Dialogue—my nemesis. (Well, it and fight scenes.)

Bland dialogue was my Grand Canyon when I first began writing. It felt like every single time I sat down, I was trapped in this endless round of small talk.

Imagine this, you're in a room full of people you have never met. There's no way out, and all you can do is be there—and talk about the weather, politics, or whatever it is that boring people want to discuss. That's the inescapable situation that I kept putting my characters in.

In case you aren't aware, a scene can be amplified or destroyed by dialogue. It's powerful, and poor dialogue can send your scene falling flat on its face. Or—worse yet—your characters can fall flat on their face.

Dialogue is the backbone of most stories—and most characters. It's how you and your readers get to know the people, details, and world of your story. I may not be an expert on dialogue—or writing in general—but I'll pass on some of the lessons I've learned over the years to avoiding bland dialogue.

Avoid small talk or conversation that would be boring in real life. I've heard the advice of 'write dialogue like there's a tiger in the room.' At first, this made no sense to me—because while it makes sense to write with the sense of drive and urgency, wouldn't someone be addressing the fact that there's a tiger in the room? Later, I realized another way of thinking about it that worked better for me.

Any time a character is speaking, it should be pushing the story forward. Feel free to summarize the basic talk about breakfast, the weather, and such. Each character is unique in their personality and perspective—show that in what they say and how.

Make sure the conversation has a natural flow and beat. People breathe, and so do characters. When you write, their voices should be heard through the page. Think about real life, movies, tv shows, and even books. How do people sound? What is something that makes the way they talk unique? Is there a word or phrasing they repeat that makes them stand out? Find a way to use this in ways that fit your characters, and inject those quirks directly into the dialogue.

Change up the dialogue tags. Please, I beg of you to remember this. I've honestly lost track of how many times I've seen writers repeat the same two tags throughout the entire conversation or story. That alone is enough to knock a scene down. So, instead of putting just 'said,' 'stated,' or the likes. Change it up, add actions or tones into it. Make your characters sass, mumble, screech, or bite. Maybe even exchange an action for how they said it exactly.

Break up dialogue. There are specific times to add a break in conversations, and it can help eliminate the clutter of constantly stating who said what. I feel like this is a bigger deal than most people realize—and again, I've lost count of how many times I've seen it.

When a character speaks, it's okay to break up their dialogue, but not to mix who's speaking. This is one of my greatest pet peeves in reading and writing. So, I'm going to take a moment to really explain the times to add a paragraph break in conversations.

Any time the person speaking changes, add a break. Even for one word answers, it must change. While it may seem silly, there's a huge improvement that happens because of it. The reader doesn't have to be constantly guessing who is talking and instead can focus on what's being said and happening.

If someone is telling a story or is speaking for a long time, you can break it up. If you decide to, there are a few rules. Simply leave the paragraph open at the end, and resume it after the break. Here is an example of what to do using another excerpt from one of my stories:

"You will often hear the old Greek story of the Sirens, or should I say the lies they told. They claimed that Sirens were monsters who lured sailors into rocky coves with the sound of their voice, but it is not true. That is a story created out of the fear of ordinary men. Sirens were still human; they had just been changed. They were people with something special, who saw the darkness in the souls of others and were the only ones who could banish it.

"They were much like you, Elinor, but before they were changed. The thing that they valued most about themselves—what others would remember them by—was taken away from them. It was replaced by something else. A quality as unique to them as the one taken away."

My advice for strong dialogue is this—know your characters. Each time you write, think about who is talking—what they believe, how they think, their quirks and personalities, and how they would be in a real life equivalent of the conversation. Let your characters breathe. Because even characters are people.

Don't forget to send me writing questions and topics you want to know more about!

Stay quirky, darlings. Xx

— Sai