Don’t Let Your Dialogue Lose You Readers

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Poor dialogue can pull readers out of your story, but it doesn't have to be that way.
There are many ways to write a realistic, immersive conversation, but here are 5 steps I think are accessible and realistic for writers of all skill levels.
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[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

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[@batman5224]

I don’t believe dialogue always has to sound realistic. Shakespeare certainly didn’t write realistic dialogue, even for his time. Some of his plays were written entirely in rhyme. Tarantino also does not write realistic dialogue. One of the problems I have with many writers is that they’re so focused on writing realistic dialogue that it doesn’t come off as unique or original. I try to mix naturalistic dialogue with more witty and poetic dialogue, creating an almost musical contrast.

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

That's fair, this is all just my own preference really. Like I said, everyone will have their own approach.

[@albertocatania6165]

That 's great. I'm not native English speaker and I'm writing a book in English (because I want to improve even more my level of it). I was writing my dialogues mostly as you showed but you gave me a step by step way to think about it. Thank you :)

[@gersendedupont1654]

Excellent! Thank you! 👏

[@memofromessex]

The best example of bad dialogue is in "At Swim-Two-Birds" - by Flann O'Brien. Where a book-within-a-book is the dialogue in such a way the characters all agree with each - all cowboys - and it helps progress the storyline too quickly, it all feels all super unnatural - but deliberately so.

[@mcrumph]

Is this an exercise: 'He went north. Up the street?' Detective Thorpe worried the inside of his cheek. He could've killed me.' 'He's gone now. you're okay.' Thorpe's eyes roved over the clerk. His hands gripped the counter, pulling himself hard against it. 'Up the street?' "Yeah, yeah.' Clerk twitched his head, his eyes darting continuously between the doors and the detective's face. 'And he had a weapon?' Thorpe inhaled. Knew that ammonia stink. 'A shotgun.' Clerk's body started quaking. 'Lock up after I leave.' 'You're going after him? You're insane!' Thorpe let out a long breath. 'Probably.' Really nice video. Got me thinking. Thanks for the prompt.

[@SteveJubs]

Great video! Been struggling with a scene recently that had all of this working for it, except for the last bit: emotion. But that’s because I’d gotten lost on the characters’ actual goals in the scene. I was missing the entire foundation. 🤦‍♂️

[@MOONSUN4Life]

Great video, Kieran! I'll be using these tips in my own writing.

[@angelagilmartin2109]

These were useful - especially the last two.

[@LiteraryStoner]

Already love Milanote :) Thanks for the tips!

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

It's genuinely brilliant for me, I use it for all sorts! :)

[@keithsharp826]

A very helpful video. Thank you.

[@SamRest-ti2pe]

these tips are really helpful, thanks for the video!!!

[@manymusings]

As usual, thanks for the video!

[@ChancellorMarko]

Thanks, I'll look back over my dialogue with these tips in mind

[@B.matrix]

Thank you for this! Any advice for conversations involving three or more people?

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Always a tricky one! I think adding a little more physical movement and a few more dialogue tags can help make things clearer. The added context can stop it all mixing together. Don't be afraid to have characters refer to each other by name, or by some other characteristic (eg, 'Hey, scruffy') so that your reader can distinguish between them easily too. Something I like to do that I think mirrors really life in some ways, is to have little alliances in conversations too. Two people who are closer to each other than the other person, or people they're with will speak differently to each other than the others, they'll be their own little pocket in the conversation. This works especially well if you've got two good guys and a bad guy talking for example. It turns into two distinct teams rather than three separate people, and that makes it clear who might be talking. I find conversations of more than two people always need heavier editing, so just do your best on the first draft and then shoot for clarity when you're editing, thinking about what you absolutely NEED to have in there. Hopefully the above makes some kind of sense!

[@xxmaej26xx]

This was so good. Thank you.

[@WritingAdviceUA]

Thank you, very helpful

[@magicftalentinmystyle4289]

Thanks for the tip it helped me a to figure out how to write a dialogue, thank you kieren thankyou

[@MrSteveyz]

To be fair, all dialog is made up.

[@DeathOfTime_Official]

Hey Kieren! Love this vid, I have a question, I'm writing my first story and I wanna know if I can hit you up.somewhere for feedback for the introduction I wrote for the story

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Hey thank you, much appreciated ☺️ The only way I give feedback is through my editing service on my website I’m afraid, I’m not sure if that would quite fit what you’re looking for though.

[@DeathOfTime_Official]

@@KierenWestwoodWriting Ah, that's fine :)