivism (choosing to look at the bright side and putting a positive spin on things whenever possible)?

(For those interested in the Enneagram connection, the competent types are One, Three, and Five; the reactive types are Four, Six, and Eight; and the positive types are Two, Seven, and Nine.)

>>Click here to read “ 5 Ways to Use the Enneagram to Write Better Characters “

4. Defensive Reflex

Dialogue in a story can be viewed as a sort of contest between characters, especially since much of it will be conflict driven . One character goes on the offense; the other defends; and back and forth they go. In designing character voices, it is particularly valuable to consider each character’s default defensive reflex. These reflexes will be interrelated with a character’s stance and harmonic group (above) but can also be more specific.

Does your character:

• Blush and go silent?
• Get mad and push back?
• Respond calmly while boiling on the inside?
• Flare up at first, then calm down and apologize?
• Give the benefit of the doubt and hold space?
• Judge immediately and feel offended?

Other factors in creating your characters’ voices are more practical. How old is this character? A five-year-old will obviously have an entirely different vocabulary, cadence, and conversational style than will a high schooler or a retiree.

6. Education

By the same token, consider the character’s level of education. A professor or scientist will speak very differently from someone who dropped out of high school. Depending on the character’s self-consciousness around his level of education (whether very high or very low), this may also influence how he tries to speak.

For example, someone with several doctorate degrees might be arrogant in showing off his vocabulary or self-deprecating in trying not to rub his intelligence in others’ faces. Alternatively, someone with little education may try to cover it up by speaking more properly than her background suggests—to various effects.

Where is your character from and what is his ethnic and geographic background? A character who was born in India but lives in New York City will present interesting layers within his communication style. A character’s regional history may also suggest to you interesting word choices. The slang in South Boston is not the same as in London, which is not the same as that in the dales of Scotland or the ranch country of Texas.

Regional considerations will not always include dialect, but when a dialect is appropriate , you will be presented with both new challenges and new opportunities for your characters’ voices. On the one hand, you will need to portray the dialect accurately, both in respect to those who actually speak it and because readers will spot and reject inauthenticity. On the other hand, a colorful dialect done well can instantly elevate a character and her voice to a whole new level of interest and memorability.

9. Profession

Finally, consider your character’s job . Every profession, no matter how humble, offers its own unique way of speaking. Particular slang as well as specialized industry terms may creep into your character’s voice or even entirely permeate it, depending on his level of occupational immersion.

5 Solid Tools to Create Unique Character Voices

Once you have examined your characters from every angle and considered what about them offers opportunities to distinguish their voices from one another’s, you can level up by employing several useful tools. To be effective, all of these tools must be used deftly. To choose one particular tool and to use it in every dialogue exchange may well push the effect from “original and memorable” to “cartoonish and self-indulgent .”

All of these tools are meant to be used to achieve verisimilitude . They’re here to help you create characters who are larger-than-life but who sound real. The moment a character’s dialogue begins to sound repetitive or rehearsed, you’d do better to dial back on the originality and let them talk just like everybody else for a bit.

I’m going to use the characters in  Stranger Things for examples, since I feel the show does a particularly good job creating unique character voices for every member of its cast.

1. Dialogue Tics

The easiest way to bring individuality to a character’s speech is to create a dialogue tic that is used only for that character . This could be almost anything.

• It could be a favored word (or a word the character refuses to use).
• It could be a character’s favored  volume for speaking.

The character voice of Hopper, in Stranger Things , is defined by the fact that he can’t help but holler in almost every encounter, even when he’s trying to dial it down. ( Stranger Things (2016-), Netflix.)

• It could be how many words a character chooses to use or not use.

Your character could be a blabber who can’t stop talking or monosyllabic like Eleven in early episodes of Stranger Things . ( Stranger Things (2016-), Netflix.)

2. Personalized Slang/Swears

Wayfarer (Amazon affiliate link)

A easy way to slip a little originality into each character’s voice is to exclusively assign a specific bit of slang or a favorite swear word or euphemism to each character. Not only will this mark each character in your audience’s minds, but it can also be an opportunity for characterization.

As a personal example, in my Regency-era gaslamp fantasy  Wayfarer , I kept a list of which words each character used. My country-boy protagonist Will would constrain his outbursts to terms such as “ruddy” and “hang it,” while my eight-year-old Cockney pickpocket would let loose with all the historical slang available to her.

In  Stranger Things , it’s interesting to note how the writers utilized swear words to influence character voices—purposefully giving more profanity to the child characters than the adults and more of them to Dustin’s bodacious character than to anyone else. ( Stranger Things (2016-), Netflix.)

3. Metaphor Families

Secrets of Story by Matt Bird (affiliate link)

When discussing dialogue in his book  Secrets of Story , Matt Bird recommends what he calls “metaphor families.”

The aspect of your characters’ lives that determines which metaphors, curses, and exclamations they use. The source of this is usually their job, their home region, or their psychological state. More rarely, it’s their career ambition or a hidden proclivity.

Even if all your characters come from the same place, family, or job, you can still craft each character’s dialogue around unique analogies that offer glimpses of the character’s perspective as well as bringing overall color to the dialogue.

A defining aspect of  Stranger Things is its use of Dungeons & Dragons terminology as a metaphor for the mysterious happenings in Hawkins, Indiana. Although other characters pick up on some of this terminology as the story progresses, it is mostly confined to the character voices of the four boys who play the game. Even amongst the boys, some of the characters, such as Dustin, tend to have a deeper understanding of the D&D lore and therefore use the language more fluently. ( Stranger Things (2016-), Netflix.)

4. Catchphrases

A catchphrase is a word or phrase repeated by a character throughout the story. This could be a simple exclamation, such as “Zounds!”, or it could be a more meaningful statement that grows in importance the more it is uttered (such as Captain America’s “I could do this all day”).

Catchphrases can be a double-edged sword. On the one side, they can help make a character’s voice memorable. On the other, they can quickly feel overdone. Used cautiously, however, they can lend definition to a character’s voice in a story.

In  Stranger Things , Eleven’s limited vocabulary in the story’s beginning lends itself well to her repeating certain phrases—such as “Friends don’t lie”—which take on meanings unique to her character and context as the story expands. ( Stranger Things (2016-), Netflix.)

5. Rhythms and Phrasings

Although the above tools and considerations are valuable in crafting character voices that pop off the page, they’re ultimately all window dressing. The truth of a character’s voice is found not just in the choice of individual words, but in the construction of the dialogue’s rhythm and phrasings.

• Ramble in run-on sentences (like Anne of Green Gables)?
• Speak in clipped, staccato fragments?
• End statements decisively, challengingly, or open-endedly?

More than any other tool in your toolbox, this is the one that will allow you to create truly unique and vibrant character voices. Try to make the way every character speaks slightly from every other character. One character may be posh and refined, using perfect grammar. Another may be nearly incomprehensible with dropped consonants and obscure slang. Everything about the character—from background to emotionality—will determine how the voice comes across on the page.

Stranger Things employs different cadences and styles for all of its character voices, as evidenced by the differences in the four boys. Dustin tends to ramble with enthused intelligence, Mike goes off on emotional rants, and Will holds back, while Lucas, as the voice of reason (and sometimes cynicism), always speaks forcefully, is always hyper-practical, and always gets to the point. ( Stranger Things (2016-), Netflix.)

Apart from more general concerns of crafting the shape of your story through plot, arguably nothing affects your audience’s perception of your story more than voice. This applies, of course, to the narrative voice—but the narrative voice will, in turn, be impacted by the POV characters’ dialogue voices as well. The more distinctive, appropriate, and authentic each character’s voice is, the more these descriptors will apply to your story as a whole.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! How would you describe the character voices in your work-in-progress? Tell me in the comments!

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K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally-published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel , Structuring Your Novel , and Creating Character Arcs . A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and fantasy novels and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

I try to give my characters clear voices. For example, in my Wolves of Vimar series, Randa is an aristocratic young lady who speaks correctly. Thadora is a young girl from the poor part of the city and speaks with dropped aiches and incorrect grammar, and swears a lot. Then she is adopted into the upper class and has trouble learning to speak ‘properly’. Davrael is a foreigner. He’s very quiet. And has an accent when he speaks. Fero is also a foreigner. He’s been Inthe land of Grosmer for a long time and speaks well, but with few contractions. Basalt, a dwarf, says ‘Hmph’ a lot. Asphodel is sensible and a peacemaker. She’s quietly spoken. Carthinal, the leader of the group, has a fiery temper, but quickly calms. I hope IVe managed to have this come over in dialogue.

Nice. Sounds like you’ve got firm handle on all your characters’ voices!

This was a very insightful post. However, when I read about catchphrases, my mind kept going to Shaggy from “Scooby Doo” when he always says “Zoinks!” It’s my weird mind.

Hah! Well, it is memorable. 😉

Another excellent article — and good dialog discussion is so rare that, “The first rule about how people talk, we do not talk about how people talk.” The Stranger Things references especially work to bring more of them to life.

One of my favorite simple methods is, who says how much? Which character can you expect to give simple statements and be done, or pass up a chance to speak at all, and who runs their mouth more?

And who *starts* a conversation, and who lets others go first or doesn’t speak at all until a certain point comes up — a subject that matters to them, an emotional breaking point, or just hating to see the others arguing?

Does someone stop talking when they reach a basic agreement, or sooner if people pressure him or when his friend can take over? Does he need to keep going until he’s gotten things off his chest, or does he have a real need to convince people to see things his way? If he does, is he someone that usually succeeds — or how does he take it if he can’t?

It’s one of the biggest ways to define someone’s voice: weigh it against the other voices there.

Good points. I’ve always loved strong and silent characters, but perhaps ironically the ones who say the fewest words are sometimes the hardest ones to write dialogue for. So much depends on the subtext.

I’m sorry, but I strongly disagree with the idea of using profanity in fiction. As a Christian, May I ask why are you encouraging it? On the practical side, more profanity is only going to get you negative comments and a smaller audience. Nobody’s going to applaud you for swearing in your story, but they will condemn you for it. So why? Just why? It’s wrong anyway and a sign of weak verbal skills in both the character and the author. KM, I admire you, but please can you not talk about profanity like it’s a good thing? Great post otherwise.

The question is how true you want the story and characters to be. If a character is five years old and using profanity, that’s a clue to the type of parent they have: one who has no care for what they say around a child. If you’re writing a story about such a child with such a parent, the profanity is “true” to the character. Even if you don’t write out the profanity, you still mention the child is saying it.

Obviously, if you’re going with the no profanity whatsoever rule you’re probably not writing about adolescents, gangs, cops, soldiers in the heat of battle, or people dropping sledge hammers on their feet. And that’s fine. But if you *are* writing about those people it makes no sense to not reflect — however judiciously — the way they truly speak.

I was the kid who didn’t swear when all the other kids began to in the sixth grade, and my classmates wanted to know why. I was out of step with the norm. If I’m reading about a group of modern sixth graders, it wouldn’t be plausible to me if none of them use profanity when they’re trying to be edgy, or they’re angry. Adolescents test boundaries, including using “forbidden, grown-up” words. Again, the author might simply write, “Jack swore, Jack cussed,” and so on.

This applies even for the educated. I mention the Inklings in my post below. They were all scholarly men, Oxford dons and students. Tolkien and another Inkling, Hugo Dyson, famously converted C.S. Lewis to Christianity while hanging out one night. And yet there’s the legendary anecdote about Dyson getting salty when Tolkien was reading from The Lord of the Rings as he was still writing it: “Not another effing elf!”

If the absence of profanity rings true, I agree you should skip it. Poirot wouldn’t drop f-bombs. If the absence of profanity rings false, a writer must figure out a way to handle it. Even if they resort to the Battlestar Galactica Reboot maneuver and make up a swear word. Because people getting shot at tend to cuss.

Although I have never used what would be considered profanity in my own writings, I have zero problem with cursing. Words only have the power we give them, and I don’t see anything innately evil in the arbitrary distinctions of “acceptable” and “unacceptable” that are given certain words by certain societies.

As Jamie noted, understanding both your characters and your audience is key. If you’re writing to a primarily Christian market, then cursing won’t be accepted. Understanding this is important for marketing the book.

That said, writers can certainly become dependent on swears, just as we do in our own speaking, to the point of laziness. Like any word we use, it should be chosen because it will have the most pertinent effect the author is trying to create. Often, if you take a swear out of a sentence, you’ll find you didn’t really it need it. In other instances, a little extra creativity or characterization will take care of the problem. As discussed in the post, creating a unique “metaphor family” for each character gives you some leeway and guidance for determining each character’s “emphatic language.”

Studying the dialogue in films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, during which time the Hays Code censored all profanity, can be a great exercise in understanding how to strengthen dialogue in general. You’ll find that the restrictions rarely, if ever, dampened the quality of either the characters or the dialogue. However, there are always those obvious moments where it’s clear the author has weakened the dialogue by going out of their way to avoid a swear word.

Ultimately, this is a personal choice for every author.

This is a struggle in my writing. I try to keep it clean enough I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have my pastor read my work while finding a voice that is natural to my characters. Much of classic lit didn’t need excessive (if any) cursing to tell a story. Even Christians are going to let a word slip when under duress, however, and to write a novel where no one ever says a bad word is artificial and not relatable. This has been my main issue with much of Christian lit – cardboard characters and indistinguishable voices that are simply unrealistic.

Yeah, Rebecca, it’s not really fiction, it’s a sermon in book form, an indoctrination in dogma instead of living, breathing people. I had to stop reading….

Thank you for some powerful tips for how to teach my characters to talk. I needed that.

I see everyone has their own opinions on this, but I agree with Miriam. Writers don’t need to use swear words to make their characters more realistic, because not everybody swears (even if they’re in pain). I never have. It all depends on the kind of sins we personally struggle with.

A book where nobody swears or uses nice substitutes can still be written wonderfully without seeming fake. In fact, Steven James has said that using swear words makes a character seem uncontrolled, which can cause readers to lose respect for them. It’s not about what our pastors or mothers or anybody thinks when they read our work- it’s about what Jesus thinks. Does He want the pen He guides to write what we just did? We write only for Him.

Thanks Katie. Good post. Gives me a lot to mull over.

Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

I’ve been thinking about this issue as I’ve been doing some edits.

The low-hanging fruit is when characters are of different classes, generations, and regional origins. Urbane gentry vs. rough-and-ready hillbilly vs. foreigner who peppers their speech with foreign terms are fairly easy to distinguish.

But the true test is what happens if *all* the characters have a similar makeup. If you have a group of like-minded people from similar backgrounds such as the Inklings or the kids in Stranger Things, that’s where it gets tricky. Giving each of those characters individual voices in that situation is the “tell” for how well a writer understands those characters. That’s where their temperaments must come into play, so this post is timely and thought-provoking.

Would gestures be included in this toolbox? Some characters speak volumes simply by raising an eyebrow.

“I will have your silence,” one character may demand, but another requests, “Please be quiet,” and another snaps, “STFU.” Those are the usual variations where voice is concerned. But another type of character might omit words and level a withering stare, and another might jauntily flip the bird.

The silent ones are not talking but they are communicating, so I tentatively put their actions under the heading of “voice.” Just not sure if their actions count for that purpose.

I have often thought that one of the disadvantages of written fiction versus visual fiction is that we aren’t able to convey a character’s expressions in the same way. For me, some of the most expressive characters are those, like Jason Bourne, who say almost nothing, but who convey so much through the actor’s facial expressions. We can do this in written fiction as well, but it is much harder, since we will often have to resort to some sort of “telling” to get across the exact intent of the expression.

Great article. Provocative, substantial, useful. Thanks for sharing it.

Glad it was useful, Charles!

Now I know you MUST BE PSYCHIC! I started desperately searching for blog posts/podcasts/videos on voice in fiction at 10:30 am. At 11am, I got an email about YOUR AMAZINGLY HELPFUL blog/podcast that exactly matched what I was looking for….Such insightful examples!

I’m also interested in the way authors convey voice as they structure sentences and paragraphs, minimal vs maximal, etc. Thanks so much for this perfect answer to my plaintive call for help! – E R

Yay for good timing! 🙂 I don’t know that I have any articles on minimalist/maximalist style, but you can find more posts about voice here: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/?s=voice

‘Voice’ is different things to different people and cultures. As an older person, I have witnessed generational changes, new words appear almost weekly. Words that once explained a character, have taken on new meanings. Example: ‘wicked’ now means good among the new generation (here in the UK). Obviously, what you have written makes sense, as a writer, you have recognise the time and place.

Very true. For instance, voice can become very complex when you’re writing in a historical period.

In my last WIP, I loved creating the characters’ voices. My MC was deceptive and stuck-up, so he was always trying to sound smart, with long sentences and big words. He also had a catchphrase – “He actually has a point” – that was part of him learning to recognize when his friends had good things to say. His sidekick was more challenging as the strong and silent but perceptive type. I tried to limit his sentences to five words, but what I found is that when I had to break the rule, sentence structure made much more of a difference than sentence length. I could give the sidekick an eight-word sentence including a dependent clause, and he sounded like the MC. Or I could give him a straightforward ten-word sentence, and he sounded like himself. The short-sentence rule also really forced me to put a lot of content in his sentences, which I thought both emphasized his perceptiveness and contrasted him with the MC: he got straight to the point while the sneaky MC danced around the truth.

