dialogue writing in english essay

Writing Dialogue [20 Best Examples + Formatting Guide]

Have you ever found yourself cringing at clunky dialogue while reading a book or watching a movie? I know I have.

It’s like nails on a chalkboard, completely ruining the experience. But on the flip side, well-written dialogue can transform a story. It’s the magic that makes characters leap off the page, immersing us in their world.

As a writer, I’m fascinated by the mechanics of great dialogue.

So here are 20 of the best examples of writing dialogue that brings your story to life.

Example 1: Dialogue that Reveals Character

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One of the most powerful functions of dialogue is to shed light on your characters’ personalities.

The way they speak – their word choice, tone, even their hesitations – can tell us so much about who they are. Check out this example:

“Look, I ain’t gonna sugarcoat this,” the detective growled, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the chair. “You were spotted leaving the scene, and the murder weapon’s got your prints all over it.”

Without any lengthy description, we get a sense of this detective as a no-nonsense, direct type of guy.

Example 2: Dialogue that Builds Tension

Dialogue can become this amazing tool to ratchet up the tension in a scene.

Short, clipped exchanges and carefully placed silences can leave the reader on the edge of their seat.

Here’s how it might play out:

“Do you hear that?” Sarah whispered. “Hear what?” A scratching noise echoed from the attic. Sarah’s eyes widened. “It’s coming back.”

The suspense is killing me just writing that!

Example 3: Dialogue that Drives the Plot

Conversations aren’t just about characters sitting around and chatting.

Great dialogue should actively push the story forward. It can set up a conflict, reveal key information, or change the course of events.

Take a look at this:

“I’ve made my decision,” the king declared, the crown heavy on his brow. “We go to war.”

A single line, and the whole trajectory of the story shifts.

Formatting Tips: The Basics

Now, before we get carried away, let’s cover some essential dialogue formatting rules.

Think of these as the grammar of a good conversation.

• Quotation Marks:  Yep, those little squiggles are your best friend. They signal to the reader: “Hey! Someone’s talking!”
• New Speaker, New Paragraph:  Whenever a different character starts talking, give them a new paragraph. It’s all about keeping things easy to follow.
• Dialogue Tags:  These are the little phrases like “he said” or “she replied.” Use them, but try not to overuse them. A well-placed action beat can often do a better job of showing who’s speaking.

Example 4: Dialogue that Creates Humor

Dialogue can be ridiculously funny when done well.

The key? Snappy exchanges, playful misunderstandings, and just a dash of absurdity. Consider this:

“I saw the weirdest thing at the grocery store today,” Tom said, “A woman arguing with a head of lettuce.” “Was she winning?” Lily asked, a grin playing on her lips.

You can almost hear the deadpan delivery, can’t you?

Example 5: Dialogue that Shows Relationships

The way characters speak to each other says a ton about the dynamics between them.

Is there warmth, hostility, an underlying power struggle? Dialogue can paint a crystal-clear picture. Imagine this exchange:

“You didn’t do the dishes again?” Sarah sighed, hands planted on her hips. “Aw, c’mon babe. I was busy,” Mike whined, avoiding her gaze.

We instantly sense the long-suffering tone from Sarah and the playful guilt from Mike.

Example 6: Dialogue with Subtext

The most interesting dialogue often has layers. What the characters say might not be exactly what they mean.

This is where subtext comes in – the unspoken thoughts and feelings bubbling beneath the surface.

Take this snippet:

“It’s a nice ring,” Emily said, her voice flat. “You don’t like it?” Mark’s brow furrowed. Emily shrugged. “It’s fine.”

Is Emily truly indifferent? Or is she masking disappointment, perhaps a sense of something not being quite right? Subtext makes us read between the lines.

Formatting Tips: Getting Fancy

Now, let’s spice things up with a few more advanced formatting tricks:

• Ellipses (…):  These little dots are perfect for showing a character trailing off, hesitating, or searching for words. Example: “I…I don’t know what to say.”
• Em Dashes (—):  These guys can interrupt a thought or indicate a sudden change in direction. Example: “I was going to apologize, but then — well, you’re still being a jerk.”
• Internal Dialogue:  Instead of quotation marks, sometimes you’ll want to italicize a character’s inner thoughts. Example:  Why did I say that? I’m such an idiot.

Cautionary Note

It’s important to remember: dialogue shouldn’t feel like an interrogation. Avoid rigid “question-answer, question-answer” patterns. Real conversations flow and meander naturally.

Example 7: Dialogue with Dialects and Accents

Regional dialects and accents can bring so much flavor to your characters, but it’s a delicate balance.

You want to add authenticity without it becoming a caricature or making it hard to understand.

Here’s a subtle example:

“Well, I’ll be darned,” drawled the farmer, squinting at the sky. “Looks like a storm’s brewin’.”

Notice how just a few word choices and a slight change in pronunciation hint at the speaker’s background.

Example 8: Dialogue in Groups

Writing conversations with more than two people can get chaotic fast. The key is clarity.

Here are a few tips:

• Strong Dialogue Tags:  Sometimes, you need to be more specific than just “he said” or “she said”. Example: “Don’t be ridiculous,” scoffed Sarah.
• Action Beats:  Break up chunks of dialogue with actions that show who’s speaking. Example: Tom slammed his fist on the table. “I won’t stand for this!”

Example 9: Dialogue Over the Phone (or Other Technology)

Conversations where characters aren’t physically together pose unique challenges.

You can’t rely on body language cues. Instead, focus on conveying tone and potential misunderstandings.

For instance:

“Hello?” Sarah’s voice crackled through the phone. A long pause. “Sarah, is that you?” “Mom? Why are you whispering?”

Instantly there’s a sense of distance and something not being quite right.

Example 10: Inner Monologue with a Twist

We often think of internal dialogue as a single character reflecting, but sometimes our inner voices can argue.

This can be a powerful way to showcase internal conflict.

Here’s how it might look:

You should just tell him how you feel, one voice chimed. Are you crazy? the other shrieked back. He’ll never feel the same way .

This creates a vivid picture of a character torn between opposing desires.

Example 11: Dialogue With a Manipulative Character

Manipulative characters often use language as a weapon.

They might use guilt trips, flattery, or veiled threats to get what they want.

Consider this:

“After everything I’ve done for you…” The old woman sighed, a flicker of disappointment in her eyes. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t expect gratitude.”

Notice how she doesn’t directly ask for anything, instead hinting at a debt, leaving the listener feeling uneasy and obligated.

Example 12: Dialogue Across Time Periods

If you’re writing historical fiction or anything with time travel elements, you’ll need to capture the distinct speech patterns of different eras.

Imagine this exchange:

“Gadzooks! What manner of contraption is this?” The Victorian gentleman exclaimed, staring in bewilderment at the smartphone. “It’s a phone,” the teenager replied, barely suppressing a laugh. “Let me show you.”

This little snippet highlights the potential for both humor and linguistic challenges when worlds collide.

Formatting Tip: Dialogue Without Tags

Sometimes, for a rapid-fire or dreamlike effect, you might want to ditch the “he said” or “she asked” altogether.

It’s a bold move, but it can be effective if done sparingly.

Check this out:

“Where are you going?” “Away.” “When will you be back?” “I don’t know.” “Please don’t leave me.”

This creates a sense of urgency, the raw exchange forcing us to focus solely on the words themselves.

Example 13: Dialogue that Shows Transformation

A great way to showcase how a character develops is through shifts in how they speak.

Maybe they become bolder, quieter, or their vocabulary changes.

Let’s see an example:

Scene 1: “I-I don’t know,” Emily whimpered, cowering in the corner. Scene 2 (Later in the story): “That’s it. I’m not taking this anymore!” Emily declared, her chin held high.

The dialogue itself reflects her transformation from victim to someone ready to stand up for herself.

Example 14: Dialogue that’s Just Plain Weird

It’s okay to get strange sometimes.

Absurdist humor or unsettling conversations can add a unique flavor to your story. Just be sure it fits the overall tone.

“Do you believe in cucumbers?” the man asked, his eyes wide and unblinking. “Excuse me?” “Cucumbers, my dear. Agents of the underground vegetable kingdom.”

This immediately creates a sense of oddness and perhaps a touch of unease. Is this guy crazy, or is there something more going on?

Example 15: Dialogue with a Purpose

Remember, good dialogue isn’t just about being entertaining.

It should move your story along. Here are some functions dialogue can serve:

• Providing Exposition:  Sometimes, you need to inform the reader of backstory or world-building details. Trickle information through natural conversation rather than an information dump.
• Foreshadowing:  Subtle hints within a conversation can foreshadow future events or create a sense of unease for the reader.
• Revealing a Twist:  A single line of dialogue can completely flip the script and reframe everything that came before.

Example 16: Dialogue with Non-Verbal Elements

So much of communication happens beyond just words.

Sighs, laughs, and gestures can add richness to dialogue on the page.

“I’m fine,” she said, crossing her arms and looking away.

Notice how the body language contradicts her words, hinting at inner turmoil.

Example 17: Silence as Dialogue

Sometimes, what isn’t said is the most powerful thing of all.

A pregnant pause or a character refusing to speak can convey volumes.

Imagine this:

“So, will you help me or not?” Tom pleaded. Sarah stared at him, her lips a thin line. Finally, she turned and walked away.

The lack of a verbal response speaks louder than any words could.

Example 18: Dialogue With Humorous Effect

A well-timed O.S. voice can deliver a funny remark or punchline, undercutting the seriousness of a scene or taking a moment in an unexpected comedic direction.

INT. CLASSROOM – DAY The teacher drones on about the causes of the American Revolution, his voice as dull as the worn textbook in front of him. KEVIN tries to stifle his yawns, failing miserably. STUDENT (O.S.) Is he ever going to stop talking? My brain just turned to mush. Snickers ripple through the class. The teacher pauses, a look of annoyance flickering across his face. Kevin shoots a desperate look towards the source of the O.S. voice.

• Timing is everything. The best comedic O.S. lines act as a witty reaction to something else happening in a scene. The student’s comment comes right as Kevin’s boredom peaks.
• Subverting expectations is funny. The audience expects the scene to continue with a stern reprimand for speaking out of turn, but the script doesn’t give us that. This leaves room for further humor.
• Consider the tone of the voice – sarcastic, matter-of-fact, or outright whiny? This adds to the comedic effect.

Example 19: Dialogue With Unexpected Reveals

Think of this as a surprise twist using O.S. dialogue.

The audience (and maybe even some characters) are led to believe one thing, only for an O.S. voice to reveal something completely unexpected, shifting the scene’s dynamic.

INT. POLICE INTERROGATION ROOM – NIGHTDETECTIVE HARRIS paces in front of a nervous SUSPECT. Photos of the crime scene are scattered on the table. HARRIS Don’t lie to me! We’ve got witnesses who saw you at the scene. SUSPECT I – I swear, I had nothing to do with it! I was… I was with my girlfriend. Harris leans in, a triumphant glint in her eyes. She claps her hands sharply, startling the suspect. WOMAN (O.S.) That’s a lie! He was nowhere near me last night! The suspect whips around. His face pales as we hear the sound of the interrogation room door swinging open…

• The power lies in the build-up. The initial dialogue and the characters’ reactions should lead the audience to believe one outcome, making the O.S. interruption all the more impactful.
• Consider who speaks the O.S. line. Is it someone the audience recognizes, or a totally new character whose identity becomes a new mystery?
• Play with the proximity of the voice. Is it right outside the room, adding to the dramatic reveal as the door opens, or is it more distant – perhaps a voice over an intercom – for an even more unsettling effect?

Example 20: Dialogue With a “Haunted” Feeling

Explanation: O.S. can be used to create an eerie or unsettling atmosphere, particularly in horror or psychological thrillers. This could be unexplained voices, creepy whispers, or sounds that hint at a supernatural (or simply unnerving) presence.

INT. OLD MANSION – NIGHTSARAH explores the abandoned mansion, flashlight cutting through the thick dust. Cobwebs cling to every surface. A faint WHISPER drifts through the air, seeming to come from everywhere at once. Sarah freezes. VOICE (O.S.) Get out… leave this place… Sarah’s breath catches in her throat. She hesitantly follows the direction of the voice, her flashlight beam trembling.

• Less is more. The vaguer and more inexplicable the O.S. voice, the more chilling it becomes.
• Layer sounds for a full creepy effect. Combine whispers with unexpected bangs, creaks, or the faint sound of footsteps following behind Sarah.
• Play with audience expectations. If the script initially leads the audience to think the house is merely abandoned, the O.S. voices become that much more terrifying.

Here is a good video about writing dialogue:

Additional Dialogue Tips & Tricks

• Read Your Dialogue Aloud:  This is the best way to catch awkward phrasing or unnatural rhythms. Our ears often pick up on what our eyes might miss.
• Less is More:  Don’t feel the need to have every single interaction be profound. Sometimes a simple “Hey” or “Thanks” can do the job just fine.
• Eavesdrop:  Paying attention to real-life conversations is fantastic research. Note the pauses, the filler words, the way people interrupt each other.

Final Thoughts: Writing Dialogue

Phew! We did it!

Does that feel like a solid collection of dialogue examples? We haven’t covered absolutely every scenario, but I hope these illustrate the vast potential within dialogue to bring your stories to life.

Read This Next:

• How To Use Action Tags in Dialogue: Ultimate Guide
• How Do Writers Fill a Natural Pause in Dialogue? [7 Crazy Effective Ways]
• Can You Start a Novel with Dialogue?
• How To Write A Southern Accent (17 Tips + Examples)
• How to Write a French Accent (13 Best Tips with Examples)

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Last updated on Jul 24, 2023

15 Examples of Great Dialogue (And Why They Work So Well)

Great dialogue is hard to pin down, but you know it when you hear or see it. In the earlier parts of this guide, we showed you some well-known tips and rules for writing dialogue. In this section, we'll show you those rules in action with 15 examples of great dialogue, breaking down exactly why they work so well.

1. Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered 

In the opening of Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered, we meet Willa Knox, a middle-aged and newly unemployed writer who has just inherited a ramshackle house. 

     “The simplest thing would be to tear it down,” the man said. “The house is a shambles.”      She took this news as a blood-rush to the ears: a roar of peasant ancestors with rocks in their fists, facing the evictor. But this man was a contractor. Willa had called him here and she could send him away. She waited out her panic while he stood looking at her shambles, appearing to nurse some satisfaction from his diagnosis. She picked out words.      “It’s not a living thing. You can’t just pronounce it dead. Anything that goes wrong with a structure can be replaced with another structure. Am I right?”      “Correct. What I am saying is that the structure needing to be replaced is all of it. I’m sorry. Your foundation is nonexistent.”

Alfred Hitchcock once described drama as "life with the boring bits cut out." In this passage, Kingsolver cuts out the boring parts of Willa's conversation with her contractor and brings us right to the tensest, most interesting part of the conversation.

By entering their conversation late , the reader is spared every tedious detail of their interaction.

Instead of a blow-by-blow account of their negotiations (what she needs done, when he’s free, how she’ll be paying), we’re dropped right into the emotional heart of the discussion. The novel opens with the narrator learning that the home she cherishes can’t be salvaged. 

By starting off in the middle of (relatively obscure) dialogue, it takes a moment for the reader to orient themselves in the story and figure out who is speaking, and what they’re speaking about. This disorientation almost mirrors Willa’s own reaction to the bad news, as her expectations for a new life in her new home are swiftly undermined.

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2. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice  

In the first piece of dialogue in Pride and Prejudice , we meet Mr and Mrs Bennet, as Mrs Bennet attempts to draw her husband into a conversation about neighborhood gossip.

     “My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”      Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.      “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”      Mr. Bennet made no answer.      “Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.      “You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”      This was invitation enough.      “Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

Austen’s dialogue is always witty, subtle, and packed with character. This extract from Pride and Prejudice is a great example of dialogue being used to develop character relationships . 

We instantly learn everything we need to know about the dynamic between Mr and Mrs Bennet’s from their first interaction: she’s chatty, and he’s the beleaguered listener who has learned to entertain her idle gossip, if only for his own sake (hence “you want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it”).

There is even a clear difference between the two characters visually on the page: Mr Bennet responds in short sentences, in simple indirect speech, or not at all, but this is “invitation enough” for Mrs Bennet to launch into a rambling and extended response, dominating the conversation in text just as she does audibly.

The fact that Austen manages to imbue her dialogue with so much character-building realism means we hardly notice the amount of crucial plot exposition she has packed in here. This heavily expository dialogue could be a drag to get through, but Austen’s colorful characterization means she slips it under the radar with ease, forwarding both our understanding of these people and the world they live in simultaneously.

3. Naomi Alderman, The Power

In The Power , young women around the world suddenly find themselves capable of generating and controlling electricity. In this passage, between two boys and a girl who just used those powers to light her cigarette.

     Kyle gestures with his chin and says, “Heard a bunch of guys killed a girl in Nebraska last week for doing that.”      “For smoking? Harsh.”      Hunter says, “Half the kids in school know you can do it.”      “So what?”      Hunter says, “Your dad could use you in his factory. Save money on electricity.”      “He’s not my dad.”      She makes the silver flicker at the ends of her fingers again. The boys watch.

Alderman here uses a show, don’t tell approach to expositional dialogue. Within this short exchange, we discover a lot about Allie, her personal circumstances, and the developing situation elsewhere. We learn that women are being punished harshly for their powers; that Allie is expected to be ashamed of those powers and keep them a secret, but doesn’t seem to care to do so; that her father is successful in industry; and that she has a difficult relationship with him. Using dialogue in this way prevents info-dumping backstory all at once, and instead helps us learn about the novel’s world in a natural way.

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4. Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Here, friends Tommy and Kathy have a conversation after Tommy has had a meltdown. After being bullied by a group of boys, he has been stomping around in the mud, the precise reaction they were hoping to evoke from him.

     “Tommy,” I said, quite sternly. “There’s mud all over your shirt.”      “So what?” he mumbled. But even as he said this, he looked down and noticed the brown specks, and only just stopped himself crying out in alarm. Then I saw the surprise register on his face that I should know about his feelings for the polo shirt.      “It’s nothing to worry about.” I said, before the silence got humiliating for him. “It’ll come off. If you can’t get it off yourself, just take it to Miss Jody.”      He went on examining his shirt, then said grumpily, “It’s nothing to do with you anyway.”

This episode from Never Let Me Go highlights the power of interspersing action beats within dialogue. These action beats work in several ways to add depth to what would otherwise be a very simple and fairly nondescript exchange.  Firstly, they draw attention to the polo shirt, and highlight its potential significance in the plot. Secondly, they help to further define Kathy’s relationship with Tommy. 

We learn through Tommy’s surprised reaction that he didn’t think Kathy knew how much he loved his seemingly generic polo shirt. This moment of recognition allows us to see that she cares for him and understands him more deeply than even he realized. Kathy breaking the silence before it can “humiliate” Tommy further emphasizes her consideration for him. While the dialogue alone might make us think Kathy is downplaying his concerns with pragmatic advice, it is the action beats that tell the true story here.

5. J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit  

The eponymous hobbit Bilbo is engaged in a game of riddles with the strange creature Gollum.

     "What have I got in my pocket?" he said aloud. He was talking to himself, but Gollum thought it was a riddle, and he was frightfully upset.       "Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?"      Bilbo seeing what had happened and having nothing better to ask stuck to his question. "What have I got in my pocket?" he said louder. "S-s-s-s-s," hissed Gollum. "It must give us three guesseses, my precious, three guesseses."      "Very well! Guess away!" said Bilbo.      "Handses!" said Gollum.      "Wrong," said Bilbo, who had luckily just taken his hand out again. "Guess again!"      "S-s-s-s-s," said Gollum, more upset than ever. 

Tolkein’s dialogue for Gollum is a masterclass in creating distinct character voices . By using a repeated catchphrase (“my precious”) and unconventional spelling and grammar to reflect his unusual speech pattern, Tolkien creates an idiosyncratic, unique (and iconic) speech for Gollum. This vivid approach to formatting dialogue, which is almost a transliteration of Gollum's sounds, allows readers to imagine his speech pattern and practically hear it aloud.

We wouldn’t recommend using this extreme level of idiosyncrasy too often in your writing — it can get wearing for readers after a while, and Tolkien deploys it sparingly, as Gollum’s appearances are limited to a handful of scenes. However, you can use Tolkien’s approach as inspiration to create (slightly more subtle) quirks of speech for your own characters.

6. F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The narrator, Nick has just done his new neighbour Gatsby a favor by inviting his beloved Daisy over to tea. Perhaps in return, Gatsby then attempts to make a shady business proposition.

     “There’s another little thing,” he said uncertainly, and hesitated.      “Would you rather put it off for a few days?” I asked.      “Oh, it isn’t about that. At least —” He fumbled with a series of beginnings. “Why, I thought — why, look here, old sport, you don’t make much money, do you?”      “Not very much.”      This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.       “I thought you didn’t, if you’ll pardon my — you see, I carry on a little business on the side, a little side line, if you understand. And I thought that if you don’t make very much — You’re selling bonds, aren’t you, old sport?”      “Trying to.” 

This dialogue from The Great Gatsby is a great example of how to make dialogue sound natural. Gatsby tripping over his own words (even interrupting himself , as marked by the em-dashes) not only makes his nerves and awkwardness palpable but also mimics real speech. Just as real people often falter and make false starts when they’re speaking off the cuff, Gatsby too flounders, giving us insight into his self-doubt; his speech isn’t polished and perfect, and neither is he despite all his efforts to appear so.

Fitzgerald also creates a distinctive voice for Gatsby by littering his speech with the character's signature term of endearment, “old sport”. We don’t even really need dialogue markers to know who’s speaking here — a sign of very strong characterization through dialogue.

7. Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet  

In this first meeting between the two heroes of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, John is introduced to Sherlock while the latter is hard at work in the lab.

      “How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”      “How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.      “Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself. “The question now is about hemoglobin. No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine?”     “It is interesting, chemically, no doubt,” I answered, “but practically— ”      “Why, man, it is the most practical medico-legal discovery for years. Don’t you see that it gives us an infallible test for blood stains. Come over here now!” He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. “Let us have some fresh blood,” he said, digging a long bodkin into his finger, and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette. “Now, I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction.” As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals, and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar.      “Ha! ha!” he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. “What do you think of that?”

This passage uses a number of the key techniques for writing naturalistic and exciting dialogue, including characters speaking over one another and the interspersal of action beats. 

Sherlock cutting off Watson to launch into a monologue about his blood experiment shows immediately where Sherlock’s interest lies — not in small talk, or the person he is speaking to, but in his own pursuits, just like earlier in the conversation when he refuses to explain anything to John and is instead self-absorbedly “chuckling to himself”. This helps establish their initial rapport (or lack thereof) very quickly.

Breaking up that monologue with snippets of him undertaking the forensic tests allows us to experience the full force of his enthusiasm over it without having to read an uninterrupted speech about the ins and outs of a science experiment.

Starting to think you might like to read some Sherlock? Check out our guide to the Sherlock Holmes canon !

8. Brandon Taylor, Real Life

Here, our protagonist Wallace is questioned by Ramon, a friend-of-a-friend, over the fact that he is considering leaving his PhD program.

     Wallace hums. “I mean, I wouldn’t say that I want to leave, but I’ve thought about it, sure.”     “Why would you do that? I mean, the prospects for… black people, you know?”        “What are the prospects for black people?” Wallace asks, though he knows he will be considered the aggressor for this question.

Brandon Taylor’s Real Life is drawn from the author’s own experiences as a queer Black man, attempting to navigate the unwelcoming world of academia, navigating the world of academia, and so it’s no surprise that his dialogue rings so true to life — it’s one of the reasons the novel is one of our picks for must-read books by Black authors . 

This episode is part of a pattern where Wallace is casually cornered and questioned by people who never question for a moment whether they have the right to ambush him or criticize his choices. The use of indirect dialogue at the end shows us this is a well-trodden path for Wallace: he has had this same conversation several times, and can pre-empt the exact outcome.

This scene is also a great example of the dramatic significance of people choosing not to speak. The exchange happens in front of a big group, but — despite their apparent discomfort —  nobody speaks up to defend Wallace, or to criticize Ramon’s patronizing microaggressions. Their silence is deafening, and we get a glimpse of Ramon’s isolation due to the complacency of others, all due to what is not said in this dialogue example.

9. Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants

In this short story, an unnamed man and a young woman discuss whether or not they should terminate a pregnancy while sitting on a train platform.

     “Well,” the man said, “if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s perfectly simple.”      “And you really want to?”      “I think it’s the best thing to do. But I don’t want you to do it if you really don’t want to.”      “And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me?”      “I love you now. You know I love you.”      “I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it?”      “I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry.”      “If I do it you won’t ever worry?”      “I won’t worry about that because it’s perfectly simple.”

This example of dialogue from Hemingway’s short story Hills Like White Elephants moves at quite a clip. The conversation quickly bounces back and forth between the speakers, and the call-and-response format of the woman asking and the man answering is effective because it establishes a clear dynamic between the two speakers: the woman is the one seeking reassurance and trying to understand the man’s feelings, while he is the one who is ultimately in control of the situation.

Note the sparing use of dialogue markers: this minimalist approach keeps the dialogue brisk, and we can still easily understand who is who due to the use of a new paragraph when the speaker changes .

Like this classic author’s style? Head over to our selection of the 11 best Ernest Hemingway books .

10. Madeline Miller, Circe

In Madeline Miller’s retelling of Greek myth, we witness a conversation between the mythical enchantress Circe and Telemachus (son of Odysseus).

     “You do not grieve for your father?”        “I do. I grieve that I never met the father everyone told me I had.”           I narrowed my eyes. “Explain.”      “I am no storyteller.”      “I am not asking for a story. You have come to my island. You owe me truth.”       A moment passed, and then he nodded. “You will have it.” 

This short and punchy exchange hits on a lot of the stylistic points we’ve covered so far. The conversation is a taut tennis match between the two speakers as they volley back and forth with short but impactful sentences, and unnecessary dialogue tags have been shaved off . It also highlights Circe’s imperious attitude, a result of her divine status. Her use of short, snappy declaratives and imperatives demonstrates that she’s used to getting her own way and feels no need to mince her words.

11. Andre Aciman, Call Me By Your Name

This is an early conversation between seventeen-year-old Elio and his family’s handsome new student lodger, Oliver.

     What did one do around here? Nothing. Wait for summer to end. What did one do in the winter, then?      I smiled at the answer I was about to give. He got the gist and said, “Don’t tell me: wait for summer to come, right?”      I liked having my mind read. He’d pick up on dinner drudgery sooner than those before him.      “Actually, in the winter the place gets very gray and dark. We come for Christmas. Otherwise it’s a ghost town.”      “And what else do you do here at Christmas besides roast chestnuts and drink eggnog?”      He was teasing. I offered the same smile as before. He understood, said nothing, we laughed.      He asked what I did. I played tennis. Swam. Went out at night. Jogged. Transcribed music. Read.      He said he jogged too. Early in the morning. Where did one jog around here? Along the promenade, mostly. I could show him if he wanted.      It hit me in the face just when I was starting to like him again: “Later, maybe.”

Dialogue is one of the most crucial aspects of writing romance — what’s a literary relationship without some flirty lines? Here, however, Aciman gives us a great example of efficient dialogue. By removing unnecessary dialogue and instead summarizing with narration, he’s able to confer the gist of the conversation without slowing down the pace unnecessarily. Instead, the emphasis is left on what’s unsaid, the developing romantic subtext. 

