The Lessons of Writing: Dialogue

I was not an avid reader in my youth. I was more of a dress up in a black turtleneck and play ninja in the backyard sort of child. But I did enjoy borrowing adventure and science fiction novels from the library. I was a slow reader (a plodder, to be more accurate), and the big blocks of narration intimidated me. So I tended to skip to the dialogue, which was easier to read and full of exciting exclamation points. I read whole series this way. If it didn't appear inside of quotes, I considered it decorative, sort of like a footnote, or a bicycle helmet.

And yes, I did find the books I read in this manner a little confusing.

A few wonderful books finally broke me of this habit: The Hobbit, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and A Wrinkle in Time. But even after I came to appreciate and even enjoy narrative passages, I never lost my fondness for the back and forth of speakers. Indeed, my first attempts at writing novels were 75% dialogue. They might as well have been teleplays.

I like to think I've learned a thing or two about writing effective dialogue. Here are a few suggestions for the aspiring writers out there.

Dialogue is more likely to sound forced and unnatural when used for exposition. For example:

A: "We need to get into this room somehow."
B: "The door is locked."
A: "This will be difficult, then."

Dialogue works better to develop characters.
A: "I'm not good at pushing myself. I hate going for that last rep, or hustling through a bad sale just to save face. It seems pointless."
B: "Well, just pretend like nobody cares and you're going to die."
A: "You'd make a terrible life coach."

Use dialogue to explore conflict.
A: "When you say you're going to be somewhere, you should be there. Otherwise, you're just telling me that you're more important than everybody else."
B: "That's exactly why I locked my keys in the car: to show you how important I am."
A: "You really think one locked car deserves nine tweets? I've got no idea what's happening in Syria, the Mars rover has gone dark, but I've got three Instagrams of your locksmith's butt crack."

To make your dialogue more natural, don't use convenient segues and direct responses. So avoid things like:
A: "You need to disappear. You should join the army."
B: "My brother is in the army, and I don't want to compete with him. I just want to be with Juliette."
A: "Juliette told me she loves a man in uniform."

Instead, have your characters speak at cross purposes:
A: "You need to disappear."
B: "There's ten thousand dollars in the Play Station. Give it to Mom. I don't think she'll be as pissed if she's counting cash when you tell her."
A: "Join the army. Shoot a gun. Find God. Come back in a year when the coast is clear..."