This is a great point on how word choice affects pacing–and vice versa.

Thanks for this timely reminder. I have one character that I was fleshing out. I had given him a wound and a personality but not much else in the way of a distinctive voice. A few unique phrases and dialogue tics should do the trick.

Yep, takes everything to a new level. 🙂

Character voice is such a fun topic. In one of your posts on humor (sorry, I don’t remember which one) you mentioned different humor styles for different characters. I have a character who is cold and closed off, but has a very snarky sense of humor that sets her apart.

Yes, great point. There are so many different styles of humor, and assigning a different style to each character can be an excellent trick for accentuating individual voices.

Katie, Though you never tooted your own horn here, Your “Outlining Your Novel Workbook” software is a fabulous tool to use for creating characters with distinct personalities and unique character voices. It also includes concentrations on such glaring personality traits as typical expressions and idiosyncrasies. One whole section of it is focused specifically on personality. What I like about it is that one can easily switch from character to character and contrast and compare their similarities and differences. This post was extremely well timed for me. I am just about ready to populate my WIP with the characters I have created for it. Now, thanks to your excellent insights, it will be easier to give each character a unique character voice. Thanks for making the task that much more achievable!!

Great to hear the software has been useful for you, Edward! 🙂

Another great and informative post. Thanks.

Thanks for reading, Thomas! 🙂

Thank you Katie for all of your tips and information on writing. Thanks to your insights on Enneagrams and MBTI types I am currently mining a lot of potential characters by connecting the two. You may even find them useful in future posts as well. Here are the links: **Myers Briggs MBTI and Enneagrams- Correlations and Comparisons https://personalityhunt.com/myers-briggs-mbti-and-enneagrams-correlations-and-comparisons/

**27 Enneagram TriTypes – Tritype® | System (not to be confused with the 27 Enneagram instinctual subtypes) https://www.katherinefauvre.com/tritype/

That’s great! Thanks for sharing. I will definitely look at these.

I have two characters who use a slight form of dialect, both use ‘I as’ instead of I have and the main character is trying to social climb in a way because she has started her own business and thinks it is necessary to change her accent. I have written a short story whereby I played around with strong dialect and although it sounds authentic it is very difficult to read – it has to go. I bought The Wisom of the Ennergarm book by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson – it is well written and easy to follow – though there is a hell of a lot to take in. Incidentally you don’t get Dales in Scotland you get Glens – Dales are mostly reserved for Yorkshire – never mind it was quite amusing to read Scottish dales 🙂 One last point I cannot thank you enough for your posts, technical know-how and kindness in making this available for free. Your generosity astounds me.

‘Wisdom of the Ennergram’ oops typo – and sorry for the rambling sentences!

Very glad you’re enjoying all the posts! For what it’s worth, I actually did google “dales” before using it in relation to Scotland. According to Wikipedia, the word is “used most frequently in the Lowlands of Scotland and in the North of England.” So I figured I was safe! :p

‘Wisdom of the Enneargram’ This is why I have to edit a million times 🙁

Very interesting post and lots of useful insights. A character’s voice and dialogue is certainly one that really makes them stand out, and one of my favorite parts of reading good writing! A technique I’ve heard used by Hemingway was to swap the characters in a head-to-head dialogue, so that ‘Person A’ suddenly became B and vice-versa. Not sure if anyone here has ever tried that approach? I was reflecting on that recently and curious as to what other approaches writers use on fleshing out dialogue and developing characters (would love feedback here on my site https://whytowrite.co.uk/?p=62 🙂

Hemingway didn’t always use attributions in back-and-forth dialogue. It could get confusing fast!

Oh My God! Did I need this. Lots of characters and having them be unique – the aliens as well as the Humans – is work. It felt OK to have people in similar positions have a similar voice-vibe because they think about the world the same way, even the alien Admiral (in translation) and the Human one made a point that I thought helped the theme. But still…. different vocab, cadence, slang for different people based on family, planet, etc. Different cadence for the protag (military, leap into action type) vs. her sister who leans toward compassion. I could go on and on, LOL.

This article is golden! I have two final novels in the series that I can make better with these ideas.

This just one of many reasons why writing is such a complex art form. But voices are a ton of fun!

Very thought provoking and helpful Katie, thanks. One thing I’m using is one character having a special nickname for another character that nobody else uses. Nicknames or variations of names were used effectively by John Green in The Fault in Our Stars where the protagonist Hazel was called Hazel Grace by the other main character Augustus who in turn liked to be known as Augustus when he adopted a confident persona but was Gus to his family and when he was vulnerable eg when he was ill.

I love nicknames. They can be overdone sometimes, but when done well, I agree, they are great characterization tools.

Re a specific catchphrase in the post: It’s important to know whether a character pronounces “Zounds” to rhyme with “rounds” or “wounds.” The word is a shortened form of “God’s wounds,” the wounds Jesus suffered in the last hours of his earthly life. Some Christians hold those wounds to be particularly important for salvation, so they might be offended or put off by the wrong rhyme (assuming, of course, that they know this particular subtlety of pronunciation). My twisty little mind imagines now a snippet in which a self-righteous character for pronouncing “Zounds” to rhyme with “wounds.” Hmm. I just might have to create a story to use that snippet.

So, one thing I drifted into while writing my 300,000 OC anime fanfic (yeah, I know) is that the supporting characters all have a different way of addressing the main character, which expresses their various personalities. • Noah, the main character, is compelled by circumstance to join the giant robot military, at a base jointly operated by the US and the UN. He is technically a warrant officer, a rank that doesn’t come with a title, and he instead should be addressed as “Mr. Wilson”. However: • Don, the ranking US officer, affects a sort of “cool professor” vibe. Since Noah’s putative assignment is to fix the software, first on the giant robot simulators and later on the giant robots themselves, Don immediately assigns him the nickname “Tech Support”, and continues calling him that even after Noah becomes an accomplished surface pilot. • Kimmy, Noah’s commanding officer from the UN, insists on an informal vibe among her charges, and typically refers to Noah by his first name. This also lets her play a somewhat maternal role during hard times. The one time she addresses Noah formally as “Warrant Officer Wilson”, he knows he’s in trouble. • Adrienne is an ace pilot from alien-conquered France, who’s never seen the outside of a refugee camp or a military base. Not used to working without military titles, she calls Noah “adjudant”, the French term for warrant officer. This is also a small act of defiance for her, as the xenophobic US government has outlawed the use of foreign languages in public, though Don and Kimmy look the other way. After Noah quits the military, she calls him “Mr. Wilson”, and when he says he misses being called “adjudant”, she scolds him for claiming privilege to a title he no longer deserves.

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7 Effective Ways to Give Your Characters Unique Voices

As a former studio script reader, I've read hundreds of screenplays — the good, the bad, and the ugly. A clear problem with most is that they fail to showcase unique voices for most of their characters. You could mix and match the character names with the dialogue and not see the difference — they are interchangeable and sound or read the same. And when they are interchangeable, that's a clear issue when it comes down to a reader's visualization of the script, as well as the potential casting later on in the development process.

Screenwriters need to learn how to create distinctive characters — but it is easier said than done.

Here we showcase seven ways in which you can determine if your characters aren't unique — and how you can go about finding methods that make those characters stand out from the rest.

1. It's Not About Accents and Syntax

Let's first cover how not to make your characters seem more unique. While accents, specific syntax, and even different dialects technically make characters stand apart, you don't want to use them as a crutch.

The wrong way to handle this situation would be to give everyone different backgrounds for the sole purpose of making them stand apart from each other. A majority of the time with most stories, the characters aren't  all going to have vastly different background and accents.

If you're going to write a script that offers a diverse cast of characters, wonderful. But if you're doing that for the sole purpose of making them stand out from one another, you've missed the point.

If their accents and dialects are different, but they are still lacking in unique characteristics, your efforts in possibly creating an excellent diverse cast of characters has failed. It can't fall solely on accents or syntax.

2. Read the Dialogue Aloud

This is the first step a writer can take to determine if their character dialogue reads as common, ordinary, and interchangeable with other characters.

It starts in the writing process. Now, we know that most writers enjoy the writing environment of coffee shops, libraries, and other public places. While it can be embarrassing for some to talk to yourself as you read through the pages you've written, reading the dialogue aloud is a key first step. You can save the pages for a private verbal read in the comfort of your home or you can quietly speak the words under your breath in a public location.

The important factor is to add a little emotion to the performance. How do you want the character to say that line? Is it written in a way that is distinctive? Are the emotions evident within the dialogue? Do the moments in the script before and after that dialogue build to and deliver on those emotions?

Perform those words . You can do this yourself or you can go the extra mile and get friends together to read the script for you. You can even recruit actors to do a live read of your screenplay. This practice can further help you figure out if your characters are different enough from each other. You can ascertain if the dialogue works and is true to each character.

If the dialogue doesn't play and it all sounds the same, then you know things need to be changed.

3. Cover the Character Names 

Development executives, studio readers, producers, and talent often do this in order to problem solve whether or not characters are distinctive. Screenwriters should do the same.

While reading your script, cover the character names above the dialogue. You can do this with your finger as you read, or you can utilize screenwriting software — or a black sharpie for hard copies — to take those names out.

As you read along with the character names removed or covered, you should be able to tell the difference between who is saying what in your script. They should have their own voice. If you find yourself confused and unsure of which character is saying what, there's a problem.

4. Eliminate Unnecessary Exposition Dialogue

There's nothing more bland than an exposition dump within the dialogue. The worst scripts are infested with them.

Exposition dumps are when a character tells the audience what is going on, who is where, why things are happening, and what could happen if those things keep happening. This is done through their dialogue as they are speaking to other characters — but the truth of it is that they are really speaking to the audience, trying to give them plot information. It's a horrible habit that screenwriters get into when they are stuck at an act change or have failed to properly structure their stories.

Get rid of the unnecessary exposition. It does you and your characters no favors.

If you have to give out information, find creative and organic ways to do it without having a character take the hit of having to deliver an indistinct block of dialogue that anyone else could say.

While exposition is sometimes necessary, it should never be overused. And when it is overused, it's usually at the expense of whatever character is saying it.

The story and the plotting within should be shown, not told.

5. Identify Character Types 

Identifying the problem is the easy part. Those above four steps will help with that. Now comes the hard part — making them distinctive.

What a character says — or doesn't say — can often identify much of what and who they are. Natural leaders will take on that role, access the situation, and take action. Followers will be less vocal and more reactionary. Disruptors will question the natural leaders and decisions of the group. Peacemakers will find common ground between the opposing characters. Antagonists will antagonize.

Look through your lists of characters and try to determine what type of characters they each are. They don't have to be put under that full umbrella, but it's an easy place to start as you develop each character.

If you identify what type  each and every one of them is, you can allow them to come to life through their dialogue.

6. Identify Character Traits

Everyone has character traits — both good and bad. They are the aspects of a character's attitude and behavior. They make up that character's personality and are often traits shown with descriptive adjectives.

Are your characters religious, honest, loyal, devoted, loving, kind, sincere, ambitious, satisfied, happy, faithful, patient, determined, or persistent?

Or are they dishonest, disloyal, mean, rude, disrespectful, impatient, greedy, angry, pessimistic, cruel, unmerciful, wicked, obnoxious, or unforgiving?

A character can be dominant, confident, persuasive, ambitious, decisive, or charismatic. Others can be playful, wild, silly or hilariously inappropriate. One can be educated while the other is uneducated.

All of these types of descriptive traits — accompanied by the character types you've allocated — will dictate what your characters say and how they say it, so do your best to assign certain traits that you are interested in exploring with them. When you do, you'll often be pleasantly surprised as they come to life on their own.

7. Action Speaks Louder Than Words

Character uniqueness goes beyond dialogue.

We learn so much more about our characters by their actions and reactions — how they handle certain situations.

One character might retreat in fear. Another might sob. One may lash out at the drop of a dime. Another might use intellect to handle a situation.

Dialogue will only get you so far.  Actions and reactions  are what really gives each character a distinctive voice. Imagine if characters like Indiana Jones and James Bond relied on dialogue to define their characters — it just wouldn't be the same.

Listen to Quentin Tarantino discuss Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood .

The first twenty-some minutes of There Will Be Blood are near silent. All that we see are different parts of this man's life. There is little to no dialogue. But his actions and reactions are what give this character a distinctive voice. When he falls into the shaft, breaking his leg, he could just as easily have died shortly after. We saw the elements he was facing and we saw how remote that location was.

His character type and character traits are identified as he crawls out of the shaft and later lays on the floor as he watches his gold being weighed and as he receives his payment. And this later continues on as he tackles the oil business.

We know who and what this character is well before he speaks any words.

I mentioned before that creating distinctive characters is easier said than done. But when you apply those first four effective ways to determine both when you are failing and succeeding, you can then use the final three to build each and every character — big or small — and give them the depth they need to be easily distinguishable from all others. That's when you have characters that leap from the page. That's when they almost write themselves.

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries  Blackout , starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner. Follow Ken on Twitter  @KenMovies 

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How to Write Dialogue: 7 Great Tips for Writers (With Examples)

Hannah Yang

Great dialogue serves multiple purposes. It moves your plot forward. It develops your characters and it makes the story more engaging.

It’s not easy to do all these things at once, but when you master the art of writing dialogue, readers won’t be able to put your book down.

In this article, we will teach you the rules for writing dialogue and share our top dialogue tips that will make your story sing.

Dialogue Rules

How to format dialogue, 7 tips for writing dialogue in a story or book, dialogue examples.

Before we look at tips for writing powerful dialogue , let’s start with an overview of basic dialogue rules.

• Start a new paragraph each time there’s a new speaker. Whenever a new character begins to speak, you should give them their own paragraph. This rule makes it easier for the reader to follow the conversation.
• Keep all speech between quotation marks . Everything that a character says should go between quotation marks, including the final punctuation marks. For example, periods and commas should always come before the final quotation mark, not after.
• Don’t use end quotations for paragraphs within long speeches. If a single character speaks for such a long time that you break their speech up into multiple paragraphs, you should omit the quotation marks at the end of each paragraph until they stop talking. The final quotation mark indicates that their speech is over.
• Use single quotes when a character quotes someone else. Whenever you have a quote within a quote, you should use single quotation marks (e.g. She said, “He had me at ‘hello.’”)
• Dialogue tags are optional. A dialogue tag is anything that indicates which character is speaking and how, such as “she said,” “he whispered,” or “I shouted.” You can use dialogue tags if you want to give the reader more information about who’s speaking, but you can also choose to omit them if you want the dialogue to flow more naturally. We’ll be discussing more about this rule in our tips below.

Let’s walk through some examples of how to format dialogue .

The simplest formatting option is to write a line of speech without a dialogue tag. In this case, the entire line of speech goes within the quotation marks, including the period at the end.

• Example: “I think I need a nap.”

Another common formatting option is to write a single line of speech that ends with a dialogue tag.

Here, you should separate the speech from the dialogue tag with a comma, which should go inside the quotation marks.

• Example: “I think I need a nap,” Maria said.

You can also write a line of speech that starts with a dialogue tag. Again, you separate the dialogue tag with a comma, but this time, the comma goes outside the quotation marks.

• Example: Maria said, “I think I need a nap.”

As an alternative to a simple dialogue tag, you can write a line of speech accompanied by an action beat. In this case, you should use a period rather than a comma, because the action beat is a full sentence.

• Example: Maria sat down on the bed. “I think I need a nap.”

Finally, you can choose to include an action beat while the character is talking.

In this case, you would use em-dashes to separate the action from the dialogue, to indicate that the action happens without a pause in the speech.

• Example: “I think I need”—Maria sat down on the bed—“a nap.”

Now that we’ve covered the basics, we can move on to the more nuanced aspects of writing dialogue.

Here are our seven favorite tips for writing strong, powerful dialogue that will keep your readers engaged.

Tip #1: Create Character Voices

Dialogue is a great way to reveal your characters. What your characters say, and how they say it, can tell us so much about what kind of people they are.

Some characters are witty and gregarious. Others are timid and unobtrusive.

Speech patterns vary drastically from person to person.

To make someone stop talking to them, one character might say “I would rather not talk about this right now,” while another might say, “Shut your mouth before I shut it for you.”

When you’re writing dialogue, think about your character’s education level, personality, and interests.

• What kind of slang do they use?
• Do they prefer long or short sentences?
• Do they ask questions or make assertions?

Each character should have their own voice.

Ideally, you want to write dialogue that lets your reader identify the person speaking at any point in your story just by looking at what’s between the quotation marks.

Tip #2: Write Realistic Dialogue

Good dialogue should sound natural. Listen to how people talk in real life and try to replicate it on the page when you write dialogue.

Don’t be afraid to break the rules of grammar, or to use an occasional exclamation point to punctuate dialogue.

It’s okay to use contractions , sentence fragments , and run-on sentences , even if you wouldn’t use them in other parts of the story.

This doesn’t mean that realistic dialogue should sound exactly like the way people speak in the real world.

If you’ve ever read a court transcript, you know that real-life speech is riddled with “ums” and “ahs” and repeated words and phrases. A few paragraphs of this might put your readers to sleep.

Compelling dialogue should sound like a real conversation, while still being wittier, smoother, and better worded than real speech.

Tip #3: Simplify Your Dialogue Tags

A dialogue tag is anything that tells the reader which character is talking within that same paragraph, such as “she said” or “I asked.”

