How to write creative dialogue

I suck at writing dialogue! It always comes out awkwardly, and I struggle a lot with it.

  • How do you write dialogue?
  • What are your best tips for writing dialogue?
  • How do you make sure the dialogue is good?
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I typically know my character fairly well by the time I actually start writing for them, so I basically just think “what would they say?” I think of it as kinda like acting, I suppose, since I love that as well.

Just keep practicing. And try to make it sound realistic, and suit the setting you’re working with. If you’re writing a story set in the 17th century, no ones going to say, “hey dawg, what down with the homies?” Or something. Unless they’re from the future.

I try to make sure it fits the character, and that it isn’t dry. When RPing, I try to give the other person something to go off or respond to. If there’s no responsible material, an interaction dies. Otherwise, if I’m writing a story, I force others to read it and give me their opinion.

I hope this was helpful ^.^

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Do you have a sample? :eyes: It may just seem awkward to you as the writer but be perfectly fine to readers.

[quote=“passionfruit, post:1, topic:13990”]

I think the most important thing is to ensure that the dialogue contributes to the story somehow and helps move the plot along. Banter can be entertaining and serve as characterisation, but small talk doesn’t make for interesting reading.

I wrote a short bit of dialogue advice for my friends once. Would it be okay if I linked it here? >__<;

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Sure!

Writing dialogue by some1eleven on DeviantArt Here it is!

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I sometimes feel like my dialogues sound weird :sweat_smile: So this thread is really helpful!

@Writers Any more advice?

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I try to talk to my characters in my head to see their responses.

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owo
writing dialogue can state a lot of unspoken things about a character, so one of the best things (in my opinion) is to think how they’d talk based on their personality
do they use a lot of slang? is their speech more stiff? do they sound out every word / letter or do they sometimes mash up words (like “trynna”) or don’t sound out some letters (like not sounding out the g in gerunds)
based on that, you can give each character a different voice in your writing, which makes dialogue between two charas feel more natural
here are some examples from stuff i’ve written? i’m not the best writer out there but i hope you can tell stuff about the charas from how they talk

rougher characters:
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.28.06 PM
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.29.01 PM
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.29.31 PM
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.29.55 PM

flirtier character:
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.34.42 PM

playful character:
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.35.36 PM

meme-ish gay disaster character:
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.38.33 PM

fancier character:
Screen Shot 2021-04-16 at 6.36.52 PM

one thing that helps a lot too is to read the words out loud, to make sure they sound natural

also! pauses are your friend! people don’t speak in proper sentences all the time
there’s a lot of pauses and beats and “uhh” / “um” / etc in a person’s speech! you can make a character interrupt their sentences, or make them pause before saying something important, etc!

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