One of the most compelling challenges when it comes to writing a novel is the idea of curating natural, realistic dialogue. This is especially complicated when we talk about fantasy–high fantasy, in particular–because fantasy writers tend to sometimes… overwrite. And that overwriting can easily lead to very unrealistic dialogue. In addition to this, some authors may work off of preconceived notions of how a group talks, when in reality that group doesn’t talk like that at all. This is the biggest mistake TV show writers make when portraying teenagers. Realistic dialogue in books is important, but why? And how does one go about making sure their dialogue is actually good? Well, there are a lot of small details that go into making dialogue realistic, like dialects, linguistic nuances, the actual literary genre itself, and more.
The Role of Dialogue in a Story
Dialogue plays a vastly significant role in literature. It’s not just a tool to use for conveying details and plot points, but it serves to advance the characters, the world, and more. It’s also a lesser acknowledged aspect of world-building because authentic dialogue can mean the difference between a good book and a not-so-good book. Imagine people in medieval times speaking like how we speak today? It just doesn’t make sense.
I’m not saying that you need to start translating everything into Old English, but you should at least understand that a noble in medieval times probably wouldn’t say something like: “For real, bro?” You know what I mean?
Dialogue serves to authenticate and validate your world as well, because if you’ve spent all this time creating cool cultures and cool characters and unique religions, you should work towards adding the realism in your dialogue to elevate all that work further!
There are a few things that you need to consider when you’re creating the dialogue for your story, which I will delve into right now.
Tips for Writing Realistic Dialogue
Dialect is Important!
When you’re writing a story set in a country that exists or is fake, the idea of a dialect immediately comes into play. Even if everyone speaks the same language, there are regional differences that affect how a person speaks the language.
For example, German vs Swiss German. Someone from Germany and someone from Switzerland that speak German still speak the same language, but there are dialect differences that make Swiss German a bit different from standard German.
When you’re writing your story, consider how the regions that your characters come from affect the style and dialect of their speech. Do characters from the sea regions speak differently from the mountain regions? This sort of thing will be very cool to explore when different characters interact. But, make sure it’s still readable and not too overwhelming for your readers.
Ethnicity Matters Too!
Characters in your story that come from different cultural backgrounds or ethnic backgrounds will have distinct features in the way they speak. For example, foreign accents affect the way people from other countries speak the same language as others.
Someone from Lebanon will have a different accent when speaking English versus someone from Canada versus someone from China. These sorts of things can also add more realism to your dialogue because it shows that you have an understanding of your world, real or fantasy.
Be careful of stereotypes and don’t be offensive here though!
Slang or Nah?
Slang can definitely be something useful in adding to dialogue realism. For one, if you’re writing a story set in an era like ours right now, it would help to use some sort of slang in the speech of the characters because that’s how normal people talk.
However, I would be careful with this aspect here. Using too much slang can quickly get into the “how do you do, fellow kids?” territory that I do not think is very good to read. It can become more cringey than anything else. So, be cautious and don’t be too lax with your use of slang.
It can help to have slang even in older or more fantasy contexts, but make sure not to go too crazy with this, as it can get confusing for the readers in fantasy settings especially.
Character Consistency
One important aspect of dialogue is ensuring that your characters are consistent. I should be able to tell that your character is your character if I flip to a random page. They cannot change suddenly without any context. Maybe there’s a reason they start talking differently, but you should get into that so that it’s not sudden and knee-jerking.
Also, consider things like the character’s age, ethnicity, cultural background, species, etc… These things will affect how your character acts and talks, and this needs to be taken into account for the sake of realism. A religious leader will not speak the same as a street thief, so take that into consideration.
Show, Don’t Tell is Back
I’ve already made a post about show, don’t tell as a general thing, but in a way it also applies to dialogue and scenes of dialogue. When two characters are engaging in some sort of discussion, it’s important to set the scene and help display the emotions properly for the reader.
Simply telling the reader that a character is angry or happy isn’t always the best or most detailed way of doing so. Now, you don’t want to overdo this, but sometimes it’s good to try and give more visual cues such as narrowed eyes, clenched fists, gritted teeth, etc… These sorts of visual signals are all great ways to give the reader more emphasis on the scene’s aspects.
Don’t Just Write “He Asked”
One of the biggest issues that happens in a lot of writing is that some writers tend to get into the pattern of dialogue scenes where they don’t use words other than things like “asked,” “said,” and such words. Of course, these are valid to use in writing, but imagine a dialogue scene where these are the only words you’re using? That’s not really writing at a high-level of diction.
You can use a thesaurus to find alternative words, but you can also write dialogue scenes where you are not necessarily just saying “said.” You can write a quote like this:
He looked over at me, his eyes gleaming with an air of curiosity. A small smile flickered across his lips, but it quickly vanished and his eyes resumed their neutral, deadpan expression. “What exactly do you want me to do? Go out of my way to help you?”
I just wrote a random quote to showcase this, but if you break down what I did, I did not use the word “said” or “asked” or any of those more simple cues for dialogue. You can easily just forgo those words and give a more scenic description.
The Impact of Genres on Dialogue
Genre is actually something that can genuinely impact the way your dialogue is written, because different genres demand different styles. Now, there are ways to combine genres to create new styles, but for the most part, the way you write your dialogue gives more of a glimpse for the reader into the genre you’re writing.
Fantasy and sci-fi all demand different forms of dialogue than realistic or contemporary fiction. In sci-fi and fantasy, you need to consider what your time period is based on, how people speak normally, if there are lingual differences, and how you can incorporate your world into the dialogue.
For those of you writing historical fiction, please make sure that you research intently on this aspect. People in the 1920’s and the 1850’s and the 1100’s spoke very differently than we do today. Again, you shouldn’t feel the need to write entirely in their diction style, but at least don’t use very modern slang in a story set many years ago. It will ruin the reader’s immersion, which is definitely going to harm your overall reader’s perception of the story.
Anyways, I hope that helped you get more of an idea on how to write realistic dialogue for your story. Make sure to consider all the elements I talked about, but I also have a bonus tip. This may sound silly, but if you’re writing, stand up and literally act out the scene you’re writing. Read it like your characters would say it. Talk to yourself! I know that may seem a bit funny, but it really helps when you can hear your words aloud instead of just reading them on a screen.
Before you go, don’t forget to check out my sci-fi/fantasy series, The Fallen Age Saga! You can buy my books over at Amazon right now!
Happy writing!