When you’re writing dialogue, remember that simple dialogue tags are the most effective .

Often, you can omit dialogue tags after the conversation has started flowing, especially if only two characters are participating.

The reader will be able to keep up with who’s speaking as long as you start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.

When you do need to use a dialogue tag, a simple “he said” or “she said” will do the trick.

Our brains generally skip over the word “said” when we’re reading, while other dialogue tags are a distraction.

A common mistake beginner writers make is to avoid using the word “said.”

Characters in amateur novels tend to mutter, whisper, declare, or chuckle at every line of dialogue. This feels overblown and distracts from the actual story.

Another common mistake is to attach an adverb to the word “said.” Characters in amateur novels rarely just say things—they have to say things loudly, quietly, cheerfully, or angrily.

If you’re writing great dialogue, readers should be able to figure out whether your character is cheerful or angry from what’s within the quotation marks.

The only exception to this rule is if the dialogue tag contradicts the dialogue itself. For example, consider this sentence:

• “You’ve ruined my life,” she said angrily.

The word “angrily” is redundant here because the words inside the quotation marks already imply that the character is speaking angrily.

In contrast, consider this sentence:

• “You’ve ruined my life,” she said thoughtfully.

Here, the word “thoughtfully” is well-placed because it contrasts with what we might otherwise assume. It adds an additional nuance to the sentence inside the quotation marks.

You can use the ProWritingAid dialogue check when you write dialogue to make sure your dialogue tags are pulling their weight and aren’t distracting readers from the main storyline.

Sign up for your free ProWritingAid account to check your dialogue tags today.

Tip #4: Balance Speech with Action

When you’re writing dialogue, you can use action beats —descriptions of body language or physical action—to show what each character is doing throughout the conversation.

Learning how to write action beats is an important component of learning how to write dialogue.

Good dialogue becomes even more interesting when the characters are doing something active at the same time.

You can watch people in real life, or even characters in movies, to see what kinds of body language they have. Some pick at their fingernails. Some pace the room. Some tap their feet on the floor.

Including physical action when writing dialogue can have multiple benefits:

• It changes the pace of your dialogue and makes the rhythm more interesting
• It prevents “white room syndrome,” which is when a scene feels like it’s happening in a white room because it’s all dialogue and no description
• It shows the reader who’s speaking without using speaker tags

You can decide how often to include physical descriptions in each scene. All dialogue has an ebb and flow to it, and you can use beats to control the pace of your dialogue scenes.

If you want a lot of tension in your scene, you can use fewer action beats to let the dialogue ping-pong back and forth.

If you want a slower scene, you can write dialogue that includes long, detailed action beats to help the reader relax.

You should start a separate sentence, or even a new paragraph, for each of these longer beats.

Tip #5: Write Conversations with Subtext

Every conversation has subtext , because we rarely say exactly what we mean. The best dialogue should include both what is said and what is not said.

I once had a roommate who cared a lot about the tidiness of our apartment, but would never say it outright. We soon figured out that whenever she said something like “I might bring some friends over tonight,” what she meant was “Please wash your dishes, because there are no clean plates left for my friends to use.”

When you’re writing dialogue, it’s important to think about what’s not being said. Even pleasant conversations can hide a lot beneath the surface.

Is one character secretly mad at the other?

Is one secretly in love with the other?

Is one thinking about tomorrow’s math test and only pretending to pay attention to what the other person is saying?

Personally, I find it really hard to use subtext when I write dialogue from scratch.

In my first drafts I let my characters say what they really mean. Then, when I’m editing, I go back and figure out how to convey the same information through subtext instead.

Tip #6: Show, Don’t Tell

When I was in high school, I once wrote a story in which the protagonist’s mother tells her: “As you know, Susan, your dad left us when you were five.”

I’ve learned a lot about the writing craft since high school, but it doesn’t take a brilliant writer to figure out that this is not something any mother would say to her daughter in real life.

The reason I wrote that line of dialogue was because I wanted to tell the reader when Susan last saw her father, but I didn’t do it in a realistic way.

Don’t shoehorn information into your characters’ conversations if they’re not likely to say it to each other.

One useful trick is to have your characters get into an argument.

You can convey a lot of information about a topic through their conflicting opinions, without making it sound like either of the characters is saying things for the reader’s benefit.

Here’s one way my high school self could have conveyed the same information in a more realistic way in just a few lines:

Susan: “Why didn’t you tell me Dad was leaving? Why didn’t you let me say goodbye?”

Mom: “You were only five. I wanted to protect you.”

Tip #7: Keep Your Dialogue Concise

Dialogue tends to flow out easily when you’re drafting your story, so in the editing process, you’ll need to be ruthless. Cut anything that doesn’t move the story forward.

Try not to write dialogue that feels like small talk.

You can eliminate most hellos and goodbyes, or summarize them instead of showing them. Readers don’t want to waste their time reading dialogue that they hear every day.

In addition, try not to write dialogue with too many trigger phrases, which are questions that trigger the next line of dialogue, such as:

• “And then what?”
• “What do you mean?”

It’s tempting to slip these in when you’re writing dialogue because they keep the conversation flowing. I still catch myself doing this from time to time.

Remember that you don’t need three lines of dialogue when one line could accomplish the same thing.

Let’s look at some dialogue examples from successful novels that follow each of our seven tips.

Dialogue Example #1: How to Create Character Voice

Let’s start with an example of a character with a distinct voice from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.

“What happened, Harry? What happened? Is he ill? But you can cure him, can’t you?” Colin had run down from his seat and was now dancing alongside them as they left the field. Ron gave a huge heave and more slugs dribbled down his front. “Oooh,” said Colin, fascinated and raising his camera. “Can you hold him still, Harry?”

Most readers could figure out that this was Colin Creevey speaking, even if his name hadn’t been mentioned in the passage.

This is because Colin Creevey is the only character who speaks with such extreme enthusiasm, even at a time when Ron is belching slugs.

This snippet of written dialogue does a great job of showing us Colin’s personality and how much he worships his hero Harry.

Dialogue Example #2: How to Write Realistic Dialogue

Here’s an example of how to write dialogue that feels realistic from A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

“As much as I love this land, some days I think about leaving it,” Babi said. “Where to?” “Anyplace where it’s easy to forget. Pakistan first, I suppose. For a year, maybe two. Wait for our paperwork to get processed.” “And then?” “And then, well, it is a big world. Maybe America. Somewhere near the sea. Like California.”

Notice the punctuation and grammar that these two characters use when they speak.

There are many sentence fragments in this conversation like, “Anyplace where it’s easy to forget.” and “Somewhere near the sea.”

Babi often omits the verbs from his sentences, just like people do in real life. He speaks in short fragments instead of long, flowing paragraphs.

This dialogue shows who Babi is and feels similar to the way a real person would talk, while still remaining concise.

Dialogue Example #3: How to Simplify Your Dialogue Tags

Here’s an example of effective dialogue tags in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

In this passage, the narrator’s been caught exploring the forbidden west wing of her new husband’s house, and she’s trying to make excuses for being there.

“I lost my way,” I said, “I was trying to find my room.” “You have come to the opposite side of the house,” she said; “this is the west wing.” “Yes, I know,” I said. “Did you go into any of the rooms?” she asked me. “No,” I said. “No, I just opened a door, I did not go in. Everything was dark, covered up in dust sheets. I’m sorry. I did not mean to disturb anything. I expect you like to keep all this shut up.” “If you wish to open up the rooms I will have it done,” she said; “you have only to tell me. The rooms are all furnished, and can be used.” “Oh, no,” I said. “No. I did not mean you to think that.”

In this passage, the only dialogue tags Du Maurier uses are “I said,” “she said,” and “she asked.”

Even so, you can feel the narrator’s dread and nervousness. Her emotions are conveyed through what she actually says, rather than through the dialogue tags.

This is a splendid example of evocative speech that doesn’t need fancy dialogue tags to make it come to life.

Dialogue Example #4: How to Balance Speech with Action

Let’s look at a passage from The Princess Bride by William Goldman, where dialogue is melded with physical action.

With a smile the hunchback pushed the knife harder against Buttercup’s throat. It was about to bring blood. “If you wish her dead, by all means keep moving," Vizzini said. The man in black froze. “Better,” Vizzini nodded. No sound now beneath the moonlight. “I understand completely what you are trying to do,” the Sicilian said finally, “and I want it quite clear that I resent your behavior. You are trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen, and I think it quite ungentlemanly.” “Let me explain,” the man in black began, starting to edge forward. “You’re killing her!” the Sicilian screamed, shoving harder with the knife. A drop of blood appeared now at Buttercup’s throat, red against white.

In this passage, William Goldman brings our attention seamlessly from the action to the dialogue and back again.

This makes the scene twice as interesting, because we’re paying attention not just to what Vizzini and the man in black are saying, but also to what they’re doing.

This is a great way to keep tension high and move the plot forward.

Dialogue Example #5: How to Write Conversations with Subtext

This example from Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card shows how to write dialogue with subtext.

Here is the scene when Ender and his sister Valentine are reunited for the first time, after Ender’s spent most of his childhood away from home training to be a soldier.

Ender didn’t wave when she walked down the hill toward him, didn’t smile when she stepped onto the floating boat slip. But she knew that he was glad to see her, knew it because of the way his eyes never left her face. “You’re bigger than I remembered,” she said stupidly. “You too,” he said. “I also remembered that you were beautiful.” “Memory does play tricks on us.” “No. Your face is the same, but I don’t remember what beautiful means anymore. Come on. Let’s go out into the lake.”

In this scene, we can tell that Valentine missed her brother terribly, and that Ender went through a lot of trauma at Battle School, without either of them saying it outright.

The conversation could have started with Valentine saying “I missed you,” but instead, she goes for a subtler opening: “You’re bigger than I remembered.”

Similarly, Ender could say “You have no idea what I’ve been through,” but instead he says, “I don’t remember what beautiful means anymore.”

We can deduce what each of these characters is thinking and feeling from what they say and from what they leave unsaid.

Dialogue Example #6: How to Show, Not Tell

Let’s look at an example from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This scene is the story’s first introduction of the ancient creatures called the Chandrian.

“I didn’t know the Chandrian were demons,” the boy said. “I’d heard—” “They ain’t demons,” Jake said firmly. “They were the first six people to refuse Tehlu’s choice of the path, and he cursed them to wander the corners—” “Are you telling this story, Jacob Walker?” Cob said sharply. “Cause if you are, I’ll just let you get on with it.” The two men glared at each other for a long moment. Eventually Jake looked away, muttering something that could, conceivably, have been an apology. Cob turned back to the boy. “That’s the mystery of the Chandrian,” he explained. “Where do they come from? Where do they go after they’ve done their bloody deeds? Are they men who sold their souls? Demons? Spirits? No one knows.” Cob shot Jake a profoundly disdainful look. “Though every half-wit claims he knows...”

The three characters taking part in this conversation all know what the Chandrian are.

Imagine if Cob had said “As we all know, the Chandrian are mysterious demon-spirits.” We would feel like he was talking to us, not to the two other characters.

Instead, Rothfuss has all three characters try to explain their own understanding of what the Chandrian are, and then shoot each other’s explanations down.

When Cob reprimands Jake for interrupting him and then calls him a half-wit for claiming to know what he’s talking about, it feels like a realistic interaction.

This is a clever way for Rothfuss to introduce the Chandrian in a believable way.

Dialogue Example #7: How to Keep Your Dialogue Concise

Here’s an example of concise dialogue from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

“Do you blame me for flunking you, boy?” he said. “No, sir! I certainly don’t,” I said. I wished to hell he’d stop calling me “boy” all the time. He tried chucking my exam paper on the bed when he was through with it. Only, he missed again, naturally. I had to get up again and pick it up and put it on top of the Atlantic Monthly. It’s boring to do that every two minutes. “What would you have done in my place?” he said. “Tell the truth, boy.” Well, you could see he really felt pretty lousy about flunking me. So I shot the bull for a while. I told him I was a real moron, and all that stuff. I told him how I would’ve done exactly the same thing if I’d been in his place, and how most people didn’t appreciate how tough it is being a teacher. That kind of stuff. The old bull.

Here, the last paragraph diverges from the prior ones. After the teacher says “Tell the truth, boy,” the rest of the conversation is summarized, rather than shown.

The summary of what the narrator says in the last paragraph—“I told him I was a real moron, and all that stuff”—serves to hammer home that this is the type of “old bull” that the narrator has fed to his teachers over and over before.

It doesn’t need to be shown because it’s not important to the narrator—it’s just “all that stuff.”

Salinger could have written out the entire conversation in dialogue, but instead he kept the dialogue concise.

Final Words

Now you know how to write clear, effective dialogue! Start with the basic rules for dialogue and try implementing the more advanced tips as you go.

What are your favorite dialogue tips? Let us know in the comments below.

Do you know how to craft memorable, compelling characters? Download this free book now:

Creating Legends: How to Craft Characters Readers Adore… or Despise!

This guide is for all the writers out there who want to create compelling, engaging, relatable characters that readers will adore… or despise., learn how to invent characters based on actions, motives, and their past..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who writes about all things strange and surreal. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark, and elsewhere, and two of her stories have been finalists for the Locus Award. Her favorite hobbies include watercolor painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing. You can follow her work on hannahyang.com, or subscribe to her newsletter for publication updates.

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How to Write a Character Speech: Meaning, Aim & Great Tips

Table of Contents

Knowing how to write a character speech is useful for any story. A character’s speech in literature is analogous to an actor’s appearance and outfit in the film.

In literature, both the content and delivery of a character’s speech significantly impact the reader. Each character should have a unique speaking style.

This article gives an overview of what a character overview entails, its purpose, and how to write one flawlessly.

What Is a Character Speech?

A character speech is an address that speaks to a person’s values and beliefs , crafted with passionate emotion and vivid imagery. It can be an inspiring call to action or a thought-provoking reflection on life.

Using clear and concise language, the speaker conveys his personal experience and expertise on the topic while incorporating concrete examples where appropriate.

The tone of the speech should have some humanity to it – lively, conversational, and meaningful rather than robotic or clinical in its delivery.

What’s the Purpose of a Character Speech?

A character speech should be descriptive, providing the audience details about the character’s present and past.

Its purpose is essential to storytelling because it helps the audience understand the type of person the character is. As a writer, the character speech should lay out the character’s personality, beliefs or values, aspirations, and hopes.

The purpose of a character’s speech is not just to make the character seem more human but to add dimension to the surface.

How to Write a Character Speech Perfectly

If you want to write a character speech, here are a few considerations:

1. Make the Voices of Your Characters Suit Their Location and Era

Excellent dialogue illuminates its participants. Who is this individual? Why do they communicate this way? What peculiar curse words or expressions are unique to their era or hometown?

Well-executed dialogue develops people, bringing a rich dimension to the story’s personalities. One method to create great dialogue is to have it represent the location and time of the characters.

In Shakespeare’s plays, the characters’ use of antiquated language provides a strong feeling of an earlier era. Characters use ‘thy’ and ‘thou’ in place of ‘your’ and ‘you,’ for example.

Period-appropriate dialogue helps develop setting and context. Readers will be confused if your character lives in the twenty-first century but speaks as if they are in the eighteenth century. The converse also holds. If an adolescent in the 19th century speaks as if it is the 21st century, this can jar the reader out of the story.

So, how can you make the characters’ speech reflect their location and time?

• Use occasional terminology suited to the period in discourse.
• Ensure that characters do not employ more contemporary vocabulary than their historical period. If you’re uncertain when a phrase was coined, look out its origin on Google.
• Use regional accent details

The third recommendation should be utilized sparingly. Attempting to mimic how different cultures talk using written accents might lead to the creation of stereotypes. This is especially true when sensitive concerns like culture or ethnicity are involved. This post offers advice on establishing regional speech patterns without relying on preconceptions.

2. Display the Various Qualities of the Characters in Their Speech

What do we mean when we refer to the “voice” of a character? In characterization, ‘Voice’ relates to two aspects:

• The way a person’s voice sounds to the ear—details such as pitch, loudness, and placement (is it nasal or throaty?).
• The personality emerges from a character’s manner of expression. Do they appear direct and bold? Or is their tone soft, courteous, and reserved?

Think for a moment about people you know well. Write out an adjective that you feel best describes their voice. What causes this result? Are they audible? Soft-spoken? Confident? Self-doubting? Comical?

Include concise voice descriptors while drafting character sketches for your outline. Decide:

• What a character’s general personality will be: Will they be sanguine, gloomy, plodding and pragmatic, irritable, and aggressive?
• How do these personality traits manifest in your character’s voice? An irritated character may frequently cuss, whereas a gloomy one may enjoy groaning.
• Consider other aspects of communication, such as whether a character speaks or listens more.

Remember to employ gestures or beats to add even more charm to your characters’ speech. These may support or contradict a character’s statements.

They also allow you to be more subtle when describing a character’s feelings while speaking. Does the character use dramatic, oversized gestures when speaking?

Could your character have regular, memorable motions, such as running a hand over her hair or polishing his glasses? Realistic dialogue depicts the character as a fully realized individual, not merely a talking head.

Final Words

The tips mentioned above on how to write a character speech are merely a starting point. Make sure to be creative, personal, and open-minded when writing.

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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Novel writing ,

Writing dialogue in fiction: 7 easy steps.

