Write sharp, natural dialogue in your fiction

Use this guide when your dialogue feels stiff, over-explains or reads like a script of real speech. Have a scene from your draft with at least one conversation, and somewhere quiet to read it aloud.

Step by step

1. Give every conversation a purpose

   Before revising, write one line saying what the conversation does: reveals something, raises tension, or changes a relationship. If it does none of these, cut or summarise it. Small talk such as hellos, weather and goodbyes can usually go, starting late and leaving early.