Want Good Dialogue? Add Flaws

Writers often have trouble with dialogue. If your dialogue feels stilted, awkward, or unnatural, try this tip:

To write realistic speech, avoid formal or perfect language. Add contractions, fragmented sentences, and filler words to make your dialogue flow better.

Examples:

• "I'm gonna grab a coffee, wanna come?" (using the contractions “gonna, wanna” and the informal “grab a coffee”)

• "I mean, I'm not saying it's gonna be easy, but..." (using filler words)

• "Maybe we should just wing it?" (using informal language)

Counter-examples:

• "I am going to buy a coffee, would you like to come with me?" (using perfect, polished language)

• "This is a difficult problem and we should consider our options before proceeding." (sounds like a LinkedIn post)

• "I don’t know what we need to do, but we can't afford to wait any longer." (nobody talks like this)

The Best Way to Write Realistic Dialogue:

One word: rewrite. The first draft is to make sure the dialogue is right. The second draft is to make sure the dialogue is natural. Here's what I mean:

1. Start by writing out what the character means to say. It's important to get the meaning down first. Otherwise, you won't know the right cadence of speech.

2. Then, when you edit the scene, rewrite the dialogue to sound more natural. When rewriting, read it out loud (or get an AI tool to read it for you). Flag the dialogue that doesn't flow. Formal writing will sound awkward, especially when spoken by informal characters.

Realistic Dialogue In Practice:

Here’s an example of flowy, natural-sounding dialogue between two characters. It’s from Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Passenger. (Note that McCarthy abhors quotation marks. I’ve preserved the formatting as is.)