By Harry Bingham

Speech gives life to stories. It breaks up long pages of action and description, it gives us an insight into a character, and it moves the action along. But how do you write effective dialogue that will add depth to your story and not take the reader away from the action?

In this article I will be guiding you through seven simple steps for keeping your fictional chat fresh, relevant and tight. As well as discussing dialogue tags and showing you dialogue examples.

Time to talk…

7 Easy Steps For Compelling Dialogue

Getting speech right is an art but, fortunately, there are a few easy rules to follow. Those rules will make writing dialogue easy – turning it from something static, heavy and un-lifelike into something that shines off the page.

Better still, dialogue should be fun to write, so don’t worry if we talk about ‘rules’. We’re not here to kill the fun. We’re here to increase it. So let’s look at some of these rules along with dialogue examples.

“Ready?” she asked.

“You bet. Let’s dive right in.”

How To Write Dialogue In 7 Simple Steps:

• Keep it tight and avoid unnecessary words
• Hitting beats and driving momentum
• Keep it oblique, where characters never quite answer each other directly
• Reveal character dynamics and emotion
• Keep your dialogue tags simple
• Get the punctuation right
• Be careful with accents

Want more writing advice?

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Open to writers across the world, the Ultimate Novel Writing Course is now accepting applications for our Winter 24/25 intake.

Dialogue Rule 1: Keep It Tight

One of the biggest rules when writing with dialogue is: no spare parts. No unnecessary words. Nothing to excess.

That’s true in all writing, of course, but it has a particular acuteness (I don’t know why) when it comes to dialogue.

Dialogue Helps The Character And The Reader

Everything your character says has to have a meaning. It should either help paint a more vivid picture of the person talking (or the one they are talking to or about), or inform the other character (or the reader) of something important, or it should move the plot forward.

If it does none of those things then cut it out! Here’s an example of excess chat:

“Good morning, Henry!”

“Good morning, Diana.”

“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m well. How are you?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” She looked up at the blue sky. “Lovely weather we’re having.”

Are you asleep yet? You should be. It’s boring, right?

Sometimes you don’t need two pages of dialogue. Sometimes a simple exchange can be part of the narrative. If you want your readers to know an interaction like this has taken place, then simply say – Henry passed Diana in the street and they exchanged pleasantries.

If you want the reader to know that Henry finds Diana insufferably then you can easily sum that up by writing – Henry passed Diana in the street and they exchanged pleasantries. As always she looked up at the sky before commenting on the weather, as if every day that week hadn’t been gloriously sunny. It took ten minutes to get away, by which time his cheeks were aching from all the forced smiling.

No Soliloquies Allowed (Unless You’re Shakespeare)

This rule also applies to big chunks of dialogue. Perhaps your character has a lot to say, but if you present it as one long speech it will feel to the modern reader like they’ve been transported back to Victorian England.

So don’t do it!

Keep it spare. Allow gaps in the communication (intersperse with action and leave plenty unsaid) and let the readers fill in the blanks. It’s like you’re not even giving the readers 100% of what they want. You’re giving them 80% and letting them figure out the rest.

Take this example of dialogue, for instance, from Ian Rankin’s fourteenth Rebus crime novel,  A Question of Blood . The detective, John Rebus, is phoned up at night by his colleague:

… “Your friend, the one you were visiting that night you bumped into me …” She was on her mobile, sounded like she was outdoors.

“Andy?” he said. ‘Andy Callis?”

“Can you describe him?”

Rebus froze. “What’s happened?”

“Look, it might not be him …”

“Where are you?”

“Describe him for me … that way you’re not headed all the way out here for nothing.”

That’s great isn’t it? Immediate. Vivid. Edgy. Communicative.

But look at what isn’t said. Here’s the same passage again, but with my comments in square brackets alongside the text:

[Your friend: she doesn’t even give a name or give anything but the barest little hint of who she’s speaking about. And ‘on her mobile, sounded like she was outdoors’. That’s two sentences rammed together with a comma. It’s so clipped you’ve even lost the period and the second ‘she’.]

[Notice that this is exactly the way we speak. He could just have said “Andy Callis”, but in fact we often take two bites at getting the full name, like this. That broken, repetitive quality mimics exactly the way we speak . . . or at least the way we think we speak!]

[Uh-oh. The way she jumps straight from getting the name to this request indicates that something bad has happened. A lesser writer would have this character say, ‘Look, something bad has happened and I’m worried. So can you describe him?’ This clipped, ultra-brief way of writing the dialogue achieves the same effect, but (a) shows the speaker’s urgency and anxiety – she’s just rushing straight to the thing on her mind, (b) uses the gap to indicate the same thing as would have been (less well) achieved by a wordier, more direct approach, and (c) by forcing the reader to fill in that gap, you’re actually making the reader engage with intensity. This is the reader as co-writer – and that means super-engaged.]

[Again: you can’t convey the same thing with fewer words. Again, the shimmering anxiety about what has still not been said has extra force precisely because of the clipped style.]

[A brilliantly oblique way of indicating, ‘But I’m frigging terrified that it is.’ Oblique is good. Clipped is good.]

[A  non-sequitur,  but totally consistent with the way people think and talk.]

[Just as he hasn’t responded to what she just said, now it’s her turn to ignore him. Again, it’s the absences that make this bit of dialogue live. Just imagine how flaccid this same bit would be if she had said, “Let’s not get into where I am right now. Look, it’s important that you describe him for me . . .”]

Gaps are good. They make the reader work, and a ton of emotion and inference swirls in the gaps.

Want to achieve the same effect?  Copy Rankin. Keep it tight. And read this .

Dialogue Rule 2: Watch Those Beats

More often than not, great story moments hinge on character exchanges with dialogue at their heart.  Even very short dialogue can help drive a plot, showing more about your characters and what’s happening than longer descriptions can.

(How come? It’s the thing we just talked about: how very spare dialogue makes the reader work hard to figure out what’s going on, and there’s an intensity of energy released as a result.)

But right now, I want to focus on the way dialogue needs to create its own emotional beats. So that the action of the scene and the dialogue being spoken becomes the one same thing.

Here’s how screenwriting guru Robert McKee puts it:

Dialogue is not [real-life] conversation. … Dialogue [in writing] … must have direction. Each exchange of dialogue  must turn the beats of the scene  … yet it must sound like talk.

This excerpt from Thomas Harris’  The Silence of the Lambs  is a beautiful example of exactly that. It’s  short as heck, but just see what happens.

As before, I’ll give you the dialogue itself, then the same thing again with my notes on it:

“The significance of the chrysalis is change. Worm into butterfly, or moth. Billy thinks he wants to change. … You’re very close, Clarice, to the way you’re going to catch him, do you realize that?”

“No, Dr Lecter.”

“Good. Then you won’t mind telling me what happened to you after your father’s death.”

Starling looked at the scarred top of the school desk.

“I don’t imagine the answer’s in your papers, Clarice.”

Here Hannibal holds power, despite being behind bars. He establishes control, and Clarice can’t push back, even as he pushes her. We see her hesitancy, Hannibal’s power. (And in such few words! Can you even imagine trying to do as much as this without the power of dialogue to aid you? I seriously doubt if you could.)

But again, here’s what’s happening in detail

[ Beat 1:  What a great line of dialogue! Invoking the chrysalis and moth here is magical language. it’s like Hannibal is the magician, the Prospero figure. Look too at the switch of tack in the middle of this snippet. First he’s talking about Billy wanting to change – then about Clarice’s ability to find him. Even that change of tack emphasises his power: he’s the one calling the shots here; she’s always running to keep up.]

[ Beat 2 : Clarice sounds controlled, formal. That’s not so interesting yet . . . but it helps define her starting point in this conversation, so we can see the gap between this and where she ends up.]

[ Beat 3 : Another whole jump in the dialogue. We weren’t expecting this, and we’re already feeling the electricity in the question. How will Clarice react? Will she stay formal and controlled?]

[ Beat 4 : Nope! She’s still controlled, just about, but we can see this question has daunted her. She can’t even answer it! Can’t even look at the person she’s talking to. Notice as well that we’re outside quotation marks here – she’s not talking, she’s just looking at something. Writing great dialogue is about those sections of silence too – the bits that happen beyond the quotation marks.]

[ Beat 5:  And Lecter immediately calls attention to her reaction, thereby emphasising that he’s observed her and knows what it means.]

Overall, you can see that not one single element of this dialogue leaves the emotional balance unaltered. Every line of dialogue alters the emotional landscape in some way. That’s why it feels so intense & engaging.

Want to achieve the same effect?  Just check your own dialogue, line by line. Do you feel that emotional movement there all the time? If not, just delete anything unnecessary until you  feel the intensity and emotional movement  increase.

Dialogue Rule 3: Keep It Oblique

One more point, which sits kind of parallel to the bits we’ve talked about already.

If you want to create some terrible dialogue, you’d probably come up with something like this (very similar to my previous bad dialogue example):

“Hey Judy.”

“Hey, Brett.”

“Yeah, not bad. What do you say? Maybe play some tennis later?”

“Tennis? I’m not sure about that. I think it’s going to rain.”

Tell me honestly: were you not just about ready to scream there? If that dialogue had continued like that for much longer, you probably would have done.

And the reason is simple. It was direct, not oblique.

So direct dialogue is where person X says something or asks a question, and person Y answers in the most logical, direct way.

We hate that! As readers, we hate it.

Oblique dialogue is where people never quite answer each other in a straight way. Where a question doesn’t get a straightforward response. Where random connections are made. Where we never quite know where things are going.

As readers, we love that. It’s dialogue to die for.

And if you want to see oblique dialogue in action, here’s a snippet from Aaron Sorkin’s  The Social Network . (Because dialogue in screenwriting should follow the same rules as a novel. Some may argue that it should be even more snipped!)

So here goes. This is the young Mark Zuckerberg talking with a lawyer:

Lawyer:  “Let me re-phrase this. You sent my clients sixteen emails. In the first fifteen, you didn’t raise any concerns.” MZ:  ‘Was that a question?’ L:  “In the sixteenth email you raised concerns about the site’s functionality. Were you leading them on for 6 weeks?” MZ:  ‘No.’ L:  “Then why didn’t you raise any of these concerns before?” MZ:  ‘It’s raining.’ L:  “I’m sorry?” MZ:  ‘It just started raining.’ L:  “Mr. Zuckerberg do I have your full attention?” MZ:  ‘No.’ L:  “Do you think I deserve it?” MZ:  ‘What?’ L:  “Do you think I deserve your full attention?”

I won’t discuss that in any detail, because the technique really leaps out at you. It’s particularly visible here, because the lawyer wants and expects to have a direct conversation. ( I ask a question about X, you give me a reply that deals with X. I ask a question about Y, and … ) Zuckerberg here is playing a totally different game, and it keeps throwing the lawyer off track – and entertaining the viewer/reader too.

Want to achieve the same effect?  Just keep your dialogue not quite joined up. People should drop in random things, go off at tangents, talk in non-sequiturs, respond to an emotional implication not the thing that’s directly on the page – or anything. Just keep it broken. Keep it exciting!

This not only moves the story forward but also says a lot about the character speaking.

Dialogue Rule 4: Reveal Character Dynamics And Emotion

Most writers use dialogue to impart information – it’s a great way of explaining things. But it’s also a perfect (and subtler) tool to describe a character, highlighting their mannerisms and personality. It can also help the reader connect with the character…or hate them.

Let’s take a look here at Stephen Chbosky’s  The Perks of Being a Wallflower  as another dialogue example.

Here we have two characters, when protagonist Charlie, a high school freshman, learns his long-time crush, Sam, may like him back, after all. Here’s how that dialogue goes:

“Okay, Charlie … I’ll make this easy. When that whole thing with Craig was over, what did you think?”

… “Well, I thought a lot of things. But mostly, I thought your being sad was much more important to me than Craig not being your boyfriend anymore. And if it meant that I would never get to think of you that way, as long as you were happy, it was okay.” …

… “I can’t feel that. It’s sweet and everything, but it’s like you’re not even there sometimes. It’s great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone, but what about when someone doesn’t need a shoulder? What if they need the arms or something like that? You can’t just sit there and put everybody’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can’t. You have to do things.”

“Like what?” …

“I don’t know. Like take their hands when the slow song comes up for a change. Or be the one who asks someone for a date.”

The words sound human.

Sam and Charlie are tentative, exploratory – and whilst words do the job of ‘turning’ a scene, both receiving new information, driving action on – we also see their dynamic.

And so we connect to them.

We see Charlie’s reactive nature, checking with Sam what she wants him to do. Sam throws out ideas, but it’s clear she wants him to be doing this thinking, not her, subverting Charlie’s idea of passive selflessness as love.

The dialogue shows us the characters, as clearly as anything else in the whole book. Shows us their differences, their tentativeness, their longing.

Want to achieve the same effect?  Understand your characters as fully as you can. The more you can do this, the more naturally you’ll write dialogue that’s right  for them . You can get  tips on knowing your characters here .

Dialogue Rule 5: Keep Your Dialogue Tags Simple

A dialogue tag is the part that helps us know who is saying what – the he said/she said part of dialogue that helps the reader follow the conversation.

Keep it Simple

A lot of writers try to add colour to their writing by showering it with a lot of vigorous dialogue tags. Like this:

“Not so,” she spat.

“I say that it is,” he roared.

“I know a common blackbird when I see it,” she defended.

“Oh. You’re a professional ornithologist now?” he attacked, sarcastically.

That’s pretty feeble dialogue, no matter what. But the biggest part of the problem is simply that the dialogue tags ( spat, roared , and so on) are so highly coloured, they take away interest from the dialogue itself – and it’s the words spoken by the characters that ought to capture the reader’s interest.

Almost always, therefore, you should confine yourself to the blandest of words:

She answered

And so on. Truth is, in a two-handed dialogue where it’s obvious who’s speaking, you don’t even need the word  said .

Get Creative

As an alternative, you can have action and body language demonstrate who is saying what and their emotions behind it. The scene description can say just as much as the dialogue.

Here’s another example of the same exchange:

Joan clenched her jaw. “Not so!”

“I say that it is.”

His voice kept rising with every word he shouted, but Joan was not going to be deterred.

“I know a common blackbird when I see it.”

“Oh. You’re a professional ornithologist now?”

Not one dialogue tag nor adverb was used there, but we still know who said what and how it was delivered. And , if you’re really smart and develop how your characters speak (pacing, words, syntax and speech pattern), a reader can know who is talking simply by how they’re talking.

The simple rule: use dialogue tags as invisibly as you can. I’ve written about a million words of my Fiona Griffiths series, and I doubt if I’ve used words other than say / reply and other very simple tags more than a dozen or so times in the entire series.

Keep it simple!

Dialogue Rule 6: Get The Punctuation Right

Dialogue punctuation is so simple and important, and looks so bad if you get it wrong. Here are eight simple rules to know before your character starts to speak:

• Each new line of dialogue (i.e: each new speaker) needs a new paragraph – even if the dialogue is very short.
• Action sentences within dialogue get their own paragraphs too. The first paragraph of a chapter or section starts on the far left, and the next paragraph (whether it starts with dialogue or not) is indented.
• The only exception to this rule is if the sentence interrupts an otherwise continuous piece of dialogue. for example:  “Yes,” she said. She brushed away a fly that had landed on her cheek. “I do think hippos are the best animals.”
• When you are ending a line of dialogue with  he said / she said , the sentence beforehand ends with a comma not a full stop (or period), as in this for example:  “Yes,” she said.
• If the line of dialogue ends with a question mark or exclamation mark, you still don’t have a capital letter for  he said / she said .  For example:  “You like hippos?” he said .
• If the he said / she said lives in the middle of one continuous sentence of dialogue, you need to deploy those commas like a comma-deploying ninja. Like this for example:  “If you like hippos,” he said, “then you deserve to be sat on by one.”
• And use quotation marks, dummy. You know to do that, without me telling you, right? (Yes, yes, some serious writers of literary fiction have written entire novels without one speech mark – but they are the exception to the rule.)
• Use the exclamation point sparingly. Otherwise! Your! Book! Is! Going! To! Sound! Very! Hysterical!

Dialogue Rule 7: Accents And Verbal Mannerisms

Realistic dialogue is important, but writing dialogue is not the same as speaking. Remember that the reader’s experience has to be smooth and enjoyable, so even if your character has an accent, speech impediment, or talks excessively…writing it exactly as it’s spoken doesn’t always work.

If you want to show that your character is from a certain part of the UK, it often helps to add a smattering of colloquial words or

In The Last Thing To Burn by Will Dean, the antagonist, Len, has an accent (Yorkshire or Lancashire, it’s obvious but never stated). The protagonist is trapped inside this man’s home, she has no idea where she is, but by describing the endless fields and hearing his subtle accent the reader knows exactly where in the UK she’s trapped.

Len says things like:

‘Going to go feed pigs’ and ‘There’s a good lass.’

You can highlight location, a character’s age, and their social standing simply by giving a nod to their accent.

On the flip-side, if they have a foreign accent, it can sometimes be too jarring to write dialogue exactly as it sounds.

‘Amma gonna eata the pizza’ is an awful way to write an Italian accent – it’s verging on racist. Try to avoid that. Instead, simply mention they have an Italian accent and let the reader fill in the blanks.

