How to Write Realistic & Captivating Dialogue

Dialogue - the backbone of character interaction and novel structure. It's what grabs a reader and pulls them into your character's world. But sometimes it can be tricky to nail your character's voice in dialogue. Today, Abbie and I are talking about how to completely NAIL this aspect of your novel. We're talking dialogue today, guys! So grab a notebook, a cup of coffee, and let's go!
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[@KAEmmons]

📖 QOTD: Is writing dialogue your favorite or least favorite aspect of the novel-writing journey? Do you love it or hate it?

[@thesamuraiman]

I love writing dialogue, because character interactions are my favorite thing. And I feel like Im not as good at writing the in-between, like scenery and descriptions 😅😅 💜⚡

[@worthfightingfor2299]

I love it!! It's so fun XD

[@jaydaalmonte539]

It depends. Right now in the scene I'm writing, I hate it because I can't figure out how to word it right or how to make it realistic (excited to watch this video and get some pointers). But there are other times where I love it because it comes naturally to me in those moments and I just find myself loving the conversations the characters are having.

[@ashlynohm4241]

Sometimes I love it if I don’t overthink it and just let it flow naturally. Super thankful for the advice on the “in-between” action because that is something I tend to struggle with!

[@milomazli]

I dread it... Especially among love interests. You just have to nail it so well for it to work. When Im reading other books this is usually the part where I cringe. So I want to make better dialogues 😎😉

[@taylorp2347]

Something I do to help me write realistic dialogue is to read just the spoken words of the conversation without dialogue tags or anything. Usually I'll read it aloud, too. That helps me determine if the conversation itself flows and sounds realistic. It also helps me determine if I even need all the dialogue tags and extra information.

[@kaokurosawa3872]

Before I write it, I play it in my head

[@leonmayne797]

I think Abbie said she does that in one of her videos.

[@tiarailic4086]

Narnia nerd here. Lol. Potentially the fly was a symbol of being trapped, trying to get out the window, like lucy was trapped in the real world about to enter Narnia but I also think it may have just been showing no one had been in the room for a long time otherwise the fly would have flown out or in the boarded up room their was a living creature. You could imagine that the fly escaped Narnia, came out of the wardrobe and was a foreshadowing for what she was about to find. Life on the other side of the closet...Lucy paused and looked at it like it was bizarre that it was there. Either way, I'll argue it added suspense to the scene. 🤗

[@billyalarie929]

Yeah, I’ve not seen the movie or even read the books but I was thinking the same thing as I was imagining this scene going on.

[@Space_Writer]

8:00 I'll give my 2 cents on the fly at the window moment. The fly is small and insignificant. Lucy is the smallest of the siblings and perhaps feels insignificant at times. The fly is trapped inside, in a world that's not it's own(the house). Does Lucy feel trapped in some way? The fly is seeking to go out. Lucy is inside and by way of entering the wardrobe she goes out 1)literally outside, 2) out of her own reality and into the reality that is Narnia The fly represents the mundane, the normal, and the tedious. Oh, it's _just_ a fly. Does Lucy stay in this world of normalcy? No, she takes on the adventure of something new and exciting. It's like a point-of-no-return moment. A fly doesn't know that it will be trapped inside when it flies in the window or door. It's just flying around minding its own business, and then *boom* , "how do I get out of here?" Is Lucy afraid that once she goes in the wardrobe she may not be able to get back out? I know that wasn't a simple explanation, it was just the possibilities that were on my mind at the moment. But now that you mention it, I don't remember any mention of a fly on the window in the book version. So what was the deeper meaning that the director had in mind.?

[@KAEmmons]

love your thoughts on this!! Thanks for sharing!

[@vanessasperling]

Love the point at 18:08 about characters not articulating their inner conflict. Just the very thing I'm working on now in my story. It hit me as I've been writing it that even if my (very extraverted) protagonist even understood the depth of his internal struggle at this point in the story, he wouldn't explain it in either external or internal dialogue because it would sound too clichè or cringy to him. I think we as human beings have a tendency to resist describing our inner struggles in such tidy terms no matter how self-aware we are.

[@wordsonNewYorkHarbour]

I found my inner conflict after writing a character that… clicked. And I didn’t even know that they had any similarities with me before… and now I pour myself into them (except for the fact that they are lesbian and I’m not)

[@annaverabooks]

Lucy was the fly. It’s symbolism. 🥰

[@boyboss3322]

19:55 me. I do. It's less common for people to blurt out how they feel and their problems but I do that on the daily, I'm autistic and don't have any filter. I can speak to my friends easily like "yeah so this trait is really my strength but also my weakness because I'm insecure and afraid of abandonment."