Furthermore, the fact that we receive this scene in half-reported snippets rather than as an uninterrupted transcript emphasizes the fact that this is Elio’s own recollection of the story, as the manipulation of the dialogue in this way serves to mimic the nostalgic haziness of memory.

Understanding Point of View

Learn to master different POVs and choose the best for your story.

12. George Eliot, Middlemarch

Two of Eliot’s characters, Mary and Rosamond, are out shopping,

     When she and Rosamond happened both to be reflected in the glass, she said laughingly —      “What a brown patch I am by the side of you, Rosy! You are the most unbecoming companion.”      “Oh no! No one thinks of your appearance, you are so sensible and useful, Mary. Beauty is of very little consequence in reality,” said Rosamond, turning her head towards Mary, but with eyes swerving towards the new view of her neck in the glass.      “You mean my beauty,” said Mary, rather sardonically.       Rosamond thought, “Poor Mary, she takes the kindest things ill.” Aloud she said, “What have you been doing lately?”      “I? Oh, minding the house — pouring out syrup — pretending to be amiable and contented — learning to have a bad opinion of everybody.”

This excerpt, a conversation between the level-headed Mary and vain Rosamond, is an example of dialogue that develops character relationships naturally. Action descriptors allow us to understand what is really happening in the conversation. 

Whilst the speech alone might lead us to believe Rosamond is honestly (if clumsily) engaging with her friend, the description of her simultaneously gazing at herself in a mirror gives us insight not only into her vanity, but also into the fact that she is not really engaged in her conversation with Mary at all.

The use of internal dialogue cut into the conversation (here formatted with quotation marks rather than the usual italics ) lets us know what Rosamond is actually thinking, and the contrast between this and what she says aloud is telling. The fact that we know she privately realizes she has offended Mary, but quickly continues the conversation rather than apologizing, is emphatic of her character. We get to know Rosamond very well within this short passage, which is a hallmark of effective character-driven dialogue.

13. John Steinbeck, The Winter of our Discontent

Here, Mary (speaking first) reacts to her husband Ethan’s attempts to discuss his previous experiences as a disciplined soldier, his struggles in subsequent life, and his feeling of impending change.

     “You’re trying to tell me something.”      “Sadly enough, I am. And it sounds in my ears like an apology. I hope it is not.”      “I’m going to set out lunch.”

Steinbeck’s Winter of our Discontent is an acute study of alienation and miscommunication, and this exchange exemplifies the ways in which characters can fail to communicate, even when they’re speaking. The pair speaking here are trapped in a dysfunctional marriage which leaves Ethan feeling isolated, and part of his loneliness comes from the accumulation of exchanges such as this one. Whenever he tries to communicate meaningfully with his wife, she shuts the conversation down with a complete non sequitur. 

We expect Mary’s “you’re trying to tell me something” to be followed by a revelation, but Ethan is not forthcoming in his response, and Mary then exits the conversation entirely. Nothing is communicated, and the jarring and frustrating effect of having our expectations subverted goes a long way in mirroring Ethan’s own frustration.

Just like Ethan and Mary, we receive no emotional pay-off, and this passage of characters talking past one another doesn’t further the plot as we hope it might, but instead gives us insight into the extent of these characters’ estrangement.

14. Bret Easton Ellis , Less Than Zero

The disillusioned main character of Bret Easton Ellis’ debut novel, Clay, here catches up with a college friend, Daniel, whom he hasn’t seen in a while. 

     He keeps rubbing his mouth and when I realize that he’s not going to answer me, I ask him what he’s been doing.      “Been doing?”      “Yeah.”      “Hanging out.”      “Hanging out where?”      “Where? Around.”

Less Than Zero is an elegy to conversation, and this dialogue is an example of the many vacuous exchanges the protagonist engages in, seemingly just to fill time. The whole book is deliberately unpoetic and flat, and depicts the lives of disaffected youths in 1980s LA. Their misguided attempts to fill the emptiness within them with drink and drugs are ultimately fruitless, and it shows in their conversations: in truth, they have nothing to say to one another at all.

This utterly meaningless exchange would elsewhere be considered dead weight to a story. Here, rather than being fat in need of trimming, the empty conversation is instead thematically resonant.

15. Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

The young narrator of du Maurier’s classic gothic novel here has a strained conversation with Robert, one of the young staff members at her new husband’s home, the unwelcoming Manderley.

     “Has Mr. de Winter been in?” I said.      “Yes, Madam,” said Robert; “he came in just after two, and had a quick lunch, and then went out again. He asked for you and Frith said he thought you must have gone down to see the ship.”      “Did he say when he would be back again?” I asked.      “No, Madam.”      “Perhaps he went to the beach another way,” I said; “I may have missed him.”      “Yes, Madam,” said Robert.      I looked at the cold meat and the salad. I felt empty but not hungry. I did not want cold meat now. “Will you be taking lunch?” said Robert.      “No,” I said, “No, you might bring me some tea, Robert, in the library. Nothing like cakes or scones. Just tea and bread and butter.”      “Yes, Madam.”

We’re including this one in our dialogue examples list to show you the power of everything Du Maurier doesn’t do: rather than cycling through a ton of fancy synonyms for “said”, she opts for spare dialogue and tags. 

This interaction's cold, sparse tone complements the lack of warmth the protagonist feels in the moment depicted here. By keeping the dialogue tags simple , the author ratchets up the tension —  without any distracting flourishes taking the reader out of the scene. The subtext of the conversation is able to simmer under the surface, and we aren’t beaten over the head with any stage direction extras.

The inclusion of three sentences of internal dialogue in the middle of the dialogue (“I looked at the cold meat and the salad. I felt empty but not hungry. I did not want cold meat now.”) is also a masterful touch. What could have been a single sentence is stretched into three, creating a massive pregnant pause before Robert continues speaking, without having to explicitly signpost one. Manipulating the pace of dialogue in this way and manufacturing meaningful silence is a great way of adding depth to a scene.

Phew! We've been through a lot of dialogue, from first meetings to idle chit-chat to confrontations, and we hope these dialogue examples have been helpful in illustrating some of the most common techniques.

If you’re looking for more pointers on creating believable and effective dialogue, be sure to check out our course on writing dialogue. Or, if you find you learn better through examples, you can look at our list of 100 books to read before you die — it’s packed full of expert storytellers who’ve honed the art of dialogue.

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How to Write Dialogue in a Narrative Paragraph

Hayley Milliman

What is Dialogue?

How to write dialogue, how to punctuate your dialogue, periods and commas, question marks and exclamation points, final thoughts.

Dialogue is the written conversational exchange between two or more characters.

Conventional English grammar rules tell us that you should always start a new paragraph when someone speaks in your writing.

“Let’s get the heck out of here right now,” Mary said, turning away from the mayhem.

John looked around the pub. “Maybe you’re right,” he said and followed her towards the door.

Sometimes, though, in the middle of a narrative paragraph, your main character needs to speak.

Mary ducked away from flying fists. The fight at the pub was getting out of control. One man was grabbing bar stools and throwing them at others, and while she watched, another one who you could tell worked out regularly grabbed men by their shirt collars and tossed them out of the way. Almost hit by one flying person, she turned to John and said, “Let’s get the heck out of here right now.”

In my research, I couldn’t find any hard and fast rules that govern how to use dialogue in the middle of a narrative paragraph. It all depends on what style manual your publisher or editorial staff follow.

For example, in the Chicago Manual of Style , putting dialogue in the middle of paragraphs depends on the context. As in the above example, if the dialogue is a natural continuation of the sentences that come before, it can be included in your paragraph. The major caveat is if someone new speaks after that, you start a new paragraph and indent it.

On the other hand, if the dialogue you’re writing departs from the sentences that come before it, you should start a new paragraph and indent the dialogue.

The fight at the pub was getting out of control. One man was grabbing bar stools and throwing them at others, and another one who you could tell worked out regularly grabbed men by their shirt collars and tossed them out of the way.

Punctuation for dialogue stays consistent whether it’s included in your paragraph or set apart as a separate paragraph. We have a great article on how to punctuate your dialogue here: Where Does Punctuation Go in Dialogue?

It’s often a stylistic choice whether to include your dialogue as part of the paragraph. If you want your dialogue to be part of the scene described in preceding sentences, you can include it.

But if you want your dialogue to stand out from the action, start it in the next paragraph.

Dialogue is a fantastic way to bring your readers into the midst of the action. They can picture the main character talking to someone in their mind’s eye, and it gives them a glimpse into how your character interacts with others.

That said, dialogue is hard to punctuate, especially since there are different rules for different punctuation marks—because nothing in English grammar is ever easy, right?

We’re going to try to make this as easy as possible. So we’ll start with the hardest punctuation marks to understand.

For American English, periods and commas always go inside your quotation marks, and commas are used to separate your dialogue tag from the actual dialogue when it comes at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle. Here are a few examples:

Nancy said, “Let’s go to the park today since the weather is so beautiful.”

“Let’s go to the park today since the weather is so beautiful,” she said.

“Let’s go to the park today,” she said, “since the weather is so beautiful.”

British English puts the periods and commas inside the quotation marks if they’re actually part of the quoted words or sentence. Consider the following example:

• She sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, the theme song from The Wizard of Oz.

In the above example, the comma after “Rainbow” is not part of the quoted material and thus belongs outside the quotation marks.

But for most cases when you’re punctuating dialogue, the commas and periods belong inside the quotation marks.

Where these punctuation marks go depends on the meaning of your sentence. If your main character is asking someone a question or exclaiming about something, the punctuation marks belongs inside the quotation marks.

Nancy asked, “Does anyone want to go to the park today?”

Marija said, “That’s fantastic news!”

“Please say you’re still my friend!” Anna said.

“Can we just leave now?” asked Henry.

But if the question mark or exclamation point is for the sentence as a whole instead of just the words inside the quotation marks, they belong outside of the quotes.

Does your physical therapist always say to his patients, “You just need to try harder”?

Do you agree with the saying, “All’s fair in love and war”?

Single Quotation Marks

Only use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes, such as when a character is repeating something someone else has said. Single quotes are never used for any other purpose.

Avery said, “I saw a sign that read ‘Welcome to America’s Greatest City in the Midwest’ when I entered town this morning.”

“I heard Mona say to her mom, ‘You know nothing whatsoever about me,’ ” said Jennifer.

Some experts put a space after the single quote and before the main quotation mark like in the above example to make it easier for the reader to understand.

Here’s a trickier example of single quotation marks, question marks, and ending punctuation, just to mix things up a little.

• Mark said, “I heard her ask her lawyer, ‘Am I free to go?’ after the verdict was read this morning.”

Perfectly clear, right? Let us know some of your trickiest dialogue punctuation situations in the comments below.

Are you prepared to write your novel? Download this free book now:

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Hayley is the Head of Education and Community at ProWritingAid. Prior to joining this team, Hayley spent several years as an elementary school teacher and curriculum developer in Memphis, TN. When Hayley isn't hunched over her keyboard, you can find her figure skating at the ice rink or hiking with her dog.

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How to Write Dialogue: Rules, Examples, and 8 Tips for Engaging Dialogue

by Fija Callaghan

You’ll often hear fiction writers talking about “character-driven stories”—stories where the strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations of the central cast of characters stay with us long after the book is closed. But what drives character, and how do we create characters that leave long-lasting impressions?

The answer lies in dialogue : the device used by our characters to communicate with each other. Powerful dialogue can elevate a story and subtly reveal important information, but poorly written dialogue can send your work straight to the slush bin. Let’s look at what dialogue is in writing, how to properly format dialogue, and how to make your characters’ dialogue the best it can be.

What is dialogue in a story?

Dialogue is the verbal exchange between two or more characters. In most fiction, the exchange is in the form of a spoken conversation. However, conversations in a story can also be things like letters, text messages, telepathy, or even sign language. Any moment where two characters speak or connect with each other through their choice of words, they’re engaging in dialogue.

Why does dialogue matter in a story?

We use dialogue in a story to reveal new information about the plot, characters, and story world. Great dialogue is essential to character development and helps move the plot forward in a story.

Writing good dialogue is a great way to sneak exposition into your story without stating it overtly to the reader; you can also use tools like dialect and diction in your dialogue to communicate more detail about your characters.

Through a character’s dialogue, we can learn about their motivations, relationships, and understanding of the world around them.

A character won’t always say what they mean (more on dialogue subtext below), but everything they say will serve some larger purpose in the story. If your dialogue is well-written, the reader will absorb this information without even realizing it. If your dialogue is clunky, however, it will stand out and pull your reader away from your story.

Rules for writing dialogue

Before we get into how to make your dialogue realistic and engaging, let’s make sure you’ve got the basics down: how to properly format dialogue in a story. We’ll look at how to punctuate dialogue, how to write dialogue correctly when using a question mark or exclamation point, and some helpful dialogue writing examples.

Here are the need-to-know rules for formatting dialogue in writing.

Enclose lines of dialogue in double quotation marks

This is the most essential rule in basic dialogue punctuation. When you write dialogue in North American English, a spoken line will have a set of double quotation marks around it. Here’s a simple dialogue example:

“Were you at the party last night?”

Any punctuation such as periods, question marks, and exclamation marks will also go inside the quotation marks. The quotation marks give a visual clue to the reader that this line is spoken out loud.

In European or British English, however, you’ll often see single quotation marks being used instead of double quotation marks. All the other rules stay the same.

Enclose nested dialogue in single quotation marks

Nested dialogue is when one line of dialogue happens inside another line of dialogue—when someone is verbally quoting someone else. In North American English, you’d use single quotation marks to identify where the new dialogue line starts and stops, like this:

“And then, do you know what he said to me? Right to my face, he said, ‘I stayed home all night.’ As if I didn’t even see him.”