Accents Written Well

But, of course, there’s always an exception!

Irvine Welsh writes English in his native Scottish dialect and it’s exemplary – but nothing something we would recommend for a novice writer.

Here’s an excerpt from Trainspotting:

Third time lucky.  It wis like Sick Boy telt us: you’ve got tae know what it’s like tae try tae come off it before ye can actually dae it.  You can only learn through failure, and what ye learn is the importance ay preparation.  He could be right.  Anywey, this time ah’ve prepared. 

Perhaps, if you have a Scottish character in your novel you may want them to speak in a strong accent. But getting it wrong can ruin an entire novel, so unless you are very skilled and very confident, stick to the odd colloquialism or word and leave it there.

Verbal Mannerisms

Whether you realise it or not, we all have speech patterns. Some of us speak slowly, others pause, people also trail off mid-sentence. Some people also use verbal mannerisms, such as adding a word to a sentence that is unnecessary but becomes a personal tic (such as ‘man’, ‘like’ or ‘innit’). Or repeat favourite words. These can be influenced by age, background, class, and the period in which the book is set.

Here’s an example of two people talking. I won’t mention their ages or backgrounds, but see if you can guess.

“Chill, Bro.”

“Chill? I’m far from chilled, you scoundrel. That’s my flower bed you’ve just dug up.”

“I found something, though. It was sticking out the ground.”

“Outrageous behaviour. So… You… One simply can’t go around digging up people’s gardens!”

“Yeah. And what?” They both stared down at the swollen white lumps pressing out of the soil like plump snowdrops.”What is it, though?”

Harold swallowed. “Fingers.”

A Few Last Dialogue Rules

If want some great examples of how to write in dialogue, read plays or screenplays for inspiration. Read Tennessee Williams or Henrik Ibsen. Anything by Elmore Leonard is great. Ditto Raymond Chandler or Donna Tartt.

Some last tips:

• Keep speeches short . If a speech runs for more than three sentences or so, it (usually) risks being too long. Break it up with some action or someone else talking.
• Ensure characters speak in their own voice . And make sure your characters don’t sound the same as each other. Remember mannerisms, speech patterns, and how age and background influences speech.
• Add intrigue . Add slang and banter. Lace character chats with foreshadowing. You needn’t be writing a thriller to do this.
• Get in late and out early.  Don’t bother with small talk. Decide the point of each interaction, begin with it as late as possible, ending as soon as your point is made.
• Interruption is good.  So are characters pursuing their own thought processes and not quite engaging with the other.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 5 typesetting rules of writing dialogue.

Part of the editing process is to ensure you format dialogue correctly. Formatting dialogue correctly means remembering 5 simple steps:

• Only spoken words go within quotation marks.
• Use a separate sentence for every new thing someone says or does.
• Punctuation marks stay inside quotation marks and don’t forget about closing quotation marks at the end of the sentence.
• You can use single quotation marks or double quotation marks – but you must be consistent!
• Beware of capital letters. Always at the start of a sentence and after the quotations mark.

How Can You Use Everyday Life To Perfect Your Dialogue?

Listening to people speak will really help you perfect good dialogue. Sit in a cafe and people watch. Watch their body language and how they express themselves. Their verbal mannerisms, tics, how they choose their words, the syntax, speech patterns and turns of phrase. Make notes (without being spotted) and look out for contrasting word choices and personas.

What Is A Bad Example Of Dialogue?

There are plenty to choose from above – but the worst things you can do include:

• Using too many words
• Writing an accent how it’s heard (unless you are Irvine Welsh, which most people are not)
• Writing dialogue that’s irrelevant or misleading
• Using too many dialogue tags (or none at all)
• Bad punctuation – remember dialogue formatting
• Avoid long speeches

How Do You Start Dialogue?

There are many ways to start dialogue. You can ease into it, by introducing the character to the scene. Or you can jump in median res, slap bang into the centre of the action. Much like life, sometimes we hear a person’s voice before we see them – they pop up out of nowhere – and sometimes we call them or walk into a room where they are, and we have rehearsed what we plan to say.

See what works best for your scene, your characters, and the genre you are writing in (dialogue in a crime thriller will sound very different to dialogue in a young adult novel, for instance).

That’s All I Have To Say About That

We really hope you have found this article interesting and that you have now found the confidence to tackle the dialogue in your novel.

What your characters say and how they say it can make the difference between a good book and one that everyone is talking about. So get eavesdropping, get practising, and read as many books and plays as you can to create better dialogue.

Practice makes perfect and don’t forget to enjoy yourself!

About the author

Harry has written a variety of books over the years, notching up multiple six-figure deals and relationships with each of the world’s three largest trade publishers. His work has been critically acclaimed across the globe, has been adapted for TV, and is currently the subject of a major new screen deal. He’s also written non-fiction, short stories, and has worked as ghost/editor on a number of exciting projects. Harry also self-publishes some of his work, and loves doing so. His Fiona Griffiths series in particular has done really well in the US, where it’s been self-published since 2015. View his website , his Amazon profile , his Twitter . He's been reviewed in Kirkus, the Boston Globe , USA Today , The Seattle Times , The Washington Post , Library Journal , Publishers Weekly , CulturMag (Germany), Frankfurter Allgemeine , The Daily Mail , The Sunday Times , The Daily Telegraph , The Guardian , and many other places besides. His work has appeared on TV, via Bonafide . And go take a look at what he thinks about Blick Rothenberg . You might also want to watch our " Blick Rothenberg - The Truth " video, if you want to know how badly an accountancy firm can behave.

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Mastering the Art of Writing Believable Dialogue in Fiction

Table of Contents

Writing realistic dialogue is essential for crafting engaging stories and developing memorable characters. In this blog post, we’ll explore techniques for writing believable dialogue that not only sounds natural but also drives the story forward and reveals character personalities. By incorporating these tips and advice, you’ll be well on your way to creating great dialogue in your fiction writing.

The Importance of Realistic Dialogue

Dialogue is a critical component of any story, as it allows characters to communicate, express emotions, and reveal information. Writing realistic dialogue can be challenging, but it is crucial to make your story engaging and believable. Natural dialogue helps to immerse the reader in the story and creates a stronger emotional connection to the characters. It also contributes to the overall flow and pacing of the story, ensuring that readers remain invested and interested.

Crafting Believable Dialogue

Dialogue tags.

“The simplest dialogue tags are often the best” – Reedsy

Dialogue tags are the phrases that indicate who is speaking in a conversation, such as “said,” “asked,” “replied,” or “whispered.” These tags are important for readers to understand the flow of the conversation and to keep track of who is saying what. However, using the same dialogue tag repeatedly can become monotonous and disrupt the flow of the dialogue, making it feel stilted and mechanical.

That’s where varying the dialogue tags comes in. By using a variety of dialogue tags, you can convey different emotions, tones, and levels of intensity in the conversation. For example, if a character is angry or frustrated, you might use “yelled,” “shouted,” or “snapped” instead of “said.” If a character is speaking softly or intimately, you might use “whispered,” “murmured,” or “breathed” instead.

It’s important to choose dialogue tags that accurately reflect the character’s emotions and tone, rather than just randomly inserting different tags for the sake of variety. For instance, if a character is feeling sad, using a dialogue tag like “laughed” would be inappropriate and confusing for the reader.

Additionally, dialogue tags can be complemented by actions or descriptions to add depth and nuance to the dialogue. For example, instead of using a dialogue tag, you might describe how a character speaks, such as “her voice was low and throaty” or “he hesitated before answering.” These details can help bring the conversation to life and create a more vivid picture in the reader’s mind.

In summary, using dialogue tags sparingly and varying them based on the context and character’s emotions can help create more engaging and realistic dialogue. By complementing dialogue tags with actions and descriptions, you can add more depth and nuance to your characters’ conversations, making them feel more authentic and immersive.

Speech Patterns

Giving your characters distinct speech patterns is an essential part of creating believable and engaging dialogue. Just as in a real-life conversation, the characters in your story should have their own unique way of speaking, including their vocabulary, sentence structure, and tone. Here are some tips and examples for creating distinct speech patterns:

• Consider the character’s background: A character’s background can influence the way they speak. Factors such as their age, gender, region, socio-economic status, education, and personal experiences can all shape their speech patterns. For instance, a character who grew up in a wealthy family might use more formal language and have a larger vocabulary, while a character from a working-class background might use more slang and have a simpler vocabulary.
• A character from a wealthy family might say: “I’m afraid I can’t attend your event, as I have a prior engagement.”
• A character from a working-class background might say: “Sorry, can’t make it. Got somethin’ else goin’ on that day.”
• Use regional dialects: People from different regions often have unique speech patterns and dialects. Consider incorporating regional dialects into your characters’ speech to add authenticity to your story.
• A character from the southern United States might say: “Y’all come back now, ya hear?”
• A character from the northeast United States might say: “I’m walkin’ here!”
• Use unique vocabulary: Each character should have their own vocabulary that reflects their personality and background. A character who is well-read might use more complex words, while a character who is more practical might use simpler language.
• A well-read character might say: “I’m experiencing a modicum of trepidation regarding this matter.”
• A practical character might say: “I’m kinda worried about this thing.”
• Use unique sentence structure: The way a character constructs their sentences can also reflect their personality and background. A character who is analytical might use longer, more complex sentences, while a character who is more straightforward might use shorter, simpler sentences.
• An analytical character might say: “After analyzing the data, I have concluded that the most logical course of action would be to proceed with caution.”
• A straightforward character might say: “I’ve looked at everything, and we should be careful.”
• Use unique tone: The tone of a character’s speech can reveal a lot about their personality and emotions. A character who is angry might speak in a louder, more forceful tone, while a character who is sad might speak in a softer, more subdued tone.
• An angry character might say: “I can’t believe you did that! How could you be so thoughtless?”
• A sad character might say: “I just feel really lost right now. I don’t know what to do.”

In summary, creating distinct speech patterns for your characters is an important part of developing their personality and making them feel more realistic. By paying attention to the way people speak in real life and incorporating those observations into your

Body Language and Non-Verbal Cues

Realistic dialogue goes beyond mere words. Including body language and non-verbal cues in your writing can help convey emotions and create more vivid scenes. Use these cues to add depth to your characters and make their conversations more engaging. Describe facial expressions, gestures, and posture to provide context and enrich the dialogue. This added layer of detail will make your characters feel more real and relatable to readers.

The Importance of Non-Verbal Cues

Non-verbal cues can reveal a lot about a character’s emotions and thoughts. A simple nod of the head or a shrug of the shoulders can convey meaning that words alone cannot. Including these cues in your writing can help create a more immersive experience for your readers, allowing them to understand the underlying emotions and motivations behind the dialogue.

Here’s an example:

Samantha sat across from her boss, nervously tapping her foot under the table. She had just presented her ideas for a new marketing campaign, and the silence that followed was making her uneasy. Her boss leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers thoughtfully.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally spoke. “I appreciate your creativity, Samantha. But I’m not sure this is the direction we want to go in.”

Samantha’s heart sank. She had worked tirelessly on this proposal, and she couldn’t bear the thought of it being rejected. She forced a smile and nodded her head in understanding, but her body language betrayed her disappointment.

Her boss noticed the subtle shift in her posture and reached across the table to pat her hand. “Don’t worry, Samantha. We’ll find something that works for both of us.”

By including Samantha’s non-verbal cues, such as tapping her foot and nodding her head, the reader is able to understand the emotions and thoughts underlying the dialogue. It creates a more immersive experience for the reader and helps to convey the tension and disappointment in the scene.

Resource: Verywell Mind’s article discusses different types of nonverbal communication and provides examples, such as greeting an old friend at a restaurant with a hug, handshake, or fist bump, and placing your hand on someone’s arm when they are talking to you at a party to convey friendliness or concern [ 1 ].

Describing Facial Expressions

Facial expressions are a key non-verbal cue that can reveal a character’s emotions. Describing a character’s facial expressions can help readers visualize the scene and understand the tone of the conversation. For example, a character who is angry might furrow their brow and clench their jaw, while a character who is sad might have tears in their eyes and a downcast gaze.

Depicting Gestures

Gestures can also provide important context and meaning to a character’s dialogue. For instance, a character who is nervous might fidget with their hands or bite their nails, while a character who is confident might stand tall and make expansive gestures. By including these details in your writing, you can create more dynamic and engaging scenes that feel true to life.

Describing Posture

Posture can also be used to convey a character’s emotions and personality. A character who is closed off or defensive might cross their arms over their chest or hunch their shoulders, while a character who is open and receptive might stand with their arms at their sides and their shoulders relaxed. By describing a character’s posture, you can provide additional context to their dialogue and help readers better understand their mindset.

Adding Depth to Your Characters

By including body language and non-verbal cues in your writing, you can add an additional layer of depth to your characters. These cues can reveal aspects of their character’s personality, and motivations that might not be immediately obvious from their words alone. By paying attention to these details and incorporating them into your writing, you can create more realistic and relatable characters that readers will care about.

As Jane entered the crowded party, she immediately felt overwhelmed. She scanned the room, searching for a familiar face. Her eyes landed on a group of people laughing and chatting by the bar. She took a deep breath and made her way over to them.

As she approached, she noticed that one of the women in the group had her arms crossed tightly over her chest, a defensive posture. The woman’s shoulders were hunched up towards her ears, as if she were trying to shield herself from the world.

Jane introduced herself and tried to make small talk, but the woman’s closed-off body language made her feel unwelcome. Eventually, she excused herself and moved on to another group of people.

Later in the evening, Jane found herself talking to a man who stood with his arms at his sides and his shoulders relaxed. He listened attentively to her stories, nodding and smiling in all the right places. She felt a sense of ease around him, and they ended up talking for hours.

By describing the posture of the characters, the reader can better understand their emotions and personalities. The woman with the defensive posture is closed off and unwelcoming, while the man with the relaxed posture is open and receptive. This additional context helps the reader to better understand Jane’s interactions with each character and adds depth to the scene.

Writing Dialogue that Drives the Story Forward

Good dialogue should not only sound natural but also move the story forward. Each line of dialogue should serve a purpose, whether it’s revealing character traits, providing essential information, or creating tension. Avoid including small talk or unnecessary conversations that may bore readers and detract from the story’s momentum. Instead, focus on crafting dialogue that contributes to plot and character development throughout, deepens character relationships, and maintains reader interest.

Avoiding Small Talk and Unnecessary Conversations

One of the most common mistakes writers make when crafting dialogue is including small talk or unnecessary conversations. While these may seem like a way to add realism to your story, they can quickly bore readers and detract from the story’s momentum. Instead, focus on crafting dialogue that is essential to the plot and reveals something important about the characters or their relationships.

Crafting Effective Dialogue

So, how do you craft effective dialogue? Here are some tips:

• Keep it concise: Dialogue that rambles on or is too long can lose the reader’s attention. Keep your dialogue concise and to the point.
• Make it sound natural: Dialogue should sound like something people would actually say, but also keep in mind that it’s not real speech. You should avoid things like filler words or stutters, and make sure the dialogue flows well.
• Use subtext: Dialogue can be a great way to reveal what characters are thinking or feeling without directly stating it. Use subtext to add depth to your dialogue and create tension.
• Use conflict: Conflict is essential in storytelling, and dialogue can be a great way to create it. Use dialogue to create tension between characters and move the plot forward.
• Show, don’t tell: Instead of having characters directly state their feelings or motivations, use dialogue to show them through their actions or reactions.

Tips for Writing Effective Dialogue

Observe real-life conversations.

One of the best ways to improve your dialogue writing skills is by observing real-life conversations. Pay attention to how people speak, the rhythm of their speech, and the way they express emotions. Use these observations to inform your own writing and make your characters’ dialogue more realistic. Listen to conversations in various settings and write realistic dialogue between people of different backgrounds to gain a better understanding of how speech patterns and vocabulary can vary.

Imagine you’re a writer who wants to improve your dialogue writing skills. You decide to visit a coffee shop and observe the conversations happening around you. You pay attention to how people speak and the nuances of their speech.

You hear a group of friends catching up, and you notice how they interrupt each other, finish each other’s sentences, and use slang and informal language. You jot down some notes on the rhythm and flow of their conversation.

Later, you overhear a couple having a tense discussion. You notice how they speak more slowly and deliberately, with longer pauses and more formal language. You observe how their body language and facial expressions convey their emotions.

As you continue to write dialogue and to observe conversations in different settings, you start to develop a better understanding of how people speak in different situations. You begin to incorporate these observations into your writing, creating more realistic and believable dialogue for your characters.

Cut Out the Fluff

Great dialogue is often economical, meaning it conveys essential information without being overly wordy. Remove any unnecessary words or phrases from your characters’ dialogue, leaving only what is needed to convey the intended meaning. This will help your dialogue feel more focused and impactful, allowing readers to better understand the significance of each conversation within the story.

John and Jane are two characters in a story. They are discussing a plan to rob a bank.

Before editing: John: “Okay, so we need to go in, grab the money, and get out before the cops arrive. It’s important that we move quickly and don’t waste any time. We don’t want to get caught or attract attention to ourselves.”

Jane: “I agree. We should be in and out as fast as possible. The longer we stay, the greater the risk of getting caught. We need to be smart about this.”

After editing: John: “We grab the money and leave. Fast.”

Jane: “Agreed. No wasted time. Let’s be smart.”

