Tips to Take Your Dialogue to the Next Level

          By guest blogger Melissa Tagg

If you asked me about my faaaavorite part of writing a book, I’d tell you it’s the part when that first shiny copy arrives on your doorstep and you hold it up in the air like Mufasa displaying Simba at the edge of a cliff in Africa…

Wait, nobody else does that?

But one of my other favorite parts—which doesn’t require a “Circle of Life” singalong—is writing dialogue.

My name is Melissa Tagg. And I. Love. Dialogue.

I've heard awesome author Rachel Hauck give the wise advice to “tell the story between the quotes” many times. It’s such good advice. So much of life happens in spoken words, doesn't it?

And to me, dialogue can make or break a story. Here are a few tips for helping our dialogue sizzle instead of settle:

1. Let characters actually SAY what they’re thinking.

Sometimes when I’m writing that first draft I’ll find myself trapping my character’s best lines in his own head. Someone will say something to him, he’ll give an expected and not all that brilliant response, while thinking something funny or sarcastic or argumentative in his head.

But because he chooses not to actually say it, I rob the moment of some great tension. Here’s an example. In the opening scene of my book From the Start, my heroine—Kate, a romantic movie scriptwriter—is talking to an associate producer who has no idea who she is…and has just called her latest screenplay “sentimental fluff.” This is how things looked in the original version:

The AD poked her with his elbow. “Hey, I don’t think I gave you a chance to introduce yourself. You are…”

“Kate Walker.” The writer of that sentimental fluff.

It’s fine like that. We get to see her annoyance. We get to hear her wry internal voice.

But why trap the tension inside Kate alone?

The AD poked her with his elbow. “Hey, I don’t think I gave you a chance to introduce yourself. You are…”

“Kate Walker.” She pulled her hand from her coat pocket and held it out. “The writer of that sentimental fluff.”

His grip on her palm went lax.

Now we get to see the AD’s discomfort and embarrassment and the awkward laughter of the people around them.  The tension stretches outward.

2. Make use of rhythm.

There is something awesome about dialogue that moves in pulsing beats…that clips along at the perfect pace.

I wish there was a simple three-step plan for developing rhythm in our dialogue. But I think it’s more about feeling than process—feeling when it’s right to speed up and then slow it down, break abruptly or let a stretching pause linger.

What’s helped me is watching movies or TV shows where the dialogue sizzles. Like the 1940 movie His Girl Friday. It stars Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and was a total game-changer when it came to dialogue in movies. For the first time, the director let characters talk over and interrupt each other. Grant and Russell’s dialogue is verbal ping-pong—rapid, witty and rhythmic. Like in this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTV_ZLtybLc

3. Push your character’s words past her comfort level.

We want our characters to sound like real people. But we don’t always want their conversations to sound like real life conversations. Because often in real life, we don’t let ourselves say…

…the vulnerable things.

…the mean things.

…the risky things.

…the uncomfortable things.

…the true things.

We hold back, we don’t go those places. Sometimes with very good reason.

But in a story, it’s so, SO much better when we force our character to go places in her conversations she’d rather not. To say the things we might not be brave enough to say in real life. It can make for some amazing dialogue on the page…and cool stirrings in the reader’s heart.

Those are three bigger-picture, slightly advanced techniques. Want some quick tips?

1.    Watch Gilmore Girls. I’m totally serious. It has some of the smartest and best dialogue out there…and it’s on Netflix, so binge-away!

2.    Read your dialogue out loud. You’ll quickly catch the spots that aren’t working.

3.    Anytime you can replace a dialogue tag with an action beat, don’t even hesitate…just do it.

4.    Embrace sentence fragments to your heart’s content.

I could go on talking dialogue forever but I should probably make myself stop and instead ask, what tips have YOU found for writing great dialogue? Any movies or TV shows that spark your dialogue creativity?

For a chance to win a copy of From the Start, leave a comment!

Bio:

Melissa Tagg is a former reporter, current nonprofit grant writer and total Iowa girl. She writes romantic comedy for Bethany House, and is also the marketing/events coordinator for My Book Therapy, a craft and coaching community for writers. When she’s not writing, she can be found hanging out with the coolest family ever, watching old movies, and daydreaming about her next book. Her latest book, From the Start, just released this month. Check out the prequel e-novella Three Little Words free. Melissa blogs regularly at at http://www.melissatagg.com and loves connecting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.