Dialogue is powerful, but perhaps