In the edited version, the dialogue is more concise and focused. The unnecessary words and phrases are removed, leaving only the essential information. This creates a sense of urgency and tension, highlighting the importance of the conversation within the story.

Vary Sentence Structure

Real people don’t speak in perfectly constructed sentences. To create natural-sounding dialogue, vary your sentence structure by using incomplete sentences, run-on sentences, and varying sentence lengths. This will help your dialogue feel more like a real conversation and reflect the way people speak in real life. Experiment with different sentence structures to create a more authentic and dynamic flow in your characters’ conversations.

Here’s an example of dialogue that incorporates varied sentence structures to create a more natural-sounding conversation:

“So, what are you up to tonight?” “Not much, just hanging out at home. You know, watching some TV, maybe reading a book or two.” “Sounds pretty boring. You should come out with us instead.” “I don’t know, I’m kind of tired. Plus, I’m broke until payday.” “Well, we’re just going to grab a couple of drinks and catch up. It doesn’t have to be a big night out or anything.” “I guess that could be fun. What time were you thinking?”

In this example, the dialogue incorporates a mix of complete and incomplete sentences, as well as varying sentence lengths. This helps to create a more natural flow developing voice, and rhythm to the conversation, making it feel more like a real-life exchange between two people.

Adapting Dialogue for Different Genres and Age Groups

Writing dialogue for children’s literature.

When writing dialogue for children’s literature, consider the age and comprehension level of your target audience. Use age-appropriate vocabulary and sentence structures while still maintaining a natural, conversational tone. Be mindful of themes and subject matter, ensuring that the dialogue is suitable for younger readers. Engaging dialogue in children’s literature can help young readers develop their language skills, spark their imagination, and foster a love for reading.

Here’s an example of dialogue in children’s literature that takes into account the age and comprehension level of the target audience:

“Hey, Timmy, do you want to come over and play with my new toy car?” asked Billy, holding up a shiny red car.

Timmy looked up at Billy with wide eyes and nodded enthusiastically. “Wow, that looks so cool! Can I drive it too?”

“Sure, we can take turns. But first, let’s make sure we ask our moms if it’s okay to come over and play.”

“Okay, let’s go ask them now!” Timmy exclaimed, grabbing his coat.

In this dialogue, the vocabulary and sentence structures are appropriate for young readers, and the conversation is relatable and conversational in tone. The subject matter is also appropriate for children, as it revolves around a common childhood activity of playing with toys. The dialogue helps to engage young readers, encourage their language development, and promote a love of reading.

Adjusting Dialogue for Historical Fiction and Time Periods

In historical fiction, it’s essential to consider the time period and location of your story when crafting dialogue. Research the language and speech patterns of the era to create authentic and believable dialogue that transports readers to the story’s setting.

This may involve using period-specific slang, idioms, and expressions, as well as capturing the cadence and rhythm of speech from that time. Be cautious not to overdo it, as excessive use of historical language can make the dialogue feel forced or difficult to understand. Strive for a balance that maintains authenticity while remaining accessible to modern readers.

Here’s an example of a passage that demonstrates the importance of considering the time period and location of a story when crafting dialogue in historical fiction:

As John walked down the street, he overheard a group of men talking about the upcoming election. Their speech was peppered with phrases and idioms that were unfamiliar to him, but he knew that he needed to understand the local vernacular if he wanted to fit in. He listened intently, trying to pick up on the cadence and rhythm of their speech.

Eventually, he mustered the courage to join the conversation, carefully choosing his words and trying to mimic the way the other men spoke. It wasn’t easy, but he knew that he had to make an effort if he wanted to be accepted in this new place.

In this example, the author uses language and speech patterns that would have been common during the time period and location of the story. The use of phrases like “the local vernacular” and “cadence and rhythm of their speech” help to transport readers to the setting of the story, while also demonstrating the importance of using historically accurate language in dialogue. The author also notes that it’s important to strike a balance between authenticity and accessibility, which is a key consideration when crafting dialogue in historical fiction.

Developing a Strong Voice for Each Character

Consistency is crucial when it comes to each character’s voice. Develop distinct speech patterns and mannerisms for each character, and make sure they remain consistent throughout the story. This will help readers differentiate between different characters and form stronger connections with them. Take into consideration each character’s background, motivations, and emotions when crafting their dialogue, and allow their voice to evolve as they grow and change throughout the story. By giving each character a unique and consistent voice, you’ll create more engaging and memorable characters that resonate with readers.

Writing believable dialogue is a skill that takes time and practice to develop. By observing real-life conversations, cutting out unnecessary fluff, and adapting your dialogue to suit different genres and age groups, you can create engaging and authentic dialogue that brings your characters to life. Remember that developing a strong voice for each character and ensuring that dialogue drives the story forward is essential for crafting immersive and memorable stories. Keep honing your dialogue-writing skills, and don’t be afraid to experiment and find your own unique voice and style as a writer.

About Willow Tenny

Willow Tenny is a passionate blogger and writer with a deep love for the written word. With a background in creative writing and journalism, Willow has dedicated her career to helping aspiring writers hone their skills and create captivating stories. Through her insightful blog posts, she covers a wide range of topics in writing, from crafting believable dialogue to developing memorable characters.

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When it comes to writing, Willow Tenny is a true pro. She has a wealth of experience in SEO copywriting and creative writing, and she knows exactly what it takes to produce quality content. On her blog, Willow Writes, Willow shares top writing strategies with both beginners and experienced writers.

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How to Write Unique Voices for Characters in Fiction

When it comes to writing fiction, creating unique and believable characters is absolutely essential. One important aspect of character development is crafting unique voices that reflect each character’s personality and background.

Understand your characters

Before you can write distinct voices for your characters, it’s important to understand who they are. Building out a solid foundation and developing compelling backstories is one of the best ways to ensure they always have unique voices. Here are some tips for getting to know your characters:

• Write character sketches that detail their backgrounds, personalities, goals, and motivations.
• Conduct interviews with your characters as if they were real people, asking them about their likes and dislikes, fears, goals, and more (the Proust questionnaire is a popular way to do this).
• Imagine how your characters’ past experiences will change how they speak in different situations and when experiencing varied emotions.

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Use description to enhance your characters’ voices.

Descriptions can be just as important as dialogue when it comes to creating character voices. Here are some tips for using descriptions to enhance your characters’ personalities:

• Use specific details to create vivid descriptions of each character’s body language, mannerisms, and behaviour.
• Consider how each character’s mannerisms might influence their speech patterns. For example, a character who is shy might be hesitant to speak or repeat themselves frequently.
• Pay attention to how your characters interact with their environment. Do they use their hands a lot when they speak? Do they pace around the room or sit still?
• Use sensory details to create immersion. For example, a character who is nervous might sweat profusely or fidget with their jewellery.

Avoid stereotypes and clichés

When writing unique voices for characters, it’s important to avoid falling back on stereotypes or clichés. Here are some tips for creating characters that feel fresh and authentic:

• Avoid using dialects or accents. Not only do these often rely on stereotypes, but they also break reader immersion unless authenticity is absolutely essential to the type of book you are writing.
• Consider how each character’s background and experiences might influence their beliefs and values. One-dimensional characters built on clichés won’t have unique voices.
• Think outside of the box when it comes to creating distinct voices. Instead of relying on traditional archetypes, consider combining traits from multiple sources to create something new.

How to craft unique dialogue

With the basics in place, how do we convert unique character voices into dialogue? Here are some tips for writing dialogue that feels authentic and unique to each character:

• Read your dialogue out loud to hear how it sounds, and make sure it’s true to how you imagine your character to be.
• Give your characters a unique conversational quirk that feels natural. An example could be that they call everyone “love.”
• Vary the length and complexity of sentences to reflect each character’s personality and background.
• Consider how each character’s education and experiences might influence their vocabulary and sentence structure.
• Use dialogue tags sparingly to avoid detracting from the actual words being spoken.
• Avoid using too much exposition or explaining too much in dialogue. Instead, let the characters speak when it serves your story.

By understanding your characters, crafting unique dialogue, using descriptions to enhance character voices, and avoiding stereotypes and clichés, you can create vibrant, engaging characters that will keep readers hooked from start to finish.

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Tips on giving characters unique speech patterns?

I'm primarily a screenwriter writing my first novel, a sprawling sci-fi planet-hopping conspiracy adventure and a lot of the tricks I commonly use to quickly differentiate characters I've already used to make the secondary alien characters stand out, but in contrast it makes the central main human characters read kind of bland.

I'm not a big fan of books on writing but at this point I'm willing to take recommendations, but would prefer first-hand advice from those willing to share.

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Blogs / Creative Writing / Character Template for Fiction Writing

Character Template for Fiction Writing

Ever felt like your characters are about as flat as a soda left out overnight? Yeah, me too. But fear not, fellow word-wranglers! I’ve got a secret weapon that’ll save your literary bacon: character templates. 

For this task, you must become a literary Sherlock Holmes (deerstalker cap optional, but highly recommended). Your mission? To crack the case of what makes them tick, uncover the skeletons rattling in their closet (figurative or literal—we don’t judge), and piece together the puzzle of their personality.

By the time we’re done, you’ll be crafting characters so vivid, you might just find yourself setting an extra place at your dinner table—just in case they decide to pop in for a chat.

What Is a Character Profile Template?

Character profile templates are structured frameworks that help you organize and develop every juicy detail of your fictional personas’ lives. It’s the ultimate cheat sheet, ensuring you’ve got the inside scoop on your character from their deepest, darkest fears to their most adorable quirks.

But wait, there’s more! (Cue infomercial voice.) This isn’t just about filling in blanks on a form. Oh no, dear writer. It’s about crafting living, breathing characters that leap off the page and possibly karate-chop their way into your readers’ hearts. 

Character Bio Template

This nifty tool is essentially a detailed questionnaire that helps you flesh out your characters. It’s the literary equivalent of speed dating your own creations, asking all the burning questions that make a character tick. 

From basic stats to deep, dark secrets, a good character bio template covers all the bases. It’s not just about filling in blanks; it’s about crafting a living, breathing persona that’ll leap off the page and possibly raid your fridge at 2 AM.

• Name and Nicknames: What’s in a name? Everything, darling! From the sophisticated Penelope Poshington III to good ol’ Bubba. A name sets the stage. And those nicknames? They’re the secret sauce of relationships. Is your character a “Shorty,” “Boss,” or “Stinky”? Each one tells a tale.
• Date of Birth and Place: Not just for astrology buffs! This nugget of info plants your character firmly in time and space. Was little Timmy born during the Summer of Love or in the middle of the Great Depression? In New York or Timbuktu? These details shape worldviews, folks.
• Occupation and Education: From high school dropouts to PhD holders, burger flippers to brain surgeons—a character’s CV speaks volumes. It’s not just about fancy titles; it’s about life experiences that mold their perspective.
• Personality Traits: Is your character the life of the party or more likely to be found in a quiet corner with a book? A glass-half-full optimist or a “we’re all doomed” pessimist? Mix and match for maximum intrigue!
• Habits/Mannerisms: Here’s where the fun really begins. Does your hero have a nervous tick? A catchphrase? Maybe they can’t start the day without singing in the shower or insist on alphabetizing their spice rack. These quirks are the sprinkles on your character sundae—utterly delicious and oh-so-memorable.
• Relationships: No character is an island (unless you’re writing a very niche Robinson Crusoe fanfiction). Family, friends, enemies, lovers—this web of connections defines how your character moves through the world. Are they a social butterfly or a lone wolf? The life of the party or the wallflower?

Character Description Template

A character description template can turn that vague blob in your mind into a vivid, jaw-dropping character that your readers can practically high-five.

The key is balance. You don’t need to describe every eyelash—unless those eyelashes are crucial to the plot. (Eyelash assassin, anyone?) Give your readers enough to spark their imagination, but leave room for them to fill in some blanks.

• Height and Weight : Is your character a towering giant or more vertically challenged? Built like a linebacker or a stringbean? Remember, in the land of fiction, there’s no BMI shaming—just glorious variety!
• Hair Color and Style : From fiery red manes to distinguished silver foxes, hair can speak volumes. Is it a carefully coiffed masterpiece or a bird’s nest that’s seen better days? And don’t forget those eyebrows—the oft-forgotten punctuation of the face!
• Eye Color : Windows to the soul, portals of emotion, or just really cool orbs in their face? Whether they’re piercing blue, warm brown, or an otherworldly purple (hello, fantasy writers!), eyes can captivate readers.
• Facial Features : Chiseled jawlines, button noses, scars with mysterious origins—it’s all fair game. Want a character with a crooked smile that makes hearts melt? Or perhaps a perpetual scowl that could curdle milk? The face is your playground!
• Build : Ah, the body. Athletic and toned? Soft and cuddly? Or perhaps they have the muscular build of someone who frequently wrestles alligators (hey, it could happen). 
• Clothing Style : Fashionista or fashion disaster? Does your character rock designer labels or live in the same ratty t-shirt? Remember, clothes don’t just make the man (or woman, or non-binary individual)—they tell a story.
• Posture and Movement : Is your character a graceful gazelle or more of a lumbering bear? Do they sashay, saunter, or stumble? The way a character moves can be as telling as a monologue.

Character Introduction Template

The character introduction template, or as I like to call it, “How to make your character’s grand entrance so epic, readers will need sunglasses,” is where you set the stage, drop the mic, and make your character strut their stuff like they own the joint.

The goal is to make your character’s introduction so compelling that readers will be yelling “Encore!” and flipping pages faster than a caffeinated squirrel. Whether your character saunters in with a wink and a grin or crash-lands in the middle of chaos, make it count! Your character is stepping into the spotlight, and you want your readers leaning forward in their seats, popcorn forgotten, completely entranced.

• Introduction Scene: This is your character’s catwalk moment. Are they bursting through doors guns blazing or quietly sipping tea in the corner? Maybe they’re hanging upside down from a chandelier (hey, you do you). The key is to make an impression that sticks.
• Initial Impressions : First impressions are like literary speed dating. What will other characters (and readers) notice first? A dazzling smile? A menacing scowl? The fact that they’re covered in glitter and feathers? (Again, no judgment here.) Give us something to ooh and aah over.
• Role in the Story: Is your character the hero who’ll save the day, the sidekick with snappy one-liners, or the villain twirling their mustache? Maybe they’re the mysterious stranger or the comic relief. Whatever their role, hint at it early to whet your readers’ appetites.
• Immediate Goals: What does your character want right off the bat? A sandwich? World domination? To find the bathroom? Their initial objectives can speak volumes about who they are and what drives them.
• Reaction of Others: How do other characters respond to this new arrival? Are they swooning, cowering, or rolling their eyes? The way others react can tell us a lot about your character’s reputation and presence.
• Foreshadowing: Sprinkle in some hints about future events or character development. Maybe there’s a flicker of vulnerability in the tough guy’s eyes, or a shadow of doubt crosses the face of the seemingly confident hero.

Character Backstory Template

This is where we unearth all the delicious, sometimes dirty, always fascinating details that made your character who they are today. It’s like a time machine, but with fewer paradoxes and more childhood traumas!

Crafting a backstory is like making a fine soup—you don’t need to serve every ingredient to the reader, but they should be able to taste the richness. 

• Early Life: Ah, the wonder years! Was your character a precocious prodigy or more of a “set the kitchen on fire trying to make toast” kind of kid? Maybe they were raised by wolves (literally or figuratively). These formative years are the bedrock of personality, so make ’em count!
• Family Background: Time for some family tree shaking! Are we talking picture-perfect Cleavers or more Addams Family vibes? Perhaps a dash of royal lineage or a pinch of circus performers? Family dynamics can explain a lot about why your character flinches at the sound of kazoos or has an irrational fear of picket fences.
• Major Life Events: This is where you play life event bingo. First kiss? Check. Embarrassing school talent show incident? Check. Accidentally started a small revolution? Double check! These pivotal moments are the plot twists in your character’s personal novella.
• Traumas and Joys: Ah, the emotional rollercoaster! What made your character ugly cry into a pint of ice cream? What had them grinning like they just won the lottery? These peaks and valleys sculpt the emotional landscape of your character.
• Turning Points: Every life has its plot twists. What made your character pull a 180? Was it a near-death experience, a particularly moving fortune cookie, or realizing they look terrible in horizontally striped shirts? These are the moments that divide life into “before” and “after.”
• Secrets and Regrets: Ooh, now we’re getting to the good stuff! What skeletons are rattling around in your character’s closet? What’s that one thing they’d rather take to the grave? Secrets add depth, and regrets humanize—use them liberally!

How to Use Character Templates

Alright, literary maestros, you’ve got your shiny new character templates in hand. Now what? Fear not! I’m about to guide you through the treacherous jungles of character creation with the finesse of a caffeinated jungle guide. Here are some tips on using character templates.

Use Them for All Characters

Yes, all of them. Even that guy who appears for two sentences to deliver a pizza. Okay, maybe not him, but definitely any character who hangs around for more than a page. You never know when that seemingly minor character might demand their own spinoff series!

Reference Often

Keep your templates close and your characters closer. Pin them to your wall, set them as your phone background, tattoo them on your— okay, maybe not that last one. Refer to them regularly to keep your characters consistent. Nothing ruins a story faster than your blue-eyed hero suddenly sporting brown eyes in chapter 12.

