Writing How to make dialogues sound natural?

[mejojo]

How do you guys make your character dialogues flow smoothly, as if they were real-life conversation? My dialogues always feel a bit cranky and awkward-sounding, so I want to improve on that.

 

[Owl]

Are you writing in a more light-hearted way like light novels or in a more serious way like the books you get in stores? If you are using more of the webnovel/light novel style, then it's not that hard. In this case, you can actually write as people talk.
People interrupt, pause, stumble over their words and sentences or make sounds while thinking. In conversations, it can even be that one person randomly changes the topic or has a stupid train of thought. If you want a natural conversation, then you don't need to follow the 'stiff' way that most books do.
Try to imagine the characters talk in your head. Maybe one is very impulsive and keeps on interrupting or another stutters. Include that in your writing.

 

[kaida]

I agree with Owl, having them talk in your mind definitely helps, personally. Another thing to remember is that no one talks in perfect grammar, contrary to popular belief (unless you’re striving for a character to have that kind of personality, i.e royalty (?) ) and characters who have impeccable grammar every time they speak can lead to awkward and stiff conversations. I have fallen into this trap many times and it leads me down a rabbit hole ;_;. When writing an event with high amounts of distress (especially emotional), however, this definitely influences that idea, and characters will probably have a clunkier way of speaking. But yeah! I also believe that the style of novel will change how you want to write things, so I’m not sure if this helped ^^;

another thing that kind of pertains to what Owl said - have your character make mistakes while speaking. Tripping over their words, small gestures, emphasized tone of voice, all these things are what we as humans do and apply to your character as well.

 

[Arexio]

I believe in you.

 

[binarysoap]

Talk with someone and record the conversation. Or sit in a cafe and pay attention to how random people around you talk.

 

[PrincessFelicie]

A big thing that can make dialogues feel robotic is when all the characters talk the same way.

I like to give my characters talking quirks. A habit, an accent, an odd choice of wording. the more distinct each character's voice is from one another, the less dialogue will feel like two plastic dolls talking in the same voice.

 

[honeymilkwrites]

A big thing that can make dialogues feel robotic is when all the characters talk the same way.

I like to give my characters talking quirks. A habit, an accent, an odd choice of wording. the more distinct each character's voice is from one another, the less dialogue will feel like two plastic dolls talking in the same voice.

Some examples off the top of my head that I use are sentence length and profanity. Some people like speaking in long sentences, while others prefer to keep their sentences short. Some people litter their sentences with profanity even when they aren't angry, while others can hardly say more than "Damn" without being furious.
Socioeconomic status, family background, educational history, and personality should all keep in line with this. A super rich girl who's from a strict household isn't going to swear like a sailor, and if she's the kind who likes subtly showing off her intelligence, she'll throw in uncommon words and lengthen her sentences.

 

[IvyVeritas]

One thing to consider is that real dialogue from real people is just as bad in written form as overly formal dialogue is. When people actually speak, they might use "umm" or "you know" three times in a single sentence, or never pronounce the "g" in "ing", or half their conversation is something like:
"Hey."
"Hey."
"What's up?"
"Not much. You?"
"Just can't believe this rain."
"I know, right?
"What--"
"Where--"
"Uh, you go first."
"Well, you know, I, uh..."

You want to use patterns that sound like regular, natural speech, while not actually replicating regular, natural speech. See movies, TV shows, and professionally published books for examples.

When someone has an accent, you want to hint at it, but you don't want to fully replicate it or it'll be difficult to read.

 

[tak]

My dialogue doesn't feel smooth to me because, IRL, i mainly uses gestures instead of speaking.
Instead of saying, "hey, look at that!" I poke the person thn point at it.
Instead of saying "holy shit you have to see this" slowly approach the person with my phone towards them.
It got to the point someone thought i was mute

 

[mejojo]

My dialogue doesn't feel smooth to me because, IRL, i mainly uses gestures instead of speaking.
Instead of saying, "hey, look at that!" I poke the person thn point at it.
Instead of saying "holy shit you have to see this" slowly approach the person with my phone towards them.
It got to the point someone thought i was mute

I would unironically want someone like you around, lol

 

[Khiricastares]

There is a difference between writing realistic dialogue, and dialogue that sounds realistic. You cannot write down most normal conversations because you are using a very linear means of communication, he said/she said. In real life people talk over each other and interrupt and even talk and respond at the same time/during a sentence. Trying to write that down just doesn't work because of how writing is structured and meant to flow, you end up looking crazy.

For example, most times people praise an author with realistic dialogue, when you sit down and go through the conversations you will notice that nobody in their right mind talks like that to each other in reality. But the dialogue feels realistic in the story, it feels believable and that is what the big difference is. Copying down conversations with people, trying to replicate what you hear and say in life might help with fine tuning and ideas. But the first thing to understand is that what sounds realistic in a story, does so because it's a story. Remember that small actions when they say something, or intonation or stress on certain words, is important for realistic dialogue because it's something that translates well to writing that everyone does.

