How to Write Great Dialogue for Short Stories
“Dialogue is more like a movie than it is like real life, since it should be more dramatic.” — Anne Lamott
I have a confession to make: I still find writing dialogue difficult. With my first ever short story (The Money Tree), I even decided not to include any dialogue at all. I was scared I would suck at it. I thought having an omniscient style of storytelling, where the narrator knows all, would solve my problem.
I’m still proud of that first story though, and it taught me to tell a story without any dialogue. However, dialogue can move a story forward, it creates interaction with your characters and above all, conflict. Dialogue done well is better than good narrative.
Why do I still find writing dialogue difficult then? Well, I tend to either speed it up or shorten sentences ‘as you say it’, which is not often stylistically considered as good prose. I mean, if your character has a certain accent or speaking disability, go for it! But do so wisely and consistently. Another thing I mess up is the sentence structure. Like when a piece of dialogue is part of a sentence or not. More on that later in this post.
In this post, we will cover what writing good dialogue entails as well as how to stylistically bring it across…