The double and single quotation marks give the reader clues as to who’s speaking. In European or British English, the quotation marks would be reversed; you’d use single quotation marks on the outside, and double quotation marks on the inside.

Every speaker gets a new paragraph

Every time you switch to a new speaker, you end the line where it is and start a new line. Here are some dialogue examples to show you how it looks:

“Were you at the party last night?” “No, I stayed home all night.”

The same is true if the new “speaker” is only in focus because of their action. You can think of the paragraphs like camera angles, each one focusing on a different person:

“Were you at the party last night?” “No, I stayed home all night.” She raised a single, threatening eyebrow. “Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and watched Netflix instead.”

If you kept the action on the same line as the dialogue, it would get confusing and make it look like she was the one saying it. Giving each character a new paragraph keeps the speakers clear and distinct.

Use em-dashes when dialogue gets cut short

If your character begins to speak but is interrupted, you’ll break off their line of dialogue with an em-dash, like this:

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and—” “Is that really what happened?”

Be careful with this one, because many word processors will treat your em-dash like the beginning of a new sentence and attach your closing quotation marks backwards:

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and—“

You may need to keep an eye out and adjust as you go along.

In this dialogue example, the new speaker doesn’t lead with an em-dash; they just start speaking like normal. The only time you’ll ever open a line of dialogue with an em-dash is if the speaker who’s been cut off continues with what they were saying:

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling that well, so I just stayed in and—” “Is that really what happened?” “—watched Netflix instead. Yes, that’s what happened.”

This shows the reader that there’s actually only one line of dialogue, but it’s been cut in the middle by another speaker.

Each line of dialogue is indented

Every time you give your speaker a new paragraph, it’s indented from the left-hand side. Many word processors will do this automatically. The only exception is if your dialogue is opening your story or a new section of your story, such as a chapter; these will always start at the far left margin of the page, whether they’re dialogue or narration.

Long speeches don’t use use closing quotation marks until the end

Most writers favor shorter lines of dialogue in their writing, but sometimes you might need to give your character a longer one—for instance, if the character speaking is giving a speech or telling a story. In these cases, you might choose to break up their speech into shorter paragraphs the way you would if you were writing regular narrative.

However, here the punctuation gets a bit weird. You’ll begin the character’s dialogue with a double quotation mark, like normal. But you won’t use a double quotation mark at the end of the paragraph, because they haven’t finished speaking yet. But! You’ll use another opening quotation mark at the beginning of the subsequent paragraph. This means that you may use several opening double quotation marks for your character’s speech, but only ever one closing quotation mark.

If your character is telling a story that involves people talking, remember to use single quotation marks for your dialogue-within-dialogue as we looked at above.

Sometimes these dialogue formatting rules are easier to catch later on, during the editing process. When you’re writing, worry less about using the exact dialogue punctuation and more about writing great dialogue that supports your character development and moves the story forward.

How to use dialogue tags

Dialogue tags help identify the speaker. They’re especially important if you have a group of people all talking together, and it can get pretty confusing for the reader trying to keep everybody straight. If you’re using a speech tag after your line of dialogue—he said, she said, and so forth—you’ll end your sentence with a comma, like this:

“No, I stayed home all night,” he said.

But if you’re using an action to identify the person speaking instead, you’ll punctuate the sentence like normal and start a new sentence to describe the action taking place:

“No, I stayed home all night.” He looked down at his feet.

The dialogue tags and action tags always follow in the same paragraph. When you move your story lens to a new person, you’ll switch to a new paragraph. Each line where a new person speaks propels the story forward.

When to use capitals in dialogue tags

You may have noticed in the two examples above that one dialogue tag begins with a lowercase letter, and one—which is technically called an action tag—begins with a capital letter. Confusing? The rules are simple once you get a little practice.

When you use a dialogue tag like “he said,” “she said,” “he whispered,” or “she shouted,” you’re using these as modifiers to your sentence—dressing it up with a little clarity. They’re an extension of the sentence the person was speaking. That’s why you separate them with a comma and keep going.

With an action tag , you’re ending one sentence and beginning a whole new one. Each sentence represents two distinct moments in the story. That’s why you end the first sentence with a period, and then open the next one with a capital letter.

If you’re not sure, try reading them out loud:

“No, I stayed home all night,” he said. “No, I stayed home all night.” He looked down at his feet.

Since you can’t hear quotation marks out loud, the way you say them will show you if they’re one sentence or two. In the first example, you can hear how the sentence keeps going after the dialogue ends. In the second example, you can hear how one sentence comes to a full stop and another one begins.

But what if your dialogue tag comes before the dialogue, instead of after? In this case, the dialogue is always capitalized because the speaker is beginning a new sentence:

He said, “No, I stayed home all night.” He looked down at his feet. “No, I stayed home all night.”

You’ll still use a comma after the dialogue tag and a period after the action tag, just like if you’d separate them if you were putting your tag at the end.

If you’re not sure, ask yourself if your leading tag sounds like a full sentence or a partial sentence. If it sounds like a partial sentence, it gets a comma. If it reads like a full sentence that stands on its own, it gets a period.

External vs. internal dialogue

All of the dialogue we’ve looked at so far is external dialogue, which is directed from one character to another. The other type of dialogue is internal dialogue, or inner dialogue, where a character is talking to themselves. You’ll use this when you want to show what a character is thinking, but other characters can’t hear.

Usually, internal dialogue will be written in italics to distinguish it from the rest of the text. That shows the reader that the line is happening inside the character’s head. For example:

It’s not a big deal, she thought. It’s just a new school. It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.

Here you can see that the dialogue tag is used in the same way, just as if it was a line of external dialogue. However, “she thought” is written in regular text because it’s not a part of what the character is thinking. This helps keep everything clear for the reader.

In your story, you can play with using contrasting internal and external dialogue to show that what your characters say isn’t always what they mean. You may also choose to use this internal dialogue formatting if you’re writing dialogue between two or more characters that isn’t spoken out loud—for instance, telepathically or by sign language.

8 tips for creating engaging dialogue in a story

Now that you’ve mastered the mechanics of how to write dialogue, let’s look at how to create convincing, compelling dialogue that will elevate your story.

1. Listen to people talk

To write convincingly about people, you’ll first need to know something about them. The work of great writers is often characterized by their insight into humanity; you read them and think, “Yes, this is exactly what people are like.” You can begin accumulating your own insight by listening to what real people say to each other.

You can go to any public place where people are likely to gather and converse: cafés, art galleries, political events, dimly lit pubs, bookshops. Record snippets of conversation, pay attention to how people’s voices change as they move from speaking to one person to another, try to imagine what it is they’re not saying, the words simmering just under the surface.

By listening to stories unfold in real time, you’ll have a better idea of how to recreate them in your writing—and inspiration for some new stories, too.

2. Give each spoken line a purpose

Here is something that actors have drilled into their heads from their first day at drama school, and writers would do well to remember it too: every single line of dialogue has a hidden motivation. Every time your character speaks, they’re trying to achieve something, either overtly or covertly.

Small talk is rare in fiction, because it doesn’t advance the plot or reveal something about your characters. The exception is when your characters are using their small talk for a specific purpose, such as to put off talking about the real issue, to disarm someone, or to pretend they belong somewhere they don’t.

When writing your own dialogue, ask yourself what the line accomplishes in the story. If you come up blank, it probably doesn’t need to be there. Words need to earn their place on the page.

3. Embrace subtext

In real life, we rarely say exactly what we really mean. The reality of polite society is that we’ve evolved to speak in circles around our true intentions, afraid of the consequences of speaking our mind. Your characters will be no different. If your protagonist is trying to tell their best friend they’re in love with them, for instance, they’ll come up with about fifty different ways to say it before speaking the deceptively simple words themselves.

To write better dialogue, try exploring different ways of moving your characters around what’s really being said, layering text and subtext side by side. The reader will love picking apart the conversation between your characters and deducing what’s really happening underneath (incidentally, this is also the place where fan fiction is born).

4. Keep names to a minimum

You may notice that on television, in moments of great upheaval, the characters will communicate exactly how important the moment is by saying each other’s names in dramatic bursts of anger/passion/fear/heartbreak/shock. In real life, we say each other’s names very rarely; saying someone’s name out loud can actually be a surprisingly intimate experience.

Names may be a necessary evil right at the beginning of your story so your reader knows who’s who, but after you’ve established your cast, try to include names in dialogue only when it makes sense to do so. If you’re not sure, try reading the dialogue out loud to see if it sounds like something someone would actually say (we’ll talk more about reading out loud below).

5. Prune unnecessary words

This is one area where reality and story differ. In life, dialogue is full of filler words: “Um, uh, well, so yeah, then I was like, erm, huh?” You may have noticed this when you practiced listening to dialogue, above. We won’t say there’s never a place for these words in fiction, but like all words in storytelling, they need to earn their place. You might find filler words an effective tool for showing something about one particular character, or about one particular moment, but you’ll generally find that you use them a lot less than people really do in everyday speech.

When you’re reviewing your characters’ dialogue, remember the hint above: each line needs a purpose. It’s the same for each word. Keep only the ones that contribute something to the story.

6. Vary word choices and rhythms

The greatest dialogue examples in writing use distinctive character voices; each character sounds a little bit different, because they have their own personality.

This can be tricky to master, but an easy way to get started is to look at the word choice and rhythm for each character. You might have one character use longer words and run-on sentences, while another uses smaller words and simple, single-clause sentences. You might have one lean on colloquial regional dialect, where another sounds more cosmopolitan. Play around with different ways to develop characters and give each one their own voice.

7. Be consistent for each character

When you do find a solid, believable voice for your character, make sure that it stays consistent throughout your entire story. It’s easy to set a story aside for a while, then return to it and forget some of the work you did in distinguishing your characters’ dialogue. You might find it helpful to write down some notes about the way each character speaks so you can refer back to it later.

The exception, of course, is if your character’s speech pattern goes through a transformation over the course of the story, like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady . In this case, you can use your character’s distinctive voice to communicate a major change. But as with all things in writing, make sure that it comes from intention and not from forgetfulness.

8. Read your dialogue out loud

After you’ve written a scene between two or more characters, you can take the dialogue for a trial run by speaking it out loud. Ask yourself, does the dialogue sound realistic? Are there any moments where it drags or feels forced? Does the voice feel natural for each character? You’ll often find there are snags you miss in your writing that only become apparent when read out loud. Bonus: this is great practice for when you become rich and famous and do live readings at bookshops.

3 mistakes to avoid when writing dialogue

Easy, right? But there are also a few pitfalls that new writers often encounter when writing dialogue that can drag down an otherwise compelling story. Here are the things to watch out for when crafting your story dialogue.

1. Too much exposition

Exposition is one of the more demanding literary devices , and one of the ones most likely to trip up new writers. Dialogue is a good place to sneak in some information about your story—but subtlety is essential. This is one place where the adage “show, don’t tell” really shines.

Consider these dialogue examples:

“How is she, Doctor?” “Well Mr. Stuffington, I don’t have to remind you that your daughter, the sole heiress to your estate and currently engaged to the Baron of Flippingshire, has suffered a grievous injury when she fell from her horse last Sunday. We don’t need to discuss right now whether or not you think her jealous maid was responsible; what matters is your daughter’s well being. As to your question, I’m afraid it’s very unlikely that she’ll ever walk again.” Can’t you just feel your arm aching to throw the poor book across the room? There’s a lot of important information here, but you can find subtler ways to work it into your story. Let’s try again: “How is she, Doctor?” “Well Mr. Stuffington, your daughter took quite a blow from that horse—worse than we initially thought. I’m afraid it’s very unlikely that she’ll ever walk again.” “And what am I supposed to say to Flippingshire?” “The Baron? I suppose you’ll have to tell him that his future wife has lost the use of her legs.”

And so forth. To create good dialogue exposition, look for little ways to work in the details of your story, instead of piling it up in one great clump.

2. Too much small talk

We looked at how each line of dialogue needs a specific purpose above. Very often small talk in a story happens because the writer doesn’t know what the scene is about. Small talk doesn’t move the scene along unless it’s there for a reason. If you’re not sure, ask yourself what each character wants in this moment.

For example, imagine you’re in an office, and two characters are talking by the water cooler. How was your weekend, what did you think of the game, how’s your wife doing, are those new shoes, etc etc. Can’t you just feel the reader’s will to live slipping away?

But what about this: your characters are talking by the water cooler—Character A and Character B. Character A knows that his friend is inside Character B’s office looking for evidence of corporate espionage, so A is doing everything he can to stop B from going in. How was your weekend, what did you think of the game, how’s your wife doing, are those new shoes, literally anything just to keep him talking. Suddenly these benign little phrases have a purpose.

If you find your characters slipping into small talk, double check that it’s there for a purpose, and not just a crutch to keep you from moving forward in your scene. When writing dialogue, Make each line of dialogue earn its place.

3. Too much repetition

Variation is the spice of a good story. To keep your readers engaged, avoid using the same sentence structure and the same dialogue tags over and over again. Using “he said” and “she said” is effective and clear cut, but only for about three beats. After that, try switching to an action tag instead or letting the line of dialogue stand on its own.

You can also experiment with varying the length of your sentences or groupings of sentences. By changing up the rhythm of your story regularly, you’ll keep it feeling fresh and present for the reader.

Effective dialogue examples from literature

With all of these tips and tricks in mind, let’s look at how other writers have used good dialogue to elevate their stories.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine , by Gail Honeyman

“I’m going to pick up a carryout and head round to my mate Andy’s. A few of us usually hang out there on Saturday nights, fire up the playstation, have a smoke and a few beers.” “Sounds utterly delightful,” I said. “What about you?” he asked. I was going home, of course, to watch a television program or read a book. What else would I be doing? “I shall return to my flat,” I said. “I think there might be a documentary about komodo dragons on BBC4 later this evening.”

