10 Dialogue Tips to Consider before You Start Writing
If you missed the Dialogue Deep Dive Master Class, you can access the recording and handouts by enrolling HERE!
Any writer or literary agent can tell you—dialogue is one of the trickiest tools to master but perhaps the most important in fiction. When it’s flat or purposeless, readers skim or lose interest. When it’s sharp, strategic, and emotional, readers stay engaged.
Dialogue is not filler. It should not be ordinary chitchat meant to mimic “real life.” It’s not an excuse for info dumps. Your goal in every scene—through dialogue and all other fiction elements—is the same: to get readers to care about what happens next to the characters.
The clearer you are on what you want dialogue to accomplish in your scene, the easier it will be to write lines that are clever, multilayered, witty, and moving. Yes, it takes practice, but the craft can be learned.
One wise step is to consider these 10 points before you put your characters’ words on the page.
- Know Your Characters Fully
This may seem obvious, but so many writers just start writing without thinking through their characters deeply—their wants, needs, passions, past trauma, and fears. If you don’t fully develop your characters, your dialogue will sound generic or stereotyped. Every line should feel like something only that character would say in that moment.
Ask yourself:
- What does my character want or need right now?
- What would they do if they couldn’t get what they need?
- What are they afraid of losing?
- What are they afraid others might learn about them?
- Anchor Readers Emotionally
Readers connect to characters through emotion. Unless you’re using an omniscient narrator, your POV character will be the one readers emotionally latch on to. Before you begin your scene, know where that POV character is emotionally.
Are they anxious? Furious? Hopeless? Eager? That emotional state is your “launch point.” Consider how you will use dialogue to establish this mindset.
If you don’t know what your character wants and needs at the start of your scene, you won’t be able to drive home the important character change at the end of the scene. Which leads to point 3 …
- Track the Emotional Shifts
Realistic emotion doesn’t stay flat through an entire scene. As the action plays out, your characters react, and their feelings shift. Dialogue should both reflect and instigate those shifts.
You can show these shifts through these various ways:
- Word choice: words (especially verbs and adjectives) that reflect or imply the character’s emotional state.
- Voice Cues: Stammering, raised or lowered pitch, tone, or quality of voice—all can imply emotion
- Body language: gestures, expression, demeanor or posture can add subtle clues
- Participation level: withdrawing vs. dominating the conversation
But remember: every emotional shift should come through the POV character’s personality and perspective. An introvert and an extrovert will reveal anger, fear, or attraction in different ways.
- Map the Relationship Dynamics
Dialogue is rarely neutral. Every exchange carries the undercurrent of relationship.
- Who has the power or status here (and why)?
- Who’s pushing, and who’s resisting?
- How invested is each character in getting what they want?
If two friends are chatting, their lines may look like casual banter, but underneath there could be competition, jealousy, or hidden affection. If a father and son are arguing, words may cover up years of hurt or failed expectations. When you’re clear on relationship dynamics, your dialogue gains tension and resonance.
- Define the Purpose of the Scene
Before dialogue can do its work, you need to know the point of the scene. Ask:
- Why does this scene exist?
- How does it advance the plot?
- What is the emotional journey the character is taking?
- Where should the scene land, and what is the high moment at the end?
Dialogue without a clear purpose is like an actor improvising on stage without a script. It might be entertaining in flashes, but it won’t move the story.
- Make Emotional Reactions Real, Not Just Practical
Too often writers keep dialogue focused only on facts or logistics—who’s doing what, what’s happening where. But the most effective dialogue reveals emotional reactions to events.
When a character hears devastating news, don’t just show them planning the next steps. Let their words crack with disbelief, or let them go silent when they can’t process it. Emotional rises and falls are the heartbeat of a scene, and readers crave that pulse.
- Choose Charged Settings
You’ve probably read dozens of scenes set in coffee shops, diners, or bars. Nothing wrong with those places, but they rarely carry natural emotional weight (and, face it, they tend to be boring).
Before writing, ask yourself: Is this the most powerful location for this conversation?
Think of settings that add conflict, symbolism, or heightened stakes. A couple arguing in a stalled car during a thunderstorm. Two siblings revealing secrets while cleaning out their late parents’ house. A detective confronting a suspect during a funeral.
The right setting creates automatic tension and layers. Don’t settle for bland backdrops.
- Beware of Empty Scenes
Never write a scene of dialogue just to “show” characters are friends, or they like sports, or they’re competitive. That’s lazy writing. Character traits can and should be revealed in dialogue, but dialogue must always be serving something bigger: advancing plot, raising stakes, deepening conflict, or layering subtext.
Every scene should feel productive and purposeful. Otherwise, cut it or rewrite it.
- Infuse Microtension
Great dialogue is fueled by microtension—the subtle unease that keeps readers wondering. Microtension is such an important element in fiction but one few know about or how to create it (see my many posts on microtension).
Microtension can be created in various ways:
- By what isn’t being said
- Through conflicts or incongruencies between words and body language
- Contradictions in what characters say and what they think
- Inference rather than explanation—that infers the opposite of what appears to be
On-the-nose dialogue kills curiosity. When characters state everything plainly, there’s nothing left for the reader to interpret. But when your characters dodge, hint, or contradict themselves, readers try to puzzle it out.
Remember: saying a lot by saying almost nothing is one of the highest arts of dialogue.
- Ask the Right Questions
Before you draft, spend a few minutes running through key questions:
- How and where will dialogue showcase the purpose of this scene?
- When would my character speak, and why? (Do they tend toward inner dialogue instead?)
- What must be revealed in this scene?
- What should be hinted at but withheld?
- How will dialogue balance with action and silence?
- What emotions do I want my reader to feel here?
- How do characters’ emotions shift, and how do their voices reflect that?
- What are the key turning points in this scene? How can dialogue make them sharper?
These questions force you to think strategically rather than winging it.
Final Thoughts
Dialogue is never just words on a page. It’s character, emotion, conflict, tension, and subtext all woven into conversation. The more intentional you are before you write, the stronger your dialogue will be.
Readers don’t want filler. They don’t want small talk. They don’t want info dumps disguised as speech. They want the charge of two (or more) personalities clashing, connecting, and shifting in ways that matter.
So, take the time before you draft to clarify what your characters want, where they’re starting emotionally, what dynamics they’re wrestling with, and what the scene must accomplish. Then, when you put words in their mouths, they’ll be words that resonate and keep readers riveted.
Want to go deep into dialogue?
Learn masterful technique in this 2-hour recording of my recent master class co-taught with dialogue doctor Jeff Elkins! Get lifetime access to the recording and handouts, and learn how to trim, tighten, and empower your dialogue to make your fiction shine! ENROLL HERE!
Featured Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
