Common Writing Mistakes: Dialogue (and how to avoid them!)

Dialogue is a tricky aspect of writing for many writers--trying to strike the balance of writing dialogue that is both natural and realistic, while also being interesting and distinct, can be a challenge. These are the most common mistakes writers make when approaching dialogue, and how to avoid them in order to write dialogue that is more realistic, more compelling, and more effective.
LEARN MORE:
-10 Tips for Writing Strong Dialogue: • 10 Tips for Writing St...
-How to Write Punchy Dialogue: • 12 Simple Steps for Wr...
-How to Format Dialogue: • How to Punctuate Dialogue
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:42 - Trying to be too realistic
1:40 - Using dialogue for exposition
2:30 - Fear of being interesting
3:57 - Caricatures, not people
4:36 - Everyone sounds the same
5:55 - Too much small talk
6:42 - Incorrect formatting
7:23 - Poor use of tags
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[@rachelthompson9324]

Characters' dialogue needs to stay within what is natural for the character's design parameters. A coal minor doesn't speak like an accountant.

[@RocketJo86]

I'm so happy to be a natural in dialogue 😅 I can't even explain how good dialogue works. That said, I think my ability comes from stage play. I was in a theatre club since elementary school and played and read A LOT of different plays. I went to theatre and musicals a lot. If you struggle with dialogue try to take in as many dialogue centric art as possible. If it's done masterfully, even the "As you know, Bob" can work.

[@kokoro_flow]

Thanks 😊 Dialogue is hard for me too.

[@annworthington7253]

Great tips! Thank you

[@fralou_sind_kreativ]

Wishing you a happy new year!! :) Thanks for your great tips!

[@jeffj4440]

excellent!

[@mariabarbieri6237]

very helpful - thanks

[@apocalypsereading7117]

thanks shaelin, happy new year =)

[@tomlewis4748]

What helps me the most is understanding the character. Knowing the character intimately, and then inhabiting the character. I step out of who I am into who they are, and as them, I make a decision as to what to say: what they might say to get what they want, and what they might say to reply to what someone else says. The beauty of this is I don't have to figure out what they're going to say. They tell me what they're going to say. All I have to do is put that on the page. Of course it's actually me, but when your ego gets out of the way, that allows your conscious awareness to stop interfering with the creative process, which it does regularly, and allows a portal from your unconscious mind which is where all creativity comes from, to express the thoughts of that character. It gives your creative unconscious its voice. To do this, you have to spend a lot of time thinking about that character and getting to know them, and you have to spend a lot of time learning how to step outside your own ego to become that character. It's similar to split personality, other than you have control over it. It's tricky and it takes practice, but it's completely doable. And tons of fun. If you're familiar with the elements of a scene (which are also the elements of a story arc), in particular the inciting incident and the climax, you can apply this thinking to the micro level of dialogue. What person A says to person B is an inciting incident to person B. that initiates a turning point (I need to reply to this), a crisis question (what should I say in return?), and a choice followed by a climax moment (the reply). And it works in the same exact way in the opposite direction from person B to person A, simultaneously. We don't need to think about this consciously, because we probably can do this automatically. But it becomes a great tool to investigate the dialogue when you feel like something is off in what you've written, and you can use this understanding to figure out what might be missing or what might be structured improperly.

[@Murderface666]

To 1 and 5, I have a better technique. Imagine the character not as just an character, but ask yourself if this were made into a movie, who would play that character? Now put that actor or actress in your character's place in the scenario. Reconstruct the scene mentally as if you were watching it on TV. Even mentally play background music in your mind. What would that person say? Jim Carrey from Ace Ventura angry would not be written the same way as Samuel L Jackson from Pulp Fiction.

[@alexp601]

That's good advice, and it's kind of what I do, but not everyone is a visual thinker like that so it wouldn't apply to everyone.

[@tomlewis4748]

Maybe not 'better', but it certainly has worth. It's fun to imagine what actor might be able to play one of your characters, but that's mostly just fun without any sort of payoff. But not entirely-sometimes you can 'borrow' how a character in a movie seems to be thinking and use that inspiration to make that an aspect of how a character you've created might think. As long as you're innovating rather than mimicking, that's perfectly legit.

[@Murderface666]

@@tomlewis4748 You're not looking for the actor to play the character. You're looking at the persona of the character in a situation played by the actor and capturing the energy in the moment.

[@babavee100]

Surely, ( as a reader) if your characters are strong, individual and have a presence, there is no need for dialogue tags at all,?

[@GACHAShadow-cb5kf]

I have a question. Is it okay for characters to have expositional dialogue if it's generally something they'd do. I'm currently writing a story where my main character lives in this village and he is fixated on the stories about the village's past and stories told by the villagers about distinct magical beings and creatures and he loves to talk about them to everyone. I have a scene where a new person comes to the village and the mc tells that character about the stories because he loves to tell them and he especially loves to meet new people and tell them about the stories. Would it be okay for his dialogue to be like this since there is a reason behind it?

[@itsarun7365]

Your voice itself having two distinct voices in this video😂

[@4eggandarf]

Guys I don’t know how to change the font size in Reedsy and it’s been driving me nuts.

[@HM-cw8im]

This video would have been better with examples.

[@leongecko]

Do you need a cough sweet?

[@croc2112]

Shut up

[@ClarkeScott]

Please oh PLEASE stop eating your words!

[@croc2112]

Shut up

[@philippschmidt80]

The vocal fry is very annoying.

[@alexp601]

Honestly, I know it's harsh to say, but her voice really is hard to listen to and sometimes I can't watch a video because of it, as she sounds like a sick person and it's hard to hear.

[@croc2112]

You are a very annoying clown

[@croc2112]

Stop being inssuferable

[@tomlewis4748]

I think it might be annoying if it were an affectation. I don't think it is. Shaelin seems really solid to me. Let's cut her a break on this. But a little hot tea with honey couldn't hurt 😉.

[@jessk7240]

It makes the video unwatchable!