Writing good dialogue is one of the most important things that fiction writers have to know how to do, at least in my opinion. Not only is dialogue one of—if not the—best way to give the reader information about the plot, world, and characters, but it’s also a lot of what makes the characters feel like actual people. It’s through dialogue that much of the characters’ personalities are revealed, and a big part of how relationships between characters form.

When I first started writing, I didn’t realize just how much thought had to be put into dialogue. Every character—just like every person in real life—talks a little bit differently, depending largely on how the people around them talk and how they were taught to talk while they were growing up. Which brings things like their background and education into account. Another thing I try to keep in mind is how I want the character to be perceived by the reader, whether I want them to seem friendly, intelligent, serious, snobby, or whatever I think suits the character.

It might sound like a lot to think about, but it’s really not that complicated when it comes into play. I’ll walk you through my general process.

Deciding How a Character Talks

This is the first step, and is usually something that I come up with very early on in the writing process. I decide what sorts of words the character would use, whether they’d talk more formally or more casually, if they’re long-winded or prefer to keep their sentences brief and to the point. That sort of thing.

Mostly, this comes down to the whole “how I want the character to be perceived” thing, and how I imagine them in my mind. I always have a basic idea of what I want the character to be like, whether it’s the main character that I did an extensive bio on before I even started writing or if it’s a random side character that I just came up with in the middle of writing a scene. And that idea is usually accompanied by a basic expectation of how a character like that would act and think and talk. 

And, to be totally honest, most of those expectations come from the books I read and the movies I watch. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of characters, enough to know how different sorts of characters are generally expected to act and talk. This is a great starting point, whether I want to stick with that classic character concept or want to do something similar, but with my own unique twist. 

So, let’s say I want this particular character to be a self-sufficient loner who doesn’t want anything to do with anybody. (Until he suddenly meets a young orphan in need of protection or stumbles into a daring love interest that softens his heart, of course. Sound familiar? From multiple different stories, perhaps?) Traditionally, these sorts of characters are portrayed as being serious and quiet, and maybe a little grumpy too. When they talk, their sentences are usually short and to the point, and you often get the impression that they really don’t want to be talking at all and just want to get it over with. Now, I don’t have to stick to this basic formula if I don’t want to, but it’s a solid starting point, whether I plan to diverge a bit or not. 

There are loads of different character archetypes like that, and they make great starting points for pretty much everything to do with writing a character in a story, basic personality—and thus how they might talk—included. 

But, even after I feel like I have a pretty solid idea in my mind of how the character would talk, it’s important to remember that, in real life, no one talks exactly the same way all the time; things like how they’re feeling and the circumstances that they’re in have an impact as well. A usually talkative character could suddenly get quiet when they’re upset, or a normally goofy and casual character could talk a little more formally when they’re talking to, say, their boss. So it’s always important to keep that sort of thing in mind too.

Grammar Usage in Dialogue

Should you use proper grammar all the time when you’re writing dialogue? That’s a question that I’ve seen debated over a few times and, while it might come down to style in a lot of cases, I think that the simple answer is no. Why? Because in real life, we don’t always use proper grammar when we’re talking. When we say something as simple as “I’m doing good”, we’re technically not using proper grammar. When you say “Me and my friend went to the store”, that also isn’t proper grammar. (Trust me, I’m a grammar nerd; I know these things.) And yet, they’re accepted as normal, understandable ways of saying those things, and many of us wouldn’t even consider saying them any other way.

When I’m deciding how a character talks, one of the first things I consider is whether or not they’d be super fussy about grammar when they’re talking. That’s pretty much solely determined by their personality and upbringing. For example, if I’m writing a princess character in a fantasy story, I’d probably have her be a little more fussy, just because she’s probably had tutors telling her for her whole life how to speak as properly as possible. But, on the flip side, if I know that this princess is the rebellious sort, I might choose to make her disregard her tutors’ lessons completely and just talk in a less grammatically correct, more casual fashion. (Much to her mother’s frustration, if you don’t mind my being totally cliché about it.)

And when I say upbringing, I don’t just mean education alone—in fact, I actually mostly mean the people that they grew up around and how those people might have talked, thus prompting the character to talk in a similar way. If their parents were strict about grammar, chances are, the character might be too without even really realizing it; to them, it’s just what they’re used to hearing. And, if their parents were more casual about it, the character likely will be too.

This is a fun way to subtly bring my characters’ backgrounds and personalities into play while I’m writing, and there’s really no limit to it. I used a pretty generic example here, but I apply this to my stories in a million different ways, thinking of the character’s background and how it might’ve prompted someone with their particular personality to talk. Sometimes, what I come up with can seem a bit counterintuitive—such as the princess raised around strict grammar police tutors talking in a less proper fashion—but, if it suits the character, then I roll with it, and it makes them seem way more alive.

How Setting Affects Dialogue

Some writers can be really strict about this, but I’m generally pretty loose about how the setting affects how people talk, particularly when that setting is a fantasy or sci-fi one, which is supposed to be totally made up (and made according to the rules I set) anyway. I don’t see a problem with having a character in a fantasy setting say things like “gonna” or “yep” or “shut up.” 

While it’s true that most traditional fantasy is based on the middle ages, and that the terms I mentioned above probably didn’t actually exist in their modern forms yet back then, it’s never actually the middle ages that I’m trying to depict, just something based on them that’s meant to entertain modern audiences. If I was writing, say, a historical fiction story set in the middle ages, I’d probably want to be a little more fussy about it and do some research, but for fantasy, there really isn’t a reason to worry about being historically accurate, because it’s not—and was never—real. It’s a fantasy—and that’s what’s great about it. It can be whatever you want it to be, whether you decide to use a more modern form of language or to go for a more traditional, medieval-type one. 

But, unless I’m writing something that’s supposed to be set in the real, modern world, I do have one rule: Don’t use slang, or any phrases that explicitly come from modern culture, whether it’s from religion or pop culture or anything in between. The reason for this is simply because phrases like these most likely had no reason to develop in my made-up world; they wouldn’t know about our religious figures or pop culture references that we have here in the real world, so they’d have no reason to say “jeez” or randomly start referencing Star Wars.

This is the most important for me to keep in mind when I’m writing fantasy, in particular. With sci-fi, though, I do give myself a little more wiggle room, namely if the story is supposed to be set in the future of the real world, when such phrases would have existed at least at some point. In this sort of scenario, I just try to figure out if the phrase would still have any reason to continue to exist at the time the story is set, and if the character would have any reason to know of it. If I can come up with good reasons for both, then I let the character go and say it.

Outro

So, those are the basic things that I try to keep in mind when I’m writing dialogue for my characters. I hope you enjoyed this look at this part of my process. Thank you for reading!