[@jacindaellison3363]

When I read a piece to some of my former classmates, one them said my dialogue had been my strongest aspect. I'm using dialogue as a hook for my debut book. Even though I love Encanto, there was an infodump when Mirabel's dad told her about her not having any powers, and I was thinking "That was a weird infodump" same thing with Miguel from Coco. He infodumped his entire backstory in the beginning of the movie-still love the film btw.

[@Lukasafer]

I sort of act out my dialogue when i think it may not be working Affecting a cadence or accent, it's really fun But really what makes the best dialogue is two-fold: knowing what the point of the dialogue is and know your characters Even if nothing is told, the author should have in their mind what the dialogue will do even if that means the dialogue will serve as nothing more than a character moment

[@brookedannar242]

Frederick Backman is brilliant at subtexts and nuances. The number of times he’s brought tears to my eyes by giving hints that let me fill in the blank is mind boggling. Thanks for putting into words what I couldn’t quite myself.

[@milomazli]

Dear Kate and Abbie, thank you! Would you be interested in doing an episode about info dumping, like how to share information without it being overwhelming? I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject!

[@Double21Stuffed]

Thank you for this. I keep having the mindset that the reader has to know EVERYTHING which I know isn't the case. I will be adding more fast dialogue in my WIP.

[@wordsonNewYorkHarbour]

Me watching this after writing a slow paced dialogue scene with awkward pauses: 😳

[@Double21Stuffed]

@@wordsonNewYorkHarbour I feel this!

[@NambiEthendraThatha]

conflict dump is a real problem for me. I struggle a lot with that. Out of all the writing problems I have, conflict dumping is the worst one. Really hard to keep it in control.

[@charlestheram8788]

Lots of great stuff here. Thank you both for the time and hard work. Keep it up

[@milomazli]

Omg! This is it! THIS IS IT!!! This is what I need right now!! Thank you ♥️♥️♥️

[@candyjansen5503]

Wow Thank you guy's so much for this video I've been writing my book and this video has help me a lot and thanks for sharing that you watch more British programs cause I feel the same way since I'm not from the U.K but they have more word play they really take they writing seriously and it have so much more meaning to their writing I've recently watched Top Boy which I think is written excellent and I'm a person who is also into rap music and for the past year's I've been feeling that rap is dead cause everyone is rapping with auto tune and it has no more meaning the poetry is gone up until I've found Santan Dave and his a U.K rapper and his music has so much meaning and most of his song's his telling a story and I think that is what Americans is missing cause they are mainstream

[@gdtownshende]

Just like there is no spoon, there is no fly. :P LOL! Just kidding. Love this episode! Lots and lots of great points.

[@jonathanbaumler]

THANK YOU both! 🙂

[@mariaemiliasalinastheler6012]

Abbie! I love your t-shirt! Omgggg

[@AdamSays]

very insightful. thank you both! :)

[@d0nthink194]

the fly trying to get out kinda seems like symbolism for her wanting to get out of a space and into a big world? Like her going out into narnia? maybe???

[@lilaponi4444]

The fly was in one level of existence and couldn't get out because the window was blocking it. Lucy on the other hand, was about to open up to another world, and unlike the fly find a wonderous new adventure. I'm pretty sure it wasn't irrelevant. The genre of visionary fiction has metaphor like that where romance may not. It's like a clue to a mystery. Those are fun things I think for the audience to figure out, not distractions, in my opinion.

[@Frogface91]

I googled the Narnia fly issue, apparently it's mentioned in the book, I think I agree with this comment I copied: "perhaps [it's] just that the room hadn't been used in a long time and not cleaned, as though Narnia had been forgotten and yet is still there... waiting..."

[@jayashreechakravarthy4949]

Speak to her and tell me what you guys want. I trust your views and decisions completely. Please let me get what I want, for the first time in my life! You know what kind of life it was.

[@mayj257]

how do you write facial expressions ?

[@porschesmith-cg8le]

What are some good British shows that give sub text? For learning.

[@lindagutierrez5409]

With my world building, I only have one important element to the main character. The rest is kept light and simple.

[@laurenwang]

Are these getting uploaded as regular podcasts anymore?