Update as Needed

Characters grow—sometimes in ways we don’t expect. Did your timid wallflower suddenly find their voice and tell off the school bully? Update that template! Think of it as your character’s personal Wikipedia page—always evolving, occasionally vandalized by mischievous plot twists.

Mix and Match

Feel free to Frankenstein your templates. Maybe you love the backstory section from one template but prefer the personality breakdown from another. 

Use Them as Brainstorming Tools

Stuck on a plot point? Consult your character templates! Sometimes the solution is hiding in your hero’s childhood fear of clowns or your villain’s secret passion for knitting.

Stay Flexible

Remember, your character template isn’t the Ten Commandments—it’s more like a treasure map with some smudged sections. As you write, your characters might surprise you. Maybe your stern librarian suddenly reveals a passion for underground rap battles. Roll with it! Let your characters evolve organically, even if it means scribbling all over your pristine template.

Share with Your Writing Buddies

Turn template-filling into a party game! Swap partially completed templates with writing friends and see what wild directions they take your characters. Who knows? You might discover your gruff detective has a hidden talent for balloon animals.

The Power of Character Templates

Using character templates can transform your writing process, making your characters more vivid and your storytelling more cohesive. Think of them as your secret weapon in crafting unforgettable stories.

Remember, at the end of the day, these templates are here to serve you, not the other way around. Use them as a springboard for your imagination, a safety net for consistency, and occasionally as a coaster for your third cup of writing fuel (aka coffee).

So go forth, you brilliant character wranglers! May your templates be ever flexible, your characters ever surprising, and your writing sessions ever productive. And if all else fails, just ask yourself: What would my character do? (Just maybe don’t ask that when deciding whether to have that fourth slice of pizza.)

Character voices: How to write persona using voice

Writing fiction, there are at least three ways we create character voices. The first is through viewpoint narration (narrative voice). The words a narrator uses create a distinct persona through elements such as style, subject matter and tone. The second way is written dialogue, showing the content and manner of characters’ speech. The third is via other characters’ viewpoints, when they describe a character’s voice. Read these tips for making a character’s voice memorable:

• Post author By Bridget McNulty
• 8 Comments on Character voices: How to write persona using voice

Writing fiction, there are at least three ways we create character voices. The first is through viewpoint narration (narrative voice) .  The words a narrator uses create a distinct persona through elements such as style ,  subject matter and tone . The second way is written dialogue, showing the content and manner of characters’ speech. The third is via other characters’ viewpoints, when they describe a character’s voice. Read these tips for making a character’s voice memorable:

1. Examine character voices in literature

Classic literature and modern genre fiction are both full of vivid, interesting voices. Compare these first person narrators’ voices, created more than a hundred years apart:

‘God knows I tried my best to learn the ways of this world, even had inklings we could be glorious; but after all that’s happened, the inkles ain’t easy anymore. I mean–what kind of fucken life is this ?’ (p. 1) – DBC Pierre,  Vernon God Little,  2003

‘My sister, Mrs Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had brought me up ‘by hand.’ Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand.’ (p. 8) – Charles Dickens,  Great Expectations,   1861

Character voice examples: Vernon God Little vs Philip ‘Pip’ Pirrip

These two narrative voices are completely different . 

Pierre’s narrator Vernon Little has a world-weary, pessimistic voice that is typical of a disaffected teen. Throughout the book, Vernon uses curse words liberally and his observations of others are often honest yet sarcastic or cruel.

Dickens’ protagonist Pip, by contrast, has a level-headed, slightly witty voice. It’s a perceptive, intelligent voice, that reflects awareness of life’s ironies (such as the fact his sister’s bragging about having ‘brought him up by hand’ could also refer to her tendency to give Pip and her husband thrashings).

When you read a story and a character’s narrative voice grabs you, stop and dissect it a little. What makes this voice interesting? Is it sly? Moody? Optimistic? Poignant? Nostalgic? What words or phrases create this effect?

2. Be creative describing how characters’ voices sound

The way a character’s speaking voice sounds can convey many things: Their health (a sick person may have a softer, deeper or weaker voice than usual), age, mood, emotion and more.

To create a vivid sense of spoken voice, use:

• Vivid comparisons:   What could you compare a character’s voice to? Does a character’s voice sound like warm Autumn wind? Or are their sentences darting and skittish, moving like a nervous, watchful bird?
• Backstory and experience: How might a character’s backstory affect their voice? For example, a singer who’s used bad technique all their life may have a raspy croak. A character who has suffered immensely may bear this sorrow in the tone of their voice
• Contradiction: Sometimes a character’s voice is completely different to what we expect. The muscled bodybuilder might have a high-pitched (or highly intelligent) voice, for example.

Examples of creative voice description

Read these examples describing characters’ voices:

‘”Hi.” The woman looked up. First at Guitar and then at Milkman. “What kind of a word is that?” Her voice was light but gravel-sprinkled.’ (p. 36) – Toni Morrison,  Song of Solomon , 1977

‘…he checked himself in order to stretch down and fish the receiver off the desk and say, “Woodrow.” Or maybe, “Woodrow here.” And he certainly barked his name a bit, he had that memory for sure, of his voice sounding like someone else’s, and sounding stroppy: “Woodrow here,” his own perfectly decent name, but without the softening of his nickname Sandy, and snapped out as if he hated it, because the High Commissioner’s usual prayer meeting was slated to start in thirty minutes…’ – John le Carré,  The Constant Gardener , 2001

Each creates a distinct  tone and  mood  while making these character voices reflect the current situation.

In the first, the speaker is Pilate, an aunt the character Milkman has never met before because there’s bad blood between her and Milkman’s father. His friend Guitar takes Milkman to visit Pilate. Morrison’s simple description of voice (‘light but gravel-sprinkled’) suggests complexity and experience. Pilate’s voice suggests she is capable of levity and charm but also has a gritty, ‘real’ quality about her.

The second example of a character’s voice by John le Carré reveals Woodrow’s irritability when there’s a phone call while he’s preoccupied with an approaching meeting. Words describing his voice (‘barked’ and ‘stroppy’) suggest he is a man with authority (he can afford to be uncivil). The description clearly suggests his abrupt, irritated mood in this moment.

3. Make dialogue reveal characters’ voices

Character voice is a combination of elements including description and dialogue.  Make sure that you write effective dialogue that develops your characters’ and their personae.

How to write dialogue conveying character voices? Eavesdrop and listen

One of the best ways to improve your dialogue is by listening to the way that people talk. Go out in public and ride buses, sit in coffee shops and eavesdrop. Write down bits of conversation. It doesn’t matter if your own book is set in another place or time; just getting a sense of the rhythm of people’s speech, the way they talk (and what it reveals about them), will be helpful. Notice what they talk about as well, and think about what that tells you about them.

Avoid phonetic accents and dialect that could feel like stereotyping

Accents and dialects also tell readers a little about where characters are from. Yet be careful about writing out dialects or accents phonetically . If overdone, it can read as stereotyping.

There are often complex politics involved in this (such as a writer who has privilege or power recreating the speech of the dispossessed or voiceless). When in doubt, have a character describe another’s accent once – its strangeness, or how hard it makes it to understand them. Thereafter, write the accented character’s speech normally.

If your character hails from an area with a distinctive dialect, it is best to choose only a few vocabulary words or one or two patterns of speech to reproduce. Although a few writers have managed to use dialects successfully, this is very difficult to accomplish.

One way to create believable ‘foreign’ voices in a story is to transpose the grammar errors speakers from that region make most often. For example, first-language German speakers often struggle with ‘th’ sounds in English, as German does not use them.

Create character voices using sentence structure

Sentence structure also distinguishes how different people speak. A character might speak in short, clipped phrases or in long, flowery sentences. You might experiment with punctuation; maybe one character’s speech trails off a lot while another always seems to be exclaiming something.

4. Separate ‘character voice’ from ‘authorial voice’

Your voice as a writer develops over time, and it reflects your own ideas, attitudes and preoccupations. The style that you like to write in. Whether you favour lyrical, long descriptions of the natural environment, or concise, witty anecdotal observations.

To really create a character’s believable voice, it has to be its own, distinct entity, however.

Create a chart or plan of your character. [ You can do so in the ‘Character’ section of our story brainstorming tool .] Instead of creating a voice that just happens to reflect your own, you can be more intentional. Ask:

• What is this character’s world view? How does this come across in their voice?
• Are they polite and well-mannered or coarse and bawdy? Do they swear a lot or not at all?
• What subjects and passions occupy their mind? How could narration or dialogue show this, from time to time?

5. Keep developing your characters’ voices

Sometimes writers will talk about characters who ‘take over’ a book and either make it much easier for the author to write or steer the story in an unexpected direction. This often happens when characters have strong, specific, well-developed voices.

In order to understand your character’s voice and develop it, you need to know your character. What is your character’s story arc ? Where do they begin and where will they (probably) end up?

There are a number of things you can do to develop character voices:

• Try some exercises asking questions about your character. You can complete the exercises in our guide,  How to Write Real Characters, for practice
• Think about your character’s background including where your character is from, what kind of an education your character has, and your character’s age and gender. These things all affect how we express ourselves
• If you are still struggling, you might find it helpful to try actually speaking out loud like your character. Think about the character’s mannerisms and work on getting into the mindset of the character in the way you might if you were an actor. This may help you relax into the voice of your character on the printed page.

Get constructive feedback on your character’s narrative or spoken voice. Join Now Novel for constructive feedback and story planning tools.

Related Posts:

• What is diction? How to write vivid voices
• Writing confidence: Silencing the 'You can't write' voice
• Voices on the page: points to consider when writing dialogue
• Tags character voices

By Bridget McNulty

Bridget McNulty is a published author, content strategist, writer, editor and speaker. She is the co-founder of two non-profits: Sweet Life Diabetes Community, South Africa's largest online diabetes community, and the Diabetes Alliance, a coalition of all the organisations working in diabetes in South Africa. She is also the co-founder of Now Novel: an online novel-writing course where she coaches aspiring writers to start - and finish! - their novels. Bridget believes in the power of storytelling to create meaningful change.

8 replies on “Character voices: How to write persona using voice”

Thank’s you I got an big problem with writing a Voice for a character. I didn’t recordized how much important it was untiled I’ve wrote mine own character chart plus I was just researching around.

It’s a pleasure, Sete. Thank you for reading. A character chart is a helpful exercise.

Hello Bridget. Good job on summarizing character voices. I need as much help on this as I can get. Thank you. Steve

Thank you, I’m glad you found it helpful. Thanks for reading.

“The first note is everything. If I can’t find that soft round tone, I can’t do nothing.” Miles Davis. That’s what voice is to me. You nailed it, here. Thanks for sharing.

[…] surface deep. These quirks may make it easy to recognize who is speaking, but they tell your reader very little about the character in question—which means you’re only using half the potential of your character’s […]

Thanks for this. I stayed in Jamaica back in the 80s and am writing a novel with a few Jamaican characters. The voices come natural to me but you mentioned not to overdo it. Most of my friends are Jamaican and I’ve embraced the culture all my life. I even dream cussing in patois. I’d love your feedback. Thanks, JMJ

Hi JJ, I love ‘I even dream cussing in patois’ (good line for an expat character in your story?). Please feel free to submit a sample for critique to our online critique groups, you’ll find a constructive group giving feedback. It sounds an interesting story. I’m sure including a bit of patois in the story would be fine, as it’s more a creole language than an imitation of an accent. I would also advise getting Jamaican friends to beta read as ‘sensitivity readers’ (an author I’m working with is doing similar with an indigenous Tibetan friend for a story around the Tibetan uprising). I hope this helps!

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How to Write Character Dialogue in a Novel

By Georgina Roy

If you need a list of tips on how to write character dialogue in a novel, this is one post you need to read! Scroll down to get some practical advice on writing dialogue in your novel.

1. Listen to people’s conversations

The first step in writing good dialogue in a novel is knowing and understanding how people talk. In order to gain that understanding, you should listen to people’s conversations whenever you get the chance. While out and about in the world, you have many opportunities to listen to people talking.

Of course, we do not mean that you should snoop or be obvious about it. We’re talking about those  situations in life  where you cannot help but overhear other people’s conversations: at the grocery store, waiting in line at the bank or post office, or even at a family gathering or a gathering with friends.

While listening, try to concentrate on what words they are using, what information they are conveying, how they are doing so, and how often they address each other by name (or not address each other by name).

Moreover, be present and mindful while you’re having conversations with other people. Note how your friends are talking to you, how your family members talk with you, and absorb all of that information in a passive manner. This will help you write the kind of dialogue that is as close as possible to real life.

2. Make the conversation only sound realistic

When two people are talking in your novel, your first step should not be marked by constraint or restraint. Allow yourself to write the dialogue as you see fit. Ensure the characters share all the information they need to share, in a manner that sounds most natural for them as per their characterization. Do not have any fear that you might have written too much dialogue.

Because after that, the next step is going to involve a lot of editing. You will need to look out for a lot of things, which we will cover in the tips below this one. The goal here is to make the conversation only  sound  realistic.

Real life conversations are lengthy, messy, and have a lot of repetitions. When two people talk on the phone, it always starts with a hello (and this happens when you see someone in real life as well). In a book, writing four or five lines of dialogue relating to just saying hello or making small talk with bore the readers.

As such, the goal is to make the dialogue – or conversation – only sound realistic. People rarely talk in real life the way characters talk in movies or novels, but, we all wish we did. After writing your lengthy, messy dialogue, prepare yourself for a lot of editing as per the rest of the tips below this one.

3. Give each character a voice and a goal

Each character needs to sound unique. They need to speak in a manner that is not only a reflection of who they are, but also a reflection of how they see the person they are talking with. For example, a character might have a strict voice and talk in a short, clipped manner with someone they do not like, but that demeanor might change if they are talking to a child.

Moreover, when two characters speak in absolutely the same manner, you’re writing dull dialogue. Even the dialogue tags that mark who is speaking each sentence will not matter. So, make sure that each character speaks in a voice and manner that is reflective of their characteristics.

Another thing each character also needs is a goal during the conversation. They would be either aiming to get some information from the other person, or they could be aiming to hide some information. Ideally, the most compelling dialogue happens when one person wants to get information while the other one is hiding it.

The conversing characters having opposing goals is the best thing you can do to write compelling dialogue. If two characters are talking and just agreeing with each other, it can get dull and boring.

4. Use contractions and forget about grammar

Contractions are words that have been created by combining two words that usually go together, like “I don’t” instead of “I do not.” The use of contractions in dialogue is advisable, if we’re talking about a contemporary novel set in modern times. Historical fiction or historical fantasy, on the other hand, might have different dialogue rules where contractions would be inadvisable.

The reason why using contractions is advisable is because we do that in real life all the time. We rarely say “I do not know,”. We say “I don’t know,” or even shorten it to “I dunno,” in speech.

The same applies to all other contractions. We rarely say “I cannot”, we say “I can’t” or even just “Can’t.”

Additionally, in real life, people rarely speak with proper grammar. They make mistakes. Your characters should make some grammar mistakes when talking. Not huge mistakes, but minor slipups that would be just enough to ensure that the dialogue sounds like two real people talking.

Of course, if a character is erudite or an academic, or if it makes sense for them to speak without contractions or grammar mistakes, then by all means, have them speak in that manner because that will help with their characterization.

5. Omit unnecessary bits of dialogue

We mentioned earlier how oftentimes, in real life, conversations can be repetitive. We often make small talk that is irrelevant, in order to just talk. As such, try to omit unnecessary bits of dialogue.

There is no need for the initial greeting of a “Hello” to be mentioned over a phone call, unless it’s needed. For example, if a person is getting a phone call from an unfamiliar number, it makes sense that when they pick up, they will say “Hello” in probably an uncertain manner.

But, when a character simply thanks one another, or bids goodbye and hangs up, you can omit these things and jump straight to the next action.

6. Have a reason for using character’s names

In real life, people address each other by name quite rarely. In a single conversation, you might address someone by name if you are in a room together and specifically need their attention but they are not even looking at you. So, if your characters are present in the room and making eye contact, then you do not need to have a character address another character by name.

When they do address each other by name, it should be for important reasons. For example, perhaps one character is being overbearing or excessive in their reaction to something, and so the other one simply addresses them by name and trails off in an ellipsis.

Or, a couple in a romantic novel might have an argument. After spending a lot of time addressing each other by pet names or nicknames, one person suddenly using the full name of the other person has meaning. Another example, in any kind of novel, is a mother addressing their child by their full name (usually used in a humorous manner).

7. Add subtlety and subtext

In dialogue, less is always more. Absolutely always. If there is something that you can convey with as minimal dialogue as possible, then by all means, proceed to do so.

For example, perhaps two people are talking, and one is trying to convince the other to join them to do something. The other person is simply silent. So, one character talks and waits for the other one to respond. When they don’t, the first character tries again, listing some benefits. The other person is still silent. The tension for the first character builds each time they have to speak. And then finally, the person might just nod, or say “No.”

Or, maybe one person is asking another person how they feel after something bad or traumatic happened to them, and they say a short “I’m good,” or they can be sarcastic and say, “Peachy.” There is no need for elaboration, because just that is enough.

8. Use accents, dialects, slang, and foreign words sparingly

In an attempt to differentiate characters, writers often fall into the trap of overusing accents, dialects, and slang. They use accents and dialects in dialogue ensure the readers understand that a person is from Scotland or Ireland or Southern USA, for example. They use slang to convey the person is a teenager, or that they come from a certain part of the town/city or the country where the novel takes place. They also tend to overuse foreign words to indicate that a character is foreign and English is not their native tongue.

