5 things to think about when writing dialogue

Dialogue can be one of the trickier aspects of novel-writing. It’s hard to get right and often neglected, but it is more than worth putting in the effort to perfect it. Here are some things to think about when writing dialogue, and feel free to add your own in the comments.

What does it sound like when you read it out loud? This is probably one of the most common – and most crucial – bits of advice for writing dialogue. If it sounds awkward when you read it out loud, that’s probably because it is.
How to deal with characters with regional accents/specific ways of speaking. While it’s fine to amend dialogue slightly to allow for differences in pronunciation or characters’ accents, there’s not usually a need to write everything phonetically. It just becomes hard and annoying to read, and there are plenty of ways of highlighting different patterns of speech without resorting to literally spelling it out.
Think how people actually speak. It might sound obvious, but it merits consideration. People don’t always speak in full, grammatically correct sentences.
Think about who the character is speaking to. Say you’re writing a crime novel. Would your detective speak to their boss in the same way they speak to their suspect or their partner? The changes might only be subtle, but they add a realism and authenticity to the dialogue.
Think how the dialogue moves the plot on – and don’t forget what’s going on around it. Is your characters’ conversation helping to move the story on, or are they just having a bit of a chat? And what is happening in the scene around them? Thinking about the context and purpose of dialogue will help to make sure it’s not just there as filler.