[@isthisatitleforayoutubecha3035]

For example on the back cover of my book Scanorob I used something Abbie said one of her videos to make the reviewer have a similar speech pattern to Abbie but of course I didn't use her real name because that's probably illegal.

[@Jaybird662]

What bbc shows do you recommend?

[@Amy_Mi6]

"Most communication is non-verbal" ... EXACTLY!! Which is why I would rather go to the dentist to get a tooth pulled than answer my freaking phone lol. #PhonesAreForTexting

[@tabithacase]

I feel like all I write is dialogue. I'm finding it difficult to write scenes without dialogue., and how to describe things without anyone actually saying anything. I'm not exactly sure how to my problem, but if anyone has any tips for me, they would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!

[@ARLimitless]

This podcast saved my book 🤡 I am doing almost all these mistakes

[@theartofflying3580]

My theory about the fly is that they intended to use that pause to build tension. She approached the wardrobe, the audience leans in. Edge of the seat. We want to see what comes next. She looks at the window, we yearn to see what’s in the wardrobe, we lean in further. She moved forward, the audience grows more excited still. I think that was the intention and it didn’t succeed. I could be wrong, it’s been ages since I’ve watched that movie lol

[@mikaylamarks7361]

*SPOILER* to Narnia... okay so maybe the fly symbolizes how in a short amount of time, they live an entire life from birth to death in a manor of weeks. Then, later in the plot, Lucy and her siblings live years of their lives before transporting back to their old life/ where little time had gone by but they lived to be adults. And the window is symbolic of this portal in the wardrobe? Or they did that scene for no reason at all

[@catherinejohnson747]

I believe in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe the spare room is described as empty except for a blue glass bottle in the window. I think the director must have switched that out for the fly in the window. I think it was to show how insignificant and maybe boring the room might seem if it weren't for opening the wardrobe.

[@Frogface91]

A blue-bottle is a type of fly (in the UK at least).

[@JohnBoltham]

I wish I could read...

[@isthisatitleforayoutubecha3035]

I just find real things people have said and make a character say the same sort of things for example one character in one of my books is based on a girl in real life and I made every line the character say something I've heard that real life person say (It was easy as she was just a minor character but it makes the character feel way more realistic)

[@thesamuraiman]

💜⚡

[@leonmayne797]

My theory is that the fly represents her trying to get out of her mundane life and into a new world.

[@damladeniz]

Turkish subtitle please 🙏

[@clintcarpentier2424]

The fly makes no sense. Even in the context of distracting Lucy, it makes no sense. The wardrobe wasn't a portal to Narnia until Lucy arrived. If I remember correct, the Doctor never returned to Narnia, so instead he cut the tree down and made it into a wardrobe for his mother. It's been a while since I read the series, but regardless, the wardrobe wasn't the portal. The room is clean. The fly has no reason to be there. Flies are indicative of filth, but the place is clean, there isn't even any dust. So it should be dead. Ok, let's say it came from Narnia. Narnia is in a state of perpetual winter. Is the fly in the book? Hang on - grabs book - oh yeah, there it is. A lot of artistic license going on here, check it out... The children are exploring the manor. NOT playing hide-n-seek. Page 5 ----------- ... And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead blue-bottle on the window-sill. ---------- Blue-bottle is a type of fly. C. S. Lewis is quite liberal with his paragraph density. Seriously, if CSL was a youtube commenter, he'd post walls of text. I suppose we've learned a LOT more about writing since.

[@billyalarie929]

Then again, there’s a reason millions of people today, older and younger, love his works.

[@clintcarpentier2424]

@@billyalarie929 It's called "soft world building". It's heavily reliant on unquestioned wonderment. The books are small, not even 150 pages, and have big margins. I would put that more in the realm of marketing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the books when I read them. However, having looked at it again, I see it suffers some of the same problems Japanese light novels suffer from; big block paragraphs that meander incoherently. Like, a lot of shit happens from one paragraph to the next. For instance, the entire segment where Thomnas helps Lucy escape, lots of information between his house and the light post; one fucking paragraph.

[@billyalarie929]

Did you mean pbs masterpiece?

[@lindagutierrez5409]

Kids easily distracted, noticed the fly? Maybe?

[@aaditdeva8656]

Dose this feel like a easol speaking test for anyone else

[@arnoldfossman1701]

Characters shouldn't roll their eyes excessively, they might get them dirty.