Writing dialogue -- realistic dialogue, anyway -- does not come easily to everyone. Done well, dialogue advances the story and fleshes out the characters while providing a break from straight exposition.
However, just as realistic dialogue is one of the most powerful tools at a writer's disposal, nothing pulls the reader out of a story faster than bad dialogue. It takes time to develop a good ear, but noting these simple rules and obvious pitfalls can make a huge difference.
1. Listen to how people talk to each other.
Eavesdrop and scribble down phrases you like. Writers must have a good ear and eye for detail. The right detail can bring a character to life. Likewise, the wrong detail can destroy the reader's belief in the character. For instance, it's unlikely that a mechanic is going to use the word "behoove" or that a tax attorney would say "awesome." Develop a sense of the natural rhythms of speech and a good memory for phrases.2. Dialogue is not exactly like real speech, but it should read like real speech.
That is to say, real speech has plenty of words and sounds that would be distracting if included on the page. Beginning writers often think that including words like "uh" and "oh" makes their dialogue sound more realistic. The truth is, these kinds of extraneous words look unprofessional (the same is true of attempting to write a stutter). Alfred Hitchcock once said that a good story was "life, with the dull parts taken out." Keep this in mind when revising dialogue.
3. Cut words and phrases that don't serve the conversation's purpose.
As I said in the beginning, dialogue should move the story forward while bringing the characters to life. If it doesn't do either of these things, it should probably be cut altogether. Oakley Hall, in The Art and Craft of Novel Writing, offers the rule, "One thought at a time and keep the lines short."Many writers find it helpful to record their dialogue and play it back to themselves during the editing process.
4. Don't try to provide too much information at once through dialogue.
In other words, it should not be obvious that you are using dialogue to communicate information. In general, apply the three-sentence rule: give no character more than three uninterrupted sentences at once. Let the story unfold naturally. You don't have to let the reader know everything up front, and you can trust the reader to remember details from earlier in the story.5. Break up dialogue with action.
Remind your reader that these are physical human beings by grounding their dialogue in the physical world:"That's her!" J.P. says. He puts his cup next to his chair. He gets up and goes down the steps to the drive.Physical details also help to break up the words on the page: long periods of dialogue are easier for the reader's eye when broken up by description. (And vice versa, for that matter.)
6. Don't try too hard to vary your tag lines when writing dialogue.
Veering too much beyond "he said/she said" only draws attention to the tags. Readers tend to read over these phrases anyway, whereas obvious efforts to insert variety, through words such as "interjected," "counseled," or "conceded," draw the reader out of the action. If the writer is doing his or her work, the reader is already aware that the speaker is interjecting, counseling, or conceding. The writer won't have to say it again in the tag.7. Avoid stereotypes, especially when it comes to dialect.
Any Southerner will cringe if you have a character say "Pa" in this day and age. And unless you grew up in Brooklyn and know you can pull it off, think twice before inserting, "Fugeddaboutit," into the mouth of your Brooklyn cop.
8. Don't overuse profanity and slang when writing dialogue.
Rather than making your characters seem tough or cool, both of these will quickly date your work. Hemingway, whose characters included soldiers, fishermen, hunters, and artists, had excellent advice on this subject: "Try and write straight English; never using slang except in dialogue and then only when unavoidable...slang goes sour in a short time." You'll notice that even with his toughest characters, profanity is as rare as slang.
9. Read widely, noting both good and bad dialogue.
Pay attention to why things work or don't work. Where are you taken out of the action of a story? When do you feel confused or frustrated? Are there points at which you stop believing in a character? On the other hand, in stories that work, in which you feel particularly close to a character, how did dialogue help to achieve that effect? See the examples and reviews on this site for suggestions of stories and books to read, or pick up an anthology and start your own list.