For homework I would suggest looking up some well known/prize winning writers who either focus heavily on dialogue or are accredited with their achievements in it, especially realistic sounding dialogue. You should be able to find some common themes there, like simple words, short sentences or repeating things they've already said etc. (those are just examples of themes off the top of my head, whether that's accurate is another story).
I like Hemmingway, so give a few of his shorts a look over and then instead of reading it, single out the dialogue and see what it's like on it's own and then compare this to your own dialogue and go from there.

 

[UnknownSaint171]

Imagine it in your head, that is the key. Watching anime and reading a lot helps

 

[CR-V]

My dialogue doesn't feel smooth to me because, IRL, i mainly uses gestures instead of speaking.
Instead of saying, "hey, look at that!" I poke the person thn point at it.
Instead of saying "holy shit you have to see this" slowly approach the person with my phone towards them.
It got to the point someone thought i was mute

I... I... like your personality...
Ca... can we be friends? If that's o... okay with you...

 

[idaeasthesia]

How do you guys make your character dialogues flow smoothly, as if they were real-life conversation? My dialogues always feel a bit cranky and awkward-sounding, so I want to improve on that.

1. Always remember you are not talking to yourself. Keep in mind, its the characters that are talking to each other, with their own ways of intepertations of sentences and their own styles of replies. I made a 50 set question file which i answer in the way i think my character would answer, so i could better understand my character's style.

2. It is very crucial you know the character you are writting about inside out; How was the character when he or she did this or that? What is she feeling at the time of the conversation? What does he or she know or not know? Is something occupying his or her mind that might slurr conversation flow? Everyone is slightly different every day. Past events can affect how your character behaves, and if you hit it right, realism would be your ultimate reward.

 

[yansusustories]

2. It is very crucial you know the character you are writting about inside out; How was the character when he or she did this or that? What is she feeling at the time of the conversation? What does he or she know or not know? Is something occupying his or her mind that might slurr conversation flow? Everyone is slightly different every day. Past events can affect how your character behaves, and if you hit it right, realism would be your ultimate reward.

I think that this is actually the most crucial issue. Also: Lots of people (not to be sexist but women especially) tend to overthink. So not only should it be kept in mind what the people talking know but also what they think the other person knows. And then there's also their goals to consider: If this isn't just a nice conversation over a cup of tea, then they likely talk to each other because they want to achieve something. But not everybody will state that outright. They'll circle the issue, they'll do small talk to be polite - that kind of stuff.
I think the opposite of that (the "directly stating things") is called "on the nose dialogue" or at least that's how I've heard it been called. There are lots of articles floating around about that so maybe check that out.

 

[tak]

I would unironically want someone like you around, lol

I... I... like your personality...
Ca... can we be friends? If that's o... okay with you...

i feel loved
But i'm not good at being friends coz i can go months without contacting you and then sent you a pic of animal i thought you liked. If we're friend IRL i just tag along without saying anything, but point to a clothing with the colour you said you liked (peach & turquoise, very specific)
Both are from actual experience. It's probably a year since last contact and randomly sent a pic of fat duck.

 

[LWFlouisa]

Je ne avoir pas encrie pour l'dialogue, dekimasu ka pour vous?

I have trouble with dialogue sometimes.

 

[LostinMovement]

I knew a creative-writing teacher once and she told to write dialogue 'realistically' or in other words, write in the closest imitation possible to actual people. Easier said than done. The only thing I came out with from her classes is that dialogue is one of the hardest thing to master for a writer.

So instead of writing dialogue 'realistically', just look to the character speaking. Who are they ? Are they educated or illiterate ? Are they native to the land of your world or are they foreigners? Do they have a lisp ? Are they shy ? Are they brash, abrasive by nature or are they chatterboxes ? So write them the way they feel to you. The way they speak should follow the same logic.

 

[tak]

Also wanna add. I text & talk differently. If you write characters that chat through social media, consider this.
(And again, i usually use stickers/gifs as a reply instead of "talking")

 

[FortySixtyFour]

Most everyone's already givin' sound advice, so I'll just add that ya should use plenty of discourse markers throughout dialogue and watch yer cadence.

When talkin', people often form tha habit of starting a sentence with like, well, so, yeah, or even okay, and also use them mid-speech as a sort of verbal placeholder to indicate that they're still figuring out what they want ta say (but not yet done speaking). Ah, uh, uhhh, and um server similar purposes, and you've gotta get yerself a feel for the timing of the space between words. A comma might be a brief pause in conversation, an em dash⁠—a bit of a longer one, if someone's makin' a point or has a flair for tha dramatic. Trailing off and even trailing in both indicate subtle nonverbal cues, and naturally remember that people misspeak, interrupt each other, make up word contractions on the fly, and generally don't use proper diction ever.