In this dialogue example, the author gives her characters two very distinctive voices. From just a few words we can begin to see these people very clearly in our minds—and with this distinction comes the tension that drives the story. Dialogue is an excellent place to show your character dynamics using speech patterns and word choices.

Pride and Prejudice , by Jane Austen

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?” Mr. Bennet replied that he had not. “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.” Mr. Bennet made no answer. “Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently. “You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.” This was invitation enough. “Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

In this famous dialogue example, the author illustrates the relationship between these two characters clearly and succinctly. Their dialogue shows Mr. B’s stalwart, tolerant love for his wife and Mrs. B’s excitement and propensity for gossip. The author shows us everything we need to know about these people in just a few lines.

Dinner in Donnybrook , by Maeve Binchy

“Look, I thought you ought to know, we’ve had a very odd letter from Carmel.” “A what… from Carmel?” “A letter. Yes, I know it’s sort of out of character, I thought maybe something might be wrong and you’d need to know…” “Yes, well, what did she say, what’s the matter with her?” “Nothing, that’s the problem, she’s inviting us to dinner.” “To dinner?” “Yes, it’s sort of funny, isn’t it? As if she wasn’t well or something. I thought you should know in case she got in touch with you.” “Did you really drag me all the way down here, third years are at the top of the house you know, I thought the house had burned down! God, wait till I come home to you. I’ll murder you.” “The dinner’s in a month’s time, and she says she’s invited Ruth O’Donnell.” “Oh, Jesus Christ.”

This dialogue example is a telephone conversation between two people. The lack of dialogue tags or action tags allows the words to come to the forefront and immerses us in their back-and-forth conversation. Even though there are no tags to indicate the speakers, the language is simple and straightforward enough that the reader always knows who’s talking. Through this conversation the author slowly builds the tension from the benign to the catastrophic within a domestic setting.

Compelling dialogue is the key to a good story

A writer has a lot riding on their characters’ dialogue, and learning how to write dialogue is a critical skill for any writer. When done well, it can leaves a lasting impact on the reader. But when dialogue is clumsy and awkward, it can drag your story down and make your reader feel like they’re wasting their time.

But if you keep these tips in mind, listen to dialogue in your everyday life, and practice , you’ll be sure to create realistic dialogue that brings your story to life.

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• Dialogue Writing

Dialogue Writing - Style, Format and Examples

Are you a good speaker or a great listener? If you are, you should have definitely come across multiple instances where something you said or you heard someone say stuck to your mind. This happens mainly because those words touched your heart or made you think. That is the effect of a good dialogue. Even a simple conversation with your family, friends or even an unknown group of people can give you ideas and thoughts to ponder on.

This article will introduce you to the art of dialogue writing and give you information about all that you need to know. Furthermore, go through the sample dialogues and analyse how they make an effect.

Table of Contents

What is dialogue writing, the purposes of writing a dialogue, inner dialogue, outer dialogue, basic format and structure of a dialogue, punctuation, what not to do when writing a dialogue – points to remember, dialogues from stories and plays, dialogues from movies and tv shows, frequently asked questions on dialogue writing in english.

The term ‘dialogue’ is something all of you would be familiar with. As social beings, people (irrespective of being young or old, male or female) communicate with each other. Such a communication where both parties involved in the conversation have something to say about the topic being discussed can be said to be dialogue. A dialogue can be on any topic – a very simple talk about a daily chore, a serious talk about a social or medical problem, a discussion about what has to be done for an event and so on. The only point that you should remember is that a dialogue isn’t just any conversation but a conversation between two people specifically.

The Collins Dictionary defines the term ‘dialogue’ as “a conversation between two people in a book, film, or play”. Transcribing a dialogue in writing or presenting a conversation in text is referred to as dialogue writing.

What do you think is the reason behind writing dialogues in a story, play or film? Is it mandatory to include dialogues in a story? There are stories where you have a third person narrator or one of the characters of the story presenting the story from their perspective. What difference does it make when there are dialogues instead of just someone narrating each and everything that is happening in the story?

Having dialogues along with stage directions instead of just narrations can be said to be a better writing technique as it gives the readers a clear picture of the characteristics of the various characters in the story, play or movie. It also gives your characters life, and above all, a voice of their own. Dialogues portray the emotional state, mindset, background information and attitude of the speakers. This will always be more effective as it would let the readers connect with the characters on a more personal level.

Dialogue writing is also one area where the writers get to be creative even to the extent of breaking some conventional grammatical rules. For instance, elongating a word or writing the whole word in capital letters or using multiple question marks or exclamation marks to stress on whatever is being said. For example: YESSSS!!

Another component of dialogue writing is adding stage directions. Stage directions are short phrases written in brackets that give the reader an idea of what the character is doing as they engage in the dialogue. For example: Dan (rubbing his eyes): I am still tired.

Types of Dialogues

Dialogues can be classified into two main types namely,

The term ‘inner dialogue’ refers to the individual character’s thoughts which are not spoken aloud; in other words, said to anyone else. They can be something a character is thinking as the other character is speaking and their thoughts about what is going on or what the other character is doing. These inner dialogues are not placed within quotation marks .

As the name suggests, ‘outer dialogues’ are thoughts that are spoken aloud. They refer to everything the two characters involved in the dialogue say to each other. Outer dialogues are usually placed with quotation marks.

Fundamental Rules to Be Followed When Writing a Dialogue

Dialogue writing can look and sound simple; however, when actually putting dialogue in writing, there are certain rules regarding the structure and format you need to follow. Go through each of these in detail in the sections given below.

Dialogues can be part of a story, a play or a movie. Each one has a different structure and format in which the dialogues have to be presented; however, there is a basic structure that can be followed. Go through the following points to learn the essential attributes a dialogue must have.

• The first thing you have to do before you write a dialogue is to decide who the characters are.
• You should also have a clear idea of the plot of the story, or in general, the context of the dialogue.
• Dialogues can be just a sentence, two or three lines or even a short paragraph. Whatever be the case, always remember that each character’s dialogue, no matter how short or long, has to be written on the next line. In other words, no two dialogues should appear on the same line. Also see to it that you indent each dialogue.
• If the dialogues are one-liners, you can write them one after the other. On the contrary, if each of your characters are speaking in chunks (short or long paragraphs), it is mandatory that you show the difference by using an optimum line spacing.
• Be very careful with the tense used in the dialogue.
• It is better to skip the small talk (including greetings) and start off with the point of discussion unless the small talk is crucial to setting the mood of the conversation.

In every form of writing, punctuation is an important factor that makes it sensible. In the same manner, dialogue writing also would not make any sense without proper punctuation. Learn how to punctuate dialogues by going through the following points.

• The first rule would be adding a colon after the name of the character to indicate that the particular character is the one speaking at the moment. Sometimes, a hyphen is used instead of a colon.
• The name of the character should always start with a capital letter as it is a proper noun. Sometimes, you will have characters such as villagers, student 1, student 2, etc. In these cases also, you will have to use a capital letter.
• Dialogues are to be placed within quotation marks.
• If you are including a character’s dialogue in another character’s dialogue, it has to be placed within single quotation marks. For example: “Don’t you think Rakesh saying ‘I will take the lead’ has some hidden agenda?”
• Also remember that any punctuation mark corresponding to the dialogue should always be placed within double quotation marks. For instance, if the dialogue is an interrogative sentence , the question mark has to come first marking the end of the sentence followed by the double quotation marks marking the end of the dialogue.
• When you insert the tag in the middle of the dialogue, make sure you close the quotation marks before the tag. The tag is preceded and followed by a comma . When you open quotation marks to continue the dialogue, see to it that you use a small letter to begin with if it is the continuation of the dialogue, and close the quotation marks once the dialogue is complete. For example: “Do you know”, he shouted to everyone, “who the new manager is?”
• If the dialogue tag is positioned in the beginning of the sentence, see to it that you start it with a capital letter as you are starting a new sentence. Place a comma after the dialogue tag followed by open quotation marks, the dialogue starting with a capital letter followed by the punctuation mark of the quote and close quotation marks. For example: Josh mumbled, “Nobody understands the main problem here.”
• A dialogue can also appear at the end of the sentence. In this case, the quotation comes first. Once you punctuate the quote and close the quotation marks, place the dialogue tag. Note that the dialogue tag is not capitalised. For example: “Are you coming with us?” Sarah asked.
• If a character’s dialogue is being interrupted by another character, use a dash to indicate the interference. For example: “I was wondering –”

“Are you ready to go?”

• Actions and body language of characters can be described in sentences and they can appear in between dialogues. For example: “I am not interested.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But, I will do it just for you.”

Now that you know how to write a dialogue, let us also look at what all you are not supposed to do when writing a dialogue.

• Using dialogue tags does give some clarity about the action and body language of the characters, but see to it that you do not use dialogue tags with every single dialogue. Also, make sure you don’t use too little.
• Using colloquial language is allowed in dialogue writing, but use them only if it matches the context.
• Dialogues need not be grammatically correct all the time. That does not mean you can write structureless sentences. You can have individual words or phrases as a dialogue. For example: “What?”, “Of course!”, “She started the fight?”

Examples of Dialogue Writing

To help you understand and learn the art of dialogue writing, here are a few examples from some famous stories, plays, movies and TV shows.

A few examples from ‘The Crocodile and the Monkey’ are given below. Go through them and try to analyse how the description and dialogues are written.

• The crocodile’s wife thought to herself, “If the monkey eats only these sweet rose-apples, his flesh must be sweet too. He would be a delicious dinner.”
• When they reached, the monkey climbed up the tree to safety. He looked at the crocodile and said, “Now you can go back to your wicked wife and tell her that her husband is the biggest fool in this world. Your foolishness has no parallel. You were ready to take my life because of an unjust demand from your wife. Then you were stupid enough to believe me and brought me back to the tree.”

Here are a few examples from the short story, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O. Henry. Check them out.

• “Twenty dollars,” said Mrs. Sofronie, lifting the hair to feel its weight.

“Give it to me quick,” said Della.

• “Jim, dear,” she cried, “don’t look at me like that. I had my hair cut off and sold it. I couldn’t live through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow again. You won’t care, will you? My hair grows very fast. It’s Christmas, Jim. Let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I got for you.”

Here are a few quotes from the play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare.

• Shylock: Three thousand ducats; well.

Bassanio: Ay, sir, for three months.

Shylock: For three months; well.

Bassanio: For which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound.

Shylock: Antonio shall become bound; well.

Bassanio: May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? shall I know your answer?

Shylock: Three thousand ducats for three months and Antonio bound.

• Bassanio: And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?

Gratiano: Yes, faith, my lord.

Bassanio: Our feast shall be much honour’d in your marriage.

Gratiano: We’ll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.

Check out the following section to learn how dialogues from movies and TV shows are written. Furthermore, analyse the style and language used.

The following sample conversation is from the Disney movie ‘Moana’. Check it out.

Maui: Boat! A boat! The Gods have given me a (screams)

Moana: Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea. I am Moana…

Maui: Hero of Man.

Moana: Wh..What?

Maui: It’s actually Maui, shapeshifter, demigod of the wind and sea, hero of man. I

interrupted, from the top, hero of man. Go.

Moana: I am Mo…

Maui: Sorry, Sorry, sorry, sorry. And women. Men and women. Both. All. Not a guy-girl

thing. Ah, you know, Maui is a hero to all. You’re doing great.

Moana: What? No, I came here to…

Maui: Oh, of course, of course. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Maui always has time for his fans.

When you use a bird to write with, it’s called tweeting. (laughs) I know, not every day you

get a chance to meet your hero.

Moana: You are not my hero. And I’m not here so you can sign my oar. I’m here because

you stole the heart of Te Fiti and you will board my boat, sail across the sea, and put it

The following example is taken from the series ‘Anne with an E’.

• Diana: Anne!

Anne: Hello, Diana!

Diana: My, what have you done to your hat?

Anne: Well, I wanted to make a good first impression and it was so plain.

Diana: You’re making an impression all right.

Anne: I’m glad you found your way.

Diana: I expect we should be able to walk together soon.

Anne: We can’t?

Diana: I’m sure it won’t be long until my parents accept you, now that you’re a Cuthbert and all.

Also check out: Conversation between Teacher and Student │ Conversation between Doctor and Patient │ Conversation between Two Friends │ Conversation between Shopkeeper and Customer

What is dialogue writing?

A dialogue isn’t just any conversation but a conversation between two people specifically. Transcribing a dialogue in writing or presenting a conversation in text is referred to as dialogue writing.

What is the definition of a dialogue?

The Collins Dictionary defines the term ‘dialogue’ as “a conversation between two people in a book, film, or play”.

What is the format of dialogue writing?

The basic structure and format of a dialogue is as follows:

• Every speaker gets a new paragraph.
• The name of the character is followed by a colon and then the dialogue within quotes is written.
• If dialogue tags are used, use a comma after it if it comes in the beginning, a comma before and after if it comes in the middle and place it immediately after the quotation marks if it comes at the end.

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Dialogue Definition

What is dialogue? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Dialogue is the exchange of spoken words between two or more characters in a book, play, or other written work. In prose writing, lines of dialogue are typically identified by the use of quotation marks and a dialogue tag, such as "she said." In plays, lines of dialogue are preceded by the name of the person speaking. Here's a bit of dialogue from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland : "Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here."

Some additional key details about dialogue:

• Dialogue is defined in contrast to monologue , when only one person is speaking.
• Dialogue is often critical for moving the plot of a story forward, and can be a great way of conveying key information about characters and the plot.
• Dialogue is also a specific and ancient genre of writing, which often takes the form of a philosophical investigation carried out by two people in conversation, as in the works of Plato. This entry, however, deals with dialogue as a narrative element, not as a genre.