You can certainly indicate that a person is speaking with a certain accent or in a dialect that shows they come from Scotland or Southern USA. You can also use slang a few times to remind the readers that the speaker is a teenager, or that they come from a certain place where such slang is used.

But, you do not need to use accents, dialects, or slang every each time that character speaks. It’s enough to describe their accent once, or use slang only a few times. After that, leave it to the reader to imagine how that character sounds.

Additionally, foreign people who talk in English do not slip so often in their mother tongue when talking. So, save those moments for when something really important happens as a sign of losing control because of their emotional reaction to whatever has happened.

9. Write simple dialogue tags

A dialogue tag is a small phrase, usually consisting of two words, that comes before or after the spoken words of the dialogue. It indicates which person is speaking. For example, in the sentence:

“I am leaving next month,” Alice said.

The words “Alice said” are a dialogue tag.

Another trap that writers fall into is using a lot of adverbs as well as verbs to replace the word “said.” In fact, the opposite is better. The word “said” by itself is invisible, and it can actually help you to keep the reader’s attention on the dialogue itself, instead of detract their attention from the actual words.

For example, let’s say that a person is recounting something bad that happened to them. Let’s say that a woman is telling her friend how her boyfriend broke up with her. You might be tempted to write it like this:

“He told me he never wanted to see me again,” she cried tearfully.

It might be better to write it like this:

“He never wants to see me again,” she said, tears falling down her cheeks.

In the second example, the crying in a high-pitched voice is implied by the tears on her cheeks, and the fact that he told her he never wants to see her again is implied, though not outright re-told, by how she says “He never wants to see me again.”

10. Do not forget action

It is easy when writing dialogue to forget what might be happening around the characters who are talking, especially if more than one person is present at the time. However, when we have a conversation with another person, we are rarely standing still like two robots. We gesture with our hands, we pace, or lean forward or backward.

As with the previous example, someone might be crying when talking, or they might be laughing. A conversation can be interrupted by a passing car or a train, if the two people are outside. As such, consider adding little breaks in the conversation caused by outside forces or in the environment (for example, the presence of a child or a pet).

As stated in the previous tip, be careful of using verbs to change the word “said”, but also, do use those verbs to convey a certain action – if that action is absolutely needed. But, it is always better to describe the action after the word “said” instead of replacing the word with the action itself, like “cried”, “explained”, or “commented”, and more.

11. Do not use dialogue for exposition

This is the biggest trap that young and inexperienced writers fall into – using one character to convey something (worldbuilding-related, or something that happened in the past) to the other person. In colloquial terms, one might say using dialogue for info-dumping (i.e. sharing a lot of information about the world, the story, or a character at once).

Oftentimes, writers believe that using dialogue to do this instead of explaining some things outright is better. However, there is nothing more annoying for the readers than dialogue info-dumping.

Even if your protagonist is unfamiliar with something and needs an explanation, try to keep that explanation to a minimum, and try to break up the conversation in such a way as the readers do not feel that they received a lot of information at once just for the sake of receiving it.

Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement

Persuasive speech generator.

Crafting a persuasive speech hinges on a compelling thesis statement – the linchpin that anchors your argument and guides your audience. The potency of your speech is encapsulated in this singular sentence, making it essential to perfect. Below, we delve into the anatomy of persuasive speech thesis statements, offering examples to inspire, guidelines to streamline the writing process, and pro tips to ensure your message resonates powerfully. Ready to persuade and captivate? Dive in.

What is a Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement? – Definition

A persuasive speech thesis statement is a concise declaration that clearly expresses the main argument or stance of your speech. Unlike an informative speech thesis statement which simply informs, a persuasive speech thesis aims to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take a certain action. It serves as the foundation of your argument, providing a roadmap for your listeners and guiding the content of your speech.

What is a good thesis statement Example for a persuasive speech?

A good thesis statement for a persuasive speech should be clear, concise, arguable, and specific. Here’s an example:

Topic: Reducing meat consumption for environmental purposes.

Thesis Statement: “Reducing our meat consumption by half can significantly decrease our carbon footprint, lessen water usage, and help in preserving essential ecosystems, making it not just a dietary choice but a responsibility for the environment.”

This thesis statement makes a clear argument, states why the audience should care, and is backed by several points that can be elaborated upon during the speech.

100 Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement Examples

• Mandatory vaccinations are crucial for public health.
• Vegetarianism can significantly reduce global environmental damage.
• Schools should abolish standardized tests.
• Solar energy is the future of global power.
• Animal testing for cosmetics should be banned worldwide.
• Online education can be more effective than traditional classroom settings.
• Ban on single-use plastics is essential for marine conservation.
• Euthanasia should be legalized under specific circumstances.
• Governments should regulate social media to combat fake news.
• Higher education should be free for all citizens.
• Workplace dress codes are outdated and unnecessary.
• Young adults should be mandated to take a gap year before college.
• Juvenile offenders should never be treated as adults in the legal system.
• Artificial intelligence poses more risks than benefits.
• GMOs are safe and beneficial for global food security.
• Children under 16 shouldn’t have access to smartphones.
• Censorship in media does more harm than good.
• Parents should be held accountable for their children’s cyberbullying actions.
• Organic farming is essential for future food sustainability.
• Space exploration is a waste of money that could be better spent on Earth’s problems.
• Pro athletes deserve their high salaries due to their unique skills and market demand.
• The death penalty is an outdated form of punishment.
• Video games don’t lead to violent behavior in youths.
• Mandatory voting would strengthen democracies.
• Physical education in schools is essential for youth health.
• Corporal punishment is detrimental to children’s well-being.
• Taxing sugary drinks can decrease obesity rates.
• All countries should adopt a universal basic income.
• Modern zoos are ethical and beneficial for wildlife conservation.
• Children’s exposure to screen time should be limited for cognitive development.
• Countries should prioritize refugees over other immigrants.
• Binge-watching TV shows can lead to psychological issues.
• Public transport should be free to reduce traffic congestion.
• Companies should be taxed more for carbon emissions.
• Homeschooling can provide a more personalized education than traditional schools.
• Medical marijuana should be legalized worldwide.
• Advertising to children should be strictly regulated.
• Fast fashion is detrimental to both the environment and society.
• Child actors are often exploited and laws should protect them more rigorously.
• Cybersecurity education should be a mandatory part of school curriculums.
• Celebrity endorsements in politics do more harm than good.
• Gender-neutral bathrooms promote inclusivity and should be standardized.
• Self-driving cars are the solution to urban traffic woes.
• The gig economy undermines workers’ rights.
• Print books are superior to e-books for cognitive absorption.
• Intermittent fasting has more benefits than traditional dieting.
• Capitalism needs significant reforms to address modern challenges.
• Professional networks are more beneficial than academic degrees in today’s job market.
• Pets should be adopted from shelters instead of being purchased from breeders.
• Drone deliveries are the future of e-commerce.
• Modern architecture should prioritize sustainability over aesthetics.
• Mental health days should be a standard employment benefit.
• Religious institutions should pay taxes.
• Athletes caught doping should face lifetime bans.
• All public places should offer free Wi-Fi.
• Parenting classes should be mandatory for expectant parents.
• Soft skills are more important than hard skills in today’s workforce.
• College athletes should be paid for their efforts.
• Digital currency will replace traditional money.
• Forest conservation is more important than urban expansion.
• Remote work improves employee productivity and well-being.
• Traditional college is becoming obsolete.
• Public figures have a right to personal privacy.
• Extreme adventure sports should have stricter regulations.
• Recycling should be legally mandatory for households.
• Local tourism is more sustainable than international travel.
• Artificial sweeteners do more harm than natural sugars.
• Digital detoxes are essential for mental health.
• Nuclear energy is a necessary alternative in the climate change battle.
• Fossil fuels need to be phased out within the next decade.
• The pay gap is a pervasive issue that needs addressing.
• Mandatory military service strengthens nations.
• Multilingual education from a young age has cognitive and cultural benefits.
• Cultural appropriation in fashion and art should be discouraged.
• Childhood vaccination should not be optional.
• Public speaking skills should be a mandatory part of the school curriculum.
• Reality TV promotes negative stereotypes and should be reformed.
• The 4-day workweek improves overall quality of life.
• Bottled water is an environmental and economic disaster.
• Governments should fund scientific research over military endeavors.
• Telemedicine is as effective as in-person consultations.
• The arts are just as important as sciences in education.
• Elitism in Ivy League schools undermines the education system.
• Human cloning has more ethical concerns than benefits.
• Paternity leave should be equal to maternity leave.
• Junk food advertising should be banned during children’s television programming.
• Sustainable living should be a core part of school education.
• Immigration policies should be more compassionate.
• Philanthropy by billionaires isn’t a solution to systemic societal issues.
• Traditional media is losing its credibility.
• Fast food chains should be accountable for the obesity epidemic.
• Urban gardens are essential for community well-being.
• Virtual reality can revolutionize education.
• Tabloid journalism threatens democratic processes.
• Every city should have green rooftops.
• Adventure travel is more than a trend; it’s a learning experience.
• Plastics in cosmetics harm both the environment and consumers.
• Youth activism is reshaping global politics.
• The universal right to internet access should be a fundamental human right.
• The rise of influencer culture negatively impacts societal values.

Remember, these are broad topics and may need to be adjusted to fit specific audiences or contexts. They aim to serve as inspiration and a starting point for your persuasive speeches.

Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement Examples for College

Crafting the right thesis for a college-based persuasive speech can mold opinions, drive actions, and shape futures. Here’s a set of examples aiming at various issues relevant to the college experience.

• Implementing mental health services in colleges is crucial to support student well-being.
• Every college should offer free online course alternatives to reduce student costs.
• Limiting textbook prices will make higher education more accessible.
• Extracurricular activities are just as vital as academics in shaping a student’s character.
• Campus security measures should be increased to ensure student safety.
• Colleges should foster an environment that promotes free speech and open dialogue.
• The fraternity and sorority system requires an overhaul to combat systemic issues.
• Online courses can be more tailored and efficient than traditional classroom lectures.
• Mandatory internships should be integrated into every college curriculum.
• College tuition fees should be proportional to post-graduate income levels.

Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement Examples on Pollution

Pollution, in its many forms, threatens our health, environment, and future. These thesis statements shed light on the pressing need for action and awareness in tackling this universal concern.

• Air pollution’s long-term health impacts make it a silent global crisis.
• Ocean plastic pollution threatens not only marine life but human survival.
• Urbanization without proper waste management systems exacerbates land pollution.
• Implementing stricter emission standards can significantly reduce vehicular pollution.
• Industrial water pollution is the leading cause of freshwater habitat loss.
• Noise pollution in urban areas has unrecognized psychological implications.
• Electronic waste is the new environmental crisis of the digital age.
• Encouraging sustainable agriculture can mitigate soil pollution.
• Light pollution affects human circadian rhythms and needs to be addressed.
• The cosmetic industry must be held accountable for microplastic pollution.

Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement Examples for Introduction

Setting the right tone at the start of your speech is crucial. An impactful thesis statement in your introduction can capture attention and shape the direction of your persuasive message.

• Today’s consumerist society threatens the planet’s finite resources.
• Advancements in technology are eroding genuine human connections.
• Our dietary choices have profound implications for our health and environment.
• Childhood education shapes a nation’s future more than any policy.
• The rise of digital currencies can revolutionize the global financial system.
• The media landscape shapes public perception more than factual events.
• Combating climate change is not a choice but a necessity.
• The fashion industry’s practices are at odds with ethical consumerism.
• Urban planning and green spaces directly impact societal well-being.
• The future of transportation lies in sustainable energy sources.

Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement Examples for Conclusion

A powerful ending requires a conclusive thesis statement, reinforcing your argument and ensuring your message resonates after the speech ends.

• Confronting gender biases isn’t a niche issue but central to societal progress.
• Without collective action, endangered species face an irreversible fate.
• Privacy in the digital age is not a luxury, but a fundamental right.
• Without conscious effort, traditional cultures risk fading into oblivion.
• Sustainable living isn’t a trend but the only way forward.
• Local businesses are the backbone of a thriving community.
• Without reforms, the healthcare system will collapse under its weight.
• The arts, often underfunded, are essential for holistic human development.
• Youth engagement in politics can reshape outdated policies.
• Technology, without ethical boundaries, poses a threat to human autonomy.

How do you start a thesis statement for a persuasive speech?

Starting a thesis statement for a persuasive speech is pivotal in setting the tone and direction for the rest of the speech. Here’s how to begin crafting one:

• Identify Your Topic : Understand the topic you’ll be addressing. This might seem obvious, but having a clear topic in mind ensures your thesis remains focused.
• Understand Your Audience : Tailor your thesis statement to appeal to the audience’s values, beliefs, and interests.
• State Your Position Clearly : A persuasive speech thesis statement must make a claim or express an opinion that you will support and develop throughout the speech.
• Make It Arguable : Ensure your thesis presents a viewpoint someone might challenge. It should not be a plain statement of fact.
• Keep It Concise : An effective thesis is concise and direct, avoiding vague words or overly complex sentence structures.
• Start with a Strong Word : Words like “must,” “should,” “ought to,” can make your thesis more forceful.

Example : Instead of saying “Exercise is good for health,” you might say, “Regular exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy body and mind.

How do you write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay? – Step by Step Guide

Writing a compelling thesis statement for a persuasive essay is crucial, as it sets the tone and direction for the rest of your essay. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you craft an effective thesis statement:

1. Understand the Essay Prompt: Before crafting your thesis, ensure you thoroughly understand the essay prompt or question. This provides clarity on what you’re being asked to argue or address.

2. Choose a Specific Topic: Narrow down a broad subject to a specific topic that is suitable for the essay’s length. The more specific you are, the more concise and to the point your argument will be.

3. Take a Clear Stance: A persuasive essay requires a clear stance on the topic. Decide what your position is after analyzing all angles of the topic.

4. Conduct Preliminary Research: Before finalizing your thesis, do some preliminary research to ensure ample evidence and examples are available to support your stance. This will also help you gauge the strength of your argument.

5. Draft a Preliminary Thesis Statement: Begin by drafting a broad statement, which you’ll refine in subsequent steps.

6. Be Specific: General statements lack punch. Instead of saying, “Air pollution is bad,” you could say, “Air pollution from vehicular emissions has detrimental health effects and contributes significantly to global warming.”

7. Ensure Your Thesis is Arguable: A good persuasive essay thesis should be debatable. It’s essential that your thesis presents an opinion or claim that others could dispute.

8. Revise and Refine: After drafting, take a step back and review your thesis. Can it be more specific? Stronger? More concise? Does it truly encapsulate the main point of your essay? Adjust as necessary.

9. Seek Feedback: It’s beneficial to get feedback from peers or instructors about your thesis statement. They might offer a perspective or critique that you hadn’t considered.

10. Position Your Thesis: Traditionally, a thesis statement is placed near the end of the introduction. This helps your reader understand the argument you’ll be making in your essay.

Example: If writing about the influence of media on young minds, a potential thesis might be: “The omnipresence of media, especially social media, has a profound impact on adolescents, influencing their mental health, body image, and perceptions of reality, necessitating strict regulatory measures.

Tips for Writing a Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement

• Be Clear and Direct : Avoid ambiguity. Your audience should immediately understand your stance.
• Stay Focused : Your thesis should address one main idea or argument. Avoid trying to tackle too many issues at once.
• Back It Up : While the thesis itself is a statement, always ensure you have evidence to support your claim in the body of your speech.
• Avoid Neutral Language : Use strong, definitive language to convey your position.
• Test Your Thesis : Before finalizing, ask yourself if someone could oppose your thesis. If the answer is no, it might not be argumentative enough.
• Position It Properly : Typically, the thesis statement should be among the first things your audience hears, so they understand the context and direction of your speech.
• Stay Authentic : While it’s essential to be persuasive, ensure your thesis aligns with your beliefs and knowledge. Authenticity can make your argument more convincing.

In summary, crafting a strong thesis statement for a persuasive speech or essay provides a clear direction for your argument, engages your audience, and makes your message memorable. Ensure it’s concise, specific, and backed by evidence.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Generate a Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement on adopting a plant-based diet

Write a Persuasive Speech Thesis Statement for supporting local businesses

Cooking up a great prompt: Getting the most from Copilot

Prompts are how you ask Copilot for Microsoft 365 to do something for you — like creating, summarizing, editing, or transforming. Think about prompting like having a conversation, using plain but clear language and providing context like you would with an assistant.

1. Tell Copilot what you need

2. Include the right prompt ingredients

To get the best response, it’s important to focus on some of the key elements below when phrasing your Copilot prompts.

3. Keep the conversation going

Following up on your prompts help you collaborate with Copilot to gain more useful, tailored responses.

Helpful hints to keep in mind

Know Copilot’s limitations  Copilot is limited to your current conversation, so give lots of details.

Be professional Using polite language improves Copilot’s response.

Communicate clearly Pay attention to punctuation, grammar, and capitalization.

Use quotation marks ​​​​This helps Copilot know what to write, modify, or replace for you.

Start fresh Avoid interrupting and type “new topic” when switching tasks.

Copilot Lab

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