How to Pronounce Dialogue

Here's how to pronounce dialogue: dye -uh-log

Dialogue in Depth

Dialogue is used in all forms of writing, from novels to news articles to plays—and even in some poetry. It's a useful tool for exposition (i.e., conveying the key details and background information of a story) as well as characterization (i.e., fleshing out characters to make them seem lifelike and unique).

Dialogue as an Expository Tool

Dialogue is often a crucial expository tool for writers—which is just another way of saying that dialogue can help convey important information to the reader about the characters or the plot without requiring the narrator to state the information directly. For instance:

• In a book with a first person narrator, the narrator might identify themselves outright (as in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go , which begins "My name is Kathy H. I am thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for over eleven years.").
• Tom Buchanan, who had been hovering restlessly about the room, stopped and rested his hand on my shoulder. "What you doing, Nick?”

The above example is just one scenario in which important information might be conveyed indirectly through dialogue, allowing writers to show rather than tell their readers the most important details of the plot.

Expository Dialogue in Plays and Films

Dialogue is an especially important tool for playwrights and screenwriters, because most plays and films rely primarily on a combination of visual storytelling and dialogue to introduce the world of the story and its characters. In plays especially, the most basic information (like time of day) often needs to be conveyed through dialogue, as in the following exchange from Romeo and Juliet :

BENVOLIO Good-morrow, cousin. ROMEO Is the day so young? BENVOLIO But new struck nine. ROMEO Ay me! sad hours seem long.

Here you can see that what in prose writing might have been conveyed with a simple introductory clause like "Early the next morning..." instead has to be conveyed through dialogue.

Dialogue as a Tool for Characterization

In all forms of writing, dialogue can help writers flesh out their characters to make them more lifelike, and give readers a stronger sense of who each character is and where they come from. This can be achieved using a combination of:

• Colloquialisms and slang: Colloquialism is the use of informal words or phrases in writing or speech. This can be used in dialogue to establish that a character is from a particular time, place, or class background. Similarly, slang can be used to associate a character with a particular social group or age group.
• The form the dialogue takes: for instance, multiple books have now been written in the form of text messages between characters—a form which immediately gives readers some hint as to the demographic of the characters in the "dialogue."
• The subject matter: This is the obvious one. What characters talk about can tell readers more about them than how the characters speak. What characters talk about reveals their fears and desires, their virtues and vices, their strengths and their flaws.

For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's narrator uses dialogue to introduce Mrs. and Mr. Bennet, their relationship, and their differing attitudes towards arranging marriages for their daughters:

"A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” “How so? How can it affect them?” “My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.” “Is that his design in settling here?” “Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”

This conversation is an example of the use of dialogue as a tool of characterization , showing readers—without explaining it directly—that Mrs. Bennet is preoccupied with arranging marriages for her daughters, and that Mr. Bennet has a deadpan sense of humor and enjoys teasing his wife.

Recognizing Dialogue in Different Types of Writing

It's important to note that how a writer uses dialogue changes depending on the form in which they're writing, so it's useful to have a basic understanding of the form dialogue takes in prose writing (i.e., fiction and nonfiction) versus the form it takes in plays and screenplays—as well as the different functions it can serve in each. We'll cover that in greater depth in the sections that follow.

Dialogue in Prose

In prose writing, which includes fiction and nonfiction, there are certain grammatical and stylistic conventions governing the use of dialogue within a text. We won't cover all of them in detail here (we'll skip over the placement of commas and such), but here are some of the basic rules for organizing dialogue in prose:

• Punctuation : Generally speaking, lines of dialogue are encased in double quotation marks "such as this," but they may also be encased in single quotation marks, 'such as this.' However, single quotation marks are generally reserved for quotations within a quotation, e.g., "Even when I dared him he said 'No way,' so I dropped the subject."
• "Where did you go?" she asked .
• I said , "Leave me alone."
• "Answer my question," said Monica , "or I'm leaving."
• Line breaks : Lines of dialogue spoken by different speakers are generally separated by line breaks. This is helpful for determining who is speaking when dialogue tags have been omitted.

Of course, some writers ignore these conventions entirely, choosing instead to italicize lines of dialogue, for example, or not to use quotation marks, leaving lines of dialogue undifferentiated from other text except for the occasional use of a dialogue tag. Writers that use nonstandard ways of conveying dialogue, however, usually do so in a consistent way, so it's not hard to figure out when someone is speaking, even if it doesn't look like normal dialogue.

Indirect vs. Direct Dialogue

In prose, there are two main ways for writers to convey the content of a conversation between two characters: directly, and indirectly. Here's an overview of the difference between direct and indirect dialogue:

• This type of dialogue can often help lend credibility or verisimilitude to dialogue in a story narrated in the first-person, since it's unlikely that a real person would remember every line of dialogue that they had overheard or spoken.
• Direct Dialogue: This is what most people are referring to when they talk about dialogue. In contrast to indirect dialogue, direct dialogue is when two people are speaking and their words are in quotations.

Of these two types of dialogue, direct dialogue is the only one that counts as dialogue strictly speaking. Indirect dialogue, by contrast, is technically considered to be part of a story's narration.

A Note on Dialogue Tags and "Said Bookisms"

It is pretty common for writers to use verbs other than "said" and "asked"  to attribute a line of dialogue to a speaker in a text. For instance, it's perfectly acceptable for someone to write:

• Robert was beginning to get worried. "Hurry!" he shouted.
• "I am hurrying," Nick replied.

However, depending on how it's done, substituting different verbs for "said" can be quite distracting, since it shifts the reader's attention away from the dialogue and onto the dialogue tag itself. Here's an example where the use of  non-standard dialogue tags begins to feel a bit clumsy:

• Helen was thrilled. "Nice to meet you," she beamed .
• "Nice to meet you, too," Wendy chimed .

Dialogue tags that use verbs other than the standard set (which is generally thought to include "said," "asked," "replied," and "shouted") are known as "said bookisms," and are generally ill-advised. But these "bookisms" can be easily avoided by using adverbs or simple descriptions in conjunction with one of the more standard dialogue tags, as in:

• Helen was thrilled. "Nice to meet you," she said, beaming.
• "Nice to meet you, too," Wendy replied brightly.

In the earlier version, the irregular verbs (or "said bookisms") draw attention to themselves, distracting the reader from the dialogue. By comparison, this second version reads much more smoothly.

Dialogue in Plays

Dialogue in plays (and screenplays) is easy to identify because, aside from the stage directions, dialogue is the only thing a play is made of. Here's a quick rundown of the basic rules governing dialogue in plays:

• Names: Every line of dialogue is preceded by the name of the person speaking.
• Mama (outraged)  : What kind of way is that to talk about your brother?
• Line breaks: Each time someone new begins speaking, just as in prose, the new line of dialogue is separated from the previous one by a line break.

Rolling all that together, here's an example of what dialogue looks like in plays, from Edward Albee's Zoo Story:

JERRY: And what is that cross street there; that one, to the right? PETER: That? Oh, that's Seventy-fourth Street. JERRY: And the zoo is around Sixty-5th Street; so, I've been walking north. PETER: [anxious to get back to his reading] Yes; it would seem so. JERRY: Good old north. PETER: [lightly, by reflex] Ha, ha.

Dialogue Examples

The following examples are taken from all types of literature, from ancient philosophical texts to contemporary novels, showing that dialogue has always been an integral feature of many different types of writing.

Dialogue in Shakespeare's Othello

In this scene from Othello , the dialogue serves an expository purpose, as the messenger enters to deliver news about the unfolding military campaign by the Ottomites against the city of Rhodes.

First Officer Here is more news. Enter a Messenger Messenger The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, Steering with due course towards the isle of Rhodes, Have there injointed them with an after fleet. First Senator Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess? Messenger Of thirty sail: and now they do restem Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano, Your trusty and most valiant servitor, With his free duty recommends you thus, And prays you to believe him.

Dialogue in Madeleine L'Engel's A Wrinkle in Time

From the classic children's book  A Wrinkle in Time , here's a good example of dialogue that uses a description of a character's tone of voice instead of using unconventional verbiage to tag the line of dialogue. In other words, L'Engel doesn't follow Calvin's line of dialogue with a distracting tag like "Calvin barked." Rather, she simply states that his voice was unnaturally loud.

"I'm different, and I like being different." Calvin's voice was unnaturally loud. "Maybe I don't like being different," Meg said, "but I don't want to be like everybody else, either."

It's also worth noting that this dialogue helps characterize Calvin as a misfit who embraces his difference from others, and Meg as someone who is concerned with fitting in.

Dialogue in A Visit From the Good Squad

This passage from Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Good Squad doesn't use dialogue tags at all. In this exchange between Alex and the unnamed woman, it's always clear who's speaking even though most of the lines of dialogue are not explicitly attributed to a speaker using tags like "he said."

Alex turns to the woman. “Where did this happen?” “In the ladies’ room. I think.” “Who else was there?” “No one.” “It was empty?” “There might have been someone, but I didn’t see her.” Alex swung around to Sasha. “You were just in the bathroom,” he said. “Did you see anyone?”

Elsewhere in the book, Egan peppers her dialogue with colloquialisms and slang to help with characterization . Here, the washed-up, alcoholic rock star Bosco says:

"I want interviews, features, you name it," Bosco went on. "Fill up my life with that shit. Let's document every fucking humiliation. This is reality, right? You don't look good anymore twenty years later, especially when you've had half your guts removed. Time's a goon, right? Isn't that the expression?"

In this passage, Bosco's speech is littered with colloquialisms, including profanity and his use of the word "guts" to describe his liver, establishing him as a character with a unique way of speaking.

Dialogue in Plato's Meno

The following passage is excerpted from a dialogue by Plato titled Meno.  This text is one of the more well-known Socratic dialogues. The two characters speaking are Socrates (abbreviated, "Soc.") and Meno (abbreviated, "Men."). They're exploring the subject of virtue together.

Soc. Now, if there be any sort-of good which is distinct from knowledge, virtue may be that good; but if knowledge embraces all good, then we shall be right in think in that virtue is knowledge? Men. True. Soc. And virtue makes us good? Men. Yes. Soc. And if we are good, then we are profitable; for all good things are profitable? Men. Yes. Soc. Then virtue is profitable? Men. That is the only inference.

Indirect Dialogue in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

This passage from O'Brien's The Things They Carried exemplifies the use of indirect dialogue to summarize a conversation. Here, the third-person narrator tells how Kiowa recounts the death of a soldier named Ted Lavender. Notice how the summary of the dialogue is interwoven with the rest of the narrative.

They marched until dusk, then dug their holes, and that night Kiowa kept explaining how you had to be there, how fast it was, how the poor guy just dropped like so much concrete. Boom-down, he said. Like cement.

O'Brien takes liberties in his use of quotation marks and dialogue tags, making it difficult at times to distinguish between the voices of different speakers and the voice of the narrator. In the following passage, for instance, it's unclear who is the speaker of the final sentence:

The cheekbone was gone. Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy's dead. The guy's dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound—the guy's dead. I mean really.

Why Do Writers Use Dialogue in Literature?

Most writers use dialogue simply because there is more than one character in their story, and dialogue is a major part of how the plot progresses and characters interact. But in addition to the fact that dialogue is virtually a necessary component of fiction, theater, and film, writers use dialogue in their work because:

• It aids in characterization , helping to flesh out the various characters and make them feel lifelike and individual.
• It is a useful tool of exposition , since it can help convey key information abut the world of the story and its characters.
• It moves the plot along. Whether it takes the form of an argument, an admission of love, or the delivery of an important piece of news, the information conveyed through dialogue is often essential not only to readers' understanding of what's going on, but to generating the action that furthers the story's plot line.

Other Helpful Dialogue Resources

• The Wikipedia Page on Dialogue: A bare-bones explanation of dialogue in writing, with one or two examples.
• The Dictionary Definition of Dialogue: A basic definition, with a bit on the etymology of the word (it comes from the Greek meaning "through discourse."
• Cinefix's video with their take on the 14 best dialogues of all time : A smart overview of what dialogue can accomplish in film.

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• Dialogue Writing

What is Dialogue Writing?

If you want to write a story, dialogues are a very important part of the story. Writing a good dialogue requires a set of rules to follow because a bad dialogue can change the story and the dialogue’s meaning as well. Dialogue writing is a very important part of English writing.

Dialogue is basically a conversation between two or more people. In fiction, it is a verbal conversation between two or more conversations. Sometimes it is a self-talking dialogue, they are known as a Monolog.

If the dialogue is bad the reader will put the book down. Without effective dialogues, the whole plot of the story will collapse on its own structure. Therefore, writing dialogue in a way that attracts the reader to be more involved in the story is not a daunting task. We will guide you to write impactful dialogue with correct rules.

Points to be Remember  

1. The students need to read the preceding and the following dialogues.

2. They must understand the topic well and make points.

3. The tenses should be accurate according to the dialogue.

4. It should seem like a natural conversation.

5. The words used should not be vague and should convey the message.

Tips to Write Dialogue

Speak out the Dialogue loudly as it will help you resonate on your own dialogue and make you understand how it will sound to the reader.

Keep your dialogue brief and impactful as adding extra details will only deviate the reader’s mind from the main point.

Give each character a unique way of talking or voice. It will add an extra character trait and readers can identify the character just by reading his dialogue.

While writing the dialogue always remember whom the dialogue is being addressed to.

Dialogues should not be lengthy and confusing for the readers as through the dialogue only the story moves.

Format of Dialogue Writing

New Paragraph for Every Speaker

Every speaker gets a new paragraph. Each time a speaker says something, you have to put in a fresh paragraph, even if it is just one word. 

Punctuations Come under Quotation Marks

All the punctuations used with dialogue must be put under the quotes. 

Remove End Quote if the Paragraph is Long

If the paragraph of dialogue is too long and you need to change the paragraph, then there is no need to put end quotes. 

Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags i.e. He says/she says are always written outside the dialogue and is separated by a comma. When dialogue ends in a question or exclamation mark, tags that follow start in lower case.

For eg- He says, “We should start our own business.” 

Use Single Quotation Mark to Quote Something with a Dialogue

If you have to quote something within a dialogue we should put single quotes as double quotes are already enclosing the main dialogue.

For eg- Bill shouted, “ ‘boo!’ you lost the game.

The Dialogue Ends with an Ellipsis

If the Dialogue ends with an ellipsis, we should not add a comma or any other punctuation. For eg- She stared at the sunset. “I guess you’ll go back to doing what you do and I will…” her voice drifted off.

Solved Example

1. Write a Dialogue between You and Your Teacher about which Course to Study at Vacations. 

Child- Good Morning Sir, how are you?

Teacher- I am completely fine. What about you?

Student- I was wondering which course to learn in my vacation.

Teacher- It can be confusing with so many options online. You should make a list and narrow it down as per your interest.

Student- I have tried that but still I am left with three options- Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning or Data science.

Teacher- Well! All of them are very interesting courses, but as far as I remember you have always been interested in Artificial Intelligence.

Student- Yes! I do because I feel it is our future.

Teacher- Well then its no harm in pursuing it and later if you find it less interesting you can always switch.

Student- Yes it sounds like a great idea. Thanks!

2. Complete the following Dialogues-

Megha calls up Rajat to make a plan for New years. Complete the dialogue between Megha and Rajat by filling in the gaps.

Megha :  (i) ………………….. this New year?

Rajat:  I don’t have any plans.

Megha:  How do you like the idea (ii) …………………. the  Sapna’s party?

Rajat:  That sounds fantastic, But I (iii) ………………….my parent’s permission.

Megha:  I’ll come to your house this evening and request your parents to allow you to join me to go to a party.

Rajat:  Ok.

Megha :  (iv) …………………….. in the evening?

Rajat:  Yes. They will be at home.

Rohit:  Then I’ll surely come.

Basic Rules for Discussion All Writers Should Follow

Here are some basic rules for writing a conversation:

Each speaker receives a new category - Every time someone speaks, he shows this by creating a new category. Yes, even if your characters say only one word, they get new categories.

Each category has an indent - The only exception to this is at the beginning of the chapter or after the break, where the first line has not been postponed, including the discussion.

The punctuation marks are inserted into the quotes - Whenever punctuation is part of the spoken word, it enters the quotation marks so that the reader can know how the dialogue is spoken.

Long sentences with few paragraphs do not have end quotations - You’ll see a lot of this below, but overall, when one character speaks for a long time with different categories, the quotation marks are eventually removed, but you start the next paragraph with them.

Use singular quotes when a speaker quotes another - If a character is present who says, “Rohan, do you like it when girls say,‘ I’m fine ’?”, One quote shows what someone else said.

Skip the small talk and focus on the important information only - Unless that little talk is accompanied by character development, skip and get to the point, this is not real life and you will feel very liable if you have too much.

FAQs on Dialogue Writing

1. Can we write dialogues without Quotes?

No, a quotation mark is very important as it distinguishes between the rest of the text and dialogues. The characters who speak the dialogues are an important source of the quotes because of which we are required to put quotes in the dialogues. Quotations add life to the dialogues by making them more realistic and genuine. It ensures that the interpersonal skills of the people using dialogues is improved. It is an interpersonal discourse with members of your society or your house.

2. What are Dialog Tags?

Dialogue tags are the phrases like, “he said”, “She said'', they attribute the speaker to the dialogue so that the reader always knows who is speaking the dialogue. Dialogue tags are the short lines in a sentence that are used to identify the speaker. The main function of a Dialogue tag in dialogue writing is for identifying who is speaking. The Vedantu website provides all the guidelines as to how the dialogue writing must be planned. Until you use a proper noun, the dialogue tag will not be capitalized. You have to end the dialogue with punctuation marks inside quotes.

3. What is Ellipsis in a dialogue?

Three dots are used at the end of the sentence to show that something has been omitted. Using ellipses in dialogues is done to indicate a disruption at the end of a line of dialogue. The general rule of adding ellipses at the end of dialogue or line is to indicate that a speaker faltered before completing his or her statement. Ellipses are the most passive-aggressive of all the punctuation marks as when they are used in casual conversation, ellipses connote hesitation, confusion, and apathy.

4. What is the Purpose of Dialogue writing?

Dialogues are referred to as the conversations between two or more characters and it’s called a monolog if there is only one character speaking which is sometimes used in plays.  There are several factors on which the character speaking depends.

Where they live

The period in which they live

The dialogue should move the story forward. It may increase suspense, show readers a trait(s) of the character(s), and/or change the situation or conflict the characters are in.

5. Why choose Vedantu to refer to the rules of dialogue writing?

Till now the students must have reviewed the entire website of Vedantu and also must have found the answers to whatever they must search for. Vedantu without any doubt is the best website as it provides comprehensive solutions to all the doubts of the students. The experts at Vedantu are not only providing concepts related to the base building of the students but also are giving the students the ability and urge to read and write more. Hence, the students are highly recommended to use Vedantu.

Do you remember a specific favorite line of a movie or a book that you liked? Probably said by your favorite character in a movie, play or book. Well, that line is a dialogue.

Suggested Videos

“may the force be with you.” ( star wars ).

This dialogue is quite famous if you are a fan of the movie series – star wars . Chances are you don’t recognize the movie, being a millennial. But it was as huge as probably Harry Potter if a parallel must be drawn. Anyway, to come to the point- dialogues can become quite legendary and dialogue  writing is quite an art. In this chapter, we are going to decipher this one by one and will use many fun examples.

Dialogues – Talk to Me

A dialogue is a verbal conversation between two or more people. When in writing, a dialogue is a way of showing a story instead of explaining one through writing. Through a dialogue, the writer allows the reader to know the characters first hand and interpret the characteristics and story themselves.

Dialogue writing exposes the traits of the character, emotions, internal motives at the same time it establishes the relationship between the people. Dialogue-writing also shows the actions taking place without boring the reader with a lot of explanations.

So while we are at it, let’s discuss how dialogues are written. First thing in grammar that is essential to dialogue-writing is punctuation . Commas, quotations, semi-colon, period, exclamation , question marks, apostrophe- all these punctuation marks portray the dialogue and its emotions. Let’s enlist all of them in detail:

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First comes Grammar

If you get this right, the writing will not only be easier for the reader to understand, it will convey a clear message through the dialogue.

Quotes or quotation marks mark the beginning and end of a dialogue. For example – Nina told Barti, “My mom makes the best pasta in town!” Here, we can tell the exact line Nina said to Barti by looking at the sentence inside the quotation marks. Notice that the exclamation mark that is also part of the quotation marks shows the emotion or the tone it was said with.

Now what happens when the person speaking wants to tell something else another person spoke. In that case, we can use double quotation marks around person A’s dialogue and single quotation marks around person B’s dialogue. Person A is the speaker and person B is the one person A is speaking of.

“Dexter, her sister asked me, ‘What time is the game?’ Do you think we should take her along?”

While we are here, let’s also not forget that the way quotation marks are used in American English is slightly different. Apart from sentences that end in period and commas , everything else goes outside the quotation marks.

Use a period at the end of a sentence but always keep it inside of the quotation marks, unless it isn’t a part of the quotation. If the quotation is ending before the sentence is, we can use a comma inside the quotation marks instead of a period.

“May his soul rest in peace,” said Father .

Father said, “May his soul rest in peace.”

Well, first of all, a comma separates a dialogue from the rest of the sentence.

Tamera said to Adrienne, “My two-year-old son has started riding a cycle.”

Question Marks

This is quite simple: if it’s part of the dialogue, keep the question mark inside the quotations and if it’s not, just keep it outside the quotations.

“Will you come to the party?”, asked Jeena to Candice.

Do you think Aden was telling the truth when he said, “I finished my homework.”?

Capitalisation

Whether it’s in the middle of a sentence or at the beginning, a dialogue always starts with a capital letter word. A dialogue tag like he said or she said may not be used everytime we use a dialogue. The quotation marks and the capitalization should be enough for that.

“Gina, will you pass me the spaghetti?

“Why, yes sir.”

Other Punctuation Rules in Dialogue Writing

• Even the punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.
• Use commas or periods after dialogue tags depending on where they are in the sentence.
• Always remember to capitalize the first word of what the person says.
• Start a new paragraph each time a person speaks.

Dialogue-writing: How to do it perfectly?

• Have a purpose for every single dialogue, a logical one. It might as well have an objective implication. For example, ask logical questions like – What does this say about my character? What characteristic am I painting with this dialogue? Is this dialogue moving the story?
• Try not overuse dialogues by writing dialogues that lead to no logical conclusions. Basically, keep filler dialogues as less as possible. The more interesting and information giving your dialogues are, the longer the reading span becomes of your dialogue.
• Use narration in between dialogues to abstain from stray dialogue-writing. Keep it short and simple. Create movement in the plot using actions and descriptions between dialogues.
• Keep it as real and closer to the characters as possible. Maintain the same theme or purpose throughout. Dialogues are supposed to feel real conversations. The less fake you make them, the better they sound.
• Convey a point through your dialogue-writing. Don’t repeat the same shade you painted in one dialogue into another. If you have established that A is tired, you can take another dimension to it instead of re-iterating directly the same point again and again.
• Keep the writing catchy and full of twists. Don’t forget the element of surprise is the backbone of good dialogue-writing. Try to keep the characters different, bring in one strong emotion every now and then to keep the dialogue-writing catchy and engaging. Make resonating points that the readers can relate to.

That brings us to the end of our chapter. Hope you enjoyed reading this one. Try and see if you could capture an interesting incident this week and channelize it into some dialogue-writing. Happy writing!

Solved Question for You

Identify the correct dialogue:

Jim: Are you going to the party tonight? Tom: No, I don’t think so. I am not feeling too well. Jim: Oh, __________

• I was sorry to hear you were sick.
• I am sorry to hear that, I hope you get well soon.
• Get well soon.
• I am truly sorry to receive news of your ill health.

Answer: B. I am sorry to hear that, I hope you get well soon.

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English that goes straight to the heart

Dialogue Writing Examples

A dialogue literally means a talk between two people. It is an exchange of thoughts and opinions on any kind of topic or issue.

A dialogue may either aim to form a concurrence of thought or differentiate one’s point of view from the others.

Daily Test - Attempt Now

The writing of dialogues in English is a useful form of composition for students trying to gain a command of spoken English. In this post, you will find the Top 10 Dialogue Writing Examples.

Dialogue Writing Examples #1

Reporter: Hello, my name is Mr. Thomson. I am a reporter for IBN and would like to meet Mr. Jack.

Secretary: Do you have an appointment?

Reporter: I do not have a formal one, but I spoke to him on the phone and he said that I could come today.

Secretary: You will have to wait for some time since Mr. Jack is in a meeting right now.

Reporter: How long will the meeting last?

Secretary: It should be over in about 15 minutes.

Reporter: That’s fine with me.

Secretary: Would you like some tea or coffee?

Reporter: No, thanks for asking.

Secretary: You’re welcome. Please have a seat. I will let you know as soon as he is free.

Reporter: I appreciate your cooperation.

Also, Read Dialogue Writing Topics

Dialogue Writing Examples #2

Anjuna: Hi Sweta, what a pleasant surprise! It’s a pleasure seeing a school friend after so many years.

Sweta: Indeed it is. How are you and what have you been up to?

Anjuna: I am great. Do you remember the paintings I made for pleasure in school?

Sweta: Yes I do, and I always told you what a great artist you would be one day.

Anjuna: Well, I guess you were right there.

Sweta: What do you mean?

Anjuna: After college, I studied painting at J. K. School of Art and today I am a professional painter.

Sweta: Oh really? That’s great news. I never doubted your potential.

Anjuna: I know, and I believe that the confidence you showed in me was one of the factors which encouraged me to conquer my dreams.

Sweta: Don’t flatter me. This is all the fruit of your hard work.

Anjuna: I am not. Believe me. I never considered my drawings of any consequence. It was you who saw the talent in me and gave me the boost I needed.

Sweta: Well then, I guess I deserve a treat.

Anjuna: You deserve more than that, but a treat is surely in order.

Sweta: Let’s have coffee.

Also, Read Conversation Dialogue Examples for Students

Dialogue Writing Examples #3

Omkar: Hey what are you doing? Would you like to come out to play?

Arvind: No. I’m a little busy right now. I’m writing a story for tomorrow’s storytelling competition.

Omkar: You have been working on that since the last week. How much more will you edit it?

Arvind: It’s a suspense story, Omkar. It has to be perfect or else it will lose its charm.

Omkar: That is true, but I have full faith in your skills. After all, you have been winning this competition for so many years now.

Arvind: That’s true. But that does not give me a reason to be careless with my work, does it?

Omkar: Yes you are right, but overdoing it is also dangerous, don’t you think?

Arvind: What do you mean?

Omkar: I mean you are so focused on this competition that you are neglecting every other thing like food, play, and your studies.

Arvind: I guess you have a point, Omkar. Come on, let’s go out.

Omkar: Finally! Let’s go.

Also, Read Short Dialogue Examples

Dialogue Writing Examples #4

Teacher: Ranita, are you ready for the interschool history quiz?

Ranita: No Miss, I am not. I had jaundice last month, and therefore, I couldn’t prepare for it.

Teacher: You are our best student, Ranita. You have to participate. How long will it take to prepare?

Ranita: Miss, please give me an extension. I am working on it, but I need some more time.

Teacher: Ranita, I would love to give you time. But I’m sorry I cannot; the date for the quiz is finalized by the principals of all the schools participating.

Ranita: I would really love to participate, but I am not prepared and it will be wrong on my part to spoil the school’s name this way.

Teacher: I appreciate your dedication. Also, I am confident that you will be able to do well. You just need to work a little harder. Besides, we are here to help you. Feel free to approach any one of us whenever you need.

Ranita: Thank you for your support, Miss.

Teacher: You are most welcome. Work hard and make us all proud.

Ranita: I’ll try my best, Miss. Thank you once again.

Also, Read How to Write a Dialogue?

Dialogue Writing Examples #5

Priya: Hello! My name is Priya. Can I speak to you for a moment?

Police Officer: Yes, how may I help you?

Priya: I have a robbery to complain about.

Police Officer: What exactly happened?

Priya: My handbag was stolen in the local market this afternoon.

Police Officer: Describe your handbag and give me a list of any important belongings that it contained.

Priya: My handbag is blue. It had my cell phone and about three thousand rupees.

Police Officer: Is that it? Did it have any other things?

Priya: Nothing of much importance. But I need my cell phone; the data in it is extremely important to me.

Police Officer: I will look into the matter and see what I can do. Did you see the thief?

Priya: Yes, I noticed that he was of average height, middle-aged, and wore a dirty grey t-shirt. He had medium-tangled hair and a small bruise over his right eyebrow.

Police Officer: Will you be able to recognize him if we find them?

Priya: I think so.

Police Officer: Okay then. We will call you when we get a lead on him.

Priya: Thank you!

Police Officer: You’re welcome!

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Dialogue Writing Examples #6

Bank Manager: Good morning! Please come in. How may I help you?

Raj Singh: Good Morning! I would like to open a savings account with your bank, but I find the process very confusing.

Bank Manager: Please take a seat. The process is very simple actually. All you have to do is fill out a savings account opening form and submit it with photocopies of your ID proofs and two passport-sized photographs.

Raj Singh: Which ID proofs should I get along with?

Bank Manager: We will need one photocopy of each of your ration cards, pan card, and Aadhar card.

Raj Singh: Ok, that sounds easy. Where will I get the account opening form?

Bank Manager: The clerk sitting at the desk opposite the cash counter will give it to you.

Raj Singh: What is the minimum deposit amount for opening an account?

Bank Manager: For a savings account, it is only 500 rupees. However, this amount cannot be withdrawn unless you wish to close your account permanently.

Raj Singh: What are the other facilities that I would be provided if I open an account?

Bank Manager: Apart from your chequebook, SBI will provide you with an ATM/debit card, internet banking, and phone banking facility.

Raj Singh: Thanks a lot! You have really simplified the procedure for me.

Bank Manager: The pleasure is entirely mine.

Dialogue Writing Examples #7

Dr. Sunil: This is the third time in two months you have come to me complaining of stomach ache, Rakesh. Have you been eating frequently from outside?

Rakesh: I have my lunch from the school canteen, doctor.

Dr. Sunil: How is the food in taste and appearance?

Rakesh: The food tastes good, except that it is spicy sometimes. Often, it is soaked in excess oil.

Dr. Sunil: No wonder you are falling sick so often, Rakesh! Eating spicy food regularly upsets your digestive system. Does the oil in the food smell abnormal?

Rakesh: I don’t know really. But yes, my throat often aches after eating a meal that had excess oil.

Dr. Sunil: That is due to the poor quality of oil being used to make the food. Rakesh, you should stop eating from the canteen at once. If possible, eat home-cooked food and for a few weeks only eat light meals.

Rakesh: Okay, doctor. What can I include in my diet for the next few days?

Dr. Sunil: Have home-cooked food with minimum spices. Avoid over-intake of fibrous foods as they are heavy to digest. Have plenty of water and fruit. In a couple of weeks, your system will be back to normal.

Rakesh: Thank you, Doctor. I will avoid eating outside henceforth.

Dr. Sunil: Yes, you should. Here are your medicines. In addition, please also engage in light exercise once a day so that you remain fit.

Rakesh: I will do that, doctor. Thank you for your time and consultation.

Dr. Sunil: Take care and get well soon Rakesh!

Dialogue Writing Examples #8

Mother: Looks like you had a lot of fun at school today. How was the Christmas party?

Riya: It was a truly spectacular mother. The children from the primary section enacted the Christmas story at the assembly.

Mother: Oh! That must have been really beautiful.

Riya: It was! Not only that; after a short speech by our school leader on the significance of Christmas, the school band played carols on their instruments. Mumma, you should have heard them, for a moment I felt like heaven had come down to Earth.

Mother: That does sound exceptional. I understand what you mean. Your school has the reputation for excelling in whatever it does.

Riya: Yes Mumma, it was! After that, we went to our class. There we played games with our teacher. It was great fun. We also had crib-making and classroom decoration competitions.

Mother: So, they kept y’all busy the whole day. Did they give y’all any snacks to eat?

Riya: Yes, they gave us Fruity, samosas, wafers, cake, and chocolates. I got many gifts from Santa Claus as well. He kept throwing them in all directions.

Mother: Well Riya, I’m glad that you had so much fun.

Riya: That I did, wait for Mumma there is more. I forgot to show you the gift I got. Every standard received a different toy. We received Brainvita. Playing this game is so much fun.

Mother: So, I see you opened it in the school itself.

Riya: Yes! Everyone did. We were so engrossed in it that we did not even realize when the bell rang at the end of the day.

Mother: That’s very nice. Be sure to thank your teachers when you go to school next for all the effort they put in.

Dialogue Writing Examples #9

Rajesh: Excuse me, what is your name, sir?

Beggar: My name is Dinesh Kumar. Why do you ask? You don’t need my name to curse me.

Rajesh: I do not wish to curse you, Mr. Kumar. I never saw you here before. You intrigue me; therefore, I want to know more about you. Who are you and why are you begging here?

Beggar: I cannot recollect the last time somebody called me by that name.

Rajesh: Tell me something about yourself.

Beggar: You know my name. Many years ago, I used to be a successful businessman dealing with scrap metals. The business was booming and I was surrounded by friends. I got married to a woman I loved and she bore me two children. I was a very good father fulfilling every desire my children had.

Rajesh: What changed that?

Beggar: I had a daughter and a son. When they got married, things started changing. Both of them vied for my business and property which I bequeathed to them. Once my son had control of my business, he ousted me. My daughter too, whom I gave my palatial house, threw me and my wife out.

Rajesh: Where did you go from there?

Beggar: My friends deserted me since I had no money. So, I begged for a living making enough to buy us two meals a day. My wife eventually succumbed to illnesses leaving me all alone in this world. At this age, I cannot beg. Sometimes I wait for death to catch up with me.

Also, Read How to Write Dialogue Between Two Characters

Dialogue Writing Examples #10

Sushant: Hello! May I speak to Mr. S. Kaushik?

S. Kaushik: Yes, who is this?

Sushant: Hello Sir. My name is Sushant. I saw the advertisement for your activity club in today’s newspaper and would like to enquire more about it.

Mr. Shah: Oh yes! We have recently opened an activity club for children of all age groups. I will be able to explain it to you further if you can tell me what exactly you are looking for.

Sushant: My son has a lot of free time, and since both my wife and I are working we would like to enrol him in a creative club.

S. Kaushik: We would be happy to oblige. What would you like to know?

Sushant: First, where exactly are you located?

Mr. Shah: Our club is located on the ground floor of Pravin Apartments which is about a 2–3 minute walk from the Santa Cruz railway station.

Sushant: Okay, could you give me some more details about the place?

Mr. Shah: We have converted a 1BHK flat into our club area furnished with colourful toys and other amenities . We also have a large garden at the back which can be accessed only through our flat.

Sushant: The place sounds safe enough. What activities do y’all teach?

Mr. Shah: We teach all forms of dance, singing, and craft. It’s an extensive list. I suggest you visit us once since it is impossible for me to list everything we do on a call.

Sushant: Okay, I will do that. Thank you for the information. I will call you back once I make up my mind.

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How to Write Dialogue in an Essay

Knowing how to insert source materials into an essay is a central theme of academic writing. Sources can be cited to support your argument, expand it or even to be used to dissect a counter-argument and examine its validity.

This skill is so essential the rules of using quotation marks of when quoting texts are pounded into the student’s head. So much so you know when to quote a textual source and the reason to do so.

One of the areas many students struggle with is when or how they should use dialogue in an essay. A high number of essay writers don’t even know the difference between dialogue and quotes, let alone the correct punctuation surrounding it. The main reason it happens is because a large number of academic subjects focus solely on claim-based essays where dialogue is not used. This article will look at why dialogue can be so effective within a narrative essay and why. The topics discussed will be:

What is dialogue?

When do you use dialogue?

Why use dialogue?

How to write dialogue?

And Where you can find more information on this subject.

Dialogue: A definition

Dialogue is defined as a literary technique that writers use to depict a conversation between two or more people. Dialogue is a device that is employed in all kinds of fiction – movie, plays, books and can even be used in essays. It's important not to confuse dialogue with quotations from an outside source. Dialogue is largely made up to create a more visual, dramatic effect. Whereas direct quotes can be verified through citations.

Quotation marks are used with quoting from source as well as to mark dialogue in an essay but the conventions around the two change. As such, it is important to know the difference between the two.

Here is a small table that documents the main differences.

One of the biggest mistakes an essay writer makes is when they use dialogue as a direct quote. This mistake occurs as we are trained to use speech as direct quotes in claim-based essays. As we are trained to do this in the majority of our subjects, we don't know that we can use crafted narration and create dialogue in narrative essays to give them more weight. Due to this, we do not understand the conventions around its use or why to use it.

Dialogue: When to Use it.

Dialogue is a big part of the movies, television, novels, and plays. It is important to keep in mind that when it comes to essay writing, a dialogue only really appears in one type of essay – the narrative essay.

A narrative essay differs from most kinds of essay writing. Other types of essays often aim to make a claim about something. If we look at an argumentative essay , for example, it makes a claim that one point of view is right. And an expository essay will make claims about how a model or idea works. A narrative essay doesn't make claims like this. It is an essay that is used to relate stories and experience to the reader, and as such, it is much more story like in nature. These experiences include conversations the writer has had with other people.

Presenting conversations you had with friends as dialogue in an argumentative essay or expository piece wouldn’t do much to strengthen your argument and would undermine your creditability. It is better to use direct quotes from the source – even if it is spoken material. Direct quotes will be seen as the conventional norm as these types of essay expect the writer to be objective and scientific in their discussion.

Dialogue: Why do you use dialogue

Narrative essays use dialogue as a device – much like written fiction. They add depth, tension and character development to nonfiction writing. It also helps move the story along. As it is reported speech, you would be unlikely to remember all the details; so, you will have to recreate them from memory – remember to use the words, tones, and emotions that report it in the correct flavor. Readers will trust realistic dialogue that captures the situation.

Dialogue: How to format

This section will demonstrate the correct formatting conventions to use when inserting your dialogue into a narrative essay. This section will look at the correct usage of the quotation marks, and where to put other punctuation marks. This will be looking at the U.S rules of grammar – the formations and convention in other variants of English might differ.

Quotations Marks

There are three main rules that surround the usage of quotation marks:

Double quotation marks are used to signify that a person is using speech.

Example: - When I was young, my father warned me, “Look in both direction before you cross the road.”

Single quotation marks are used to mark quotes in quotes.

Example: - “I remember read Oscar Wilde’s quote ‘I can resist everything except temptation’ and feeling so inspired,” the creative writer coach said.

When dialogue extends across several paragraphs, use quotation marks at the start of each paragraph, but only use the closing quotation make when the speech ends.

Example: - Rupert nodded and said, "Yeah I think you're correct. If we lay the carpet before painting the ceiling, we'll need dust sheets.

But if we do the ceiling before laying the new carpet it should be fine.”

If the quote is at the end of a sentence, always put the full stop inside the quotation marks.

Incorrect: - The bus driver said, “This is your stop”.

Correct: - The bus driver said, “This is your stop.”

Question marks and exclamation should be placed inside the quotation mark if they apply to the person's speech.

Incorrect: - The boy screamed, “Watched out the ceiling is falling”!

Correct: - The boy screamed, “Watched out the ceiling is falling!”

When the quote is simply embedded in a larger sentence that is a question or exclamation the punctuation should be placed outside the speech marks.

Incorrect : -How did you feel when the newscaster said, “JFK had been shot?”

Correct: - How did you feel when the newscaster said, “JFK had been shot”?

If a speech tags fall before the quote use a comma before the quotation marks to separate them.

Incorrect: - My brother said “I’m telling mom that you stole the cookies from the jar.”

Correct: - My brother said, “I’m telling mom that you stole the cookies from the jar.”

If the speech tag comes after the quotation marks, then the coma should be placed in the speech marks

Incorrect: - “Just be back in time for tea” My mum warned me before I went to play.

Correct: - “Just be back in time for tea,” My mum warned me before I went to play.

When a sentence is interrupted with a speech tag, a comma should be placed after the first segment of speech and at the end of the speech tag.

Incorrect: - “No” Karen said wrinkling her nose in disgust “That’s just all kinds of wrong.”

Correct: - “No,” Karen said wrinkling her nose in disgust, “That’s just all kinds of wrong.”

It is important to learn how to use quotation marks and punctuation correctly. These rules act as a convention between reader and writer, and as such, using them will make your work easier to read and understand. Without following these rules, your dialogue might be confusing and messy to the reader, which means it will not convey the message you want it to.

Dialogue: Where to find more resources

Here is a collection of some great links that will aid you in crafting the perfect narrative essay , and making sure you get your dialogue quotation spot on. You’ll be writing an amazing narrative essay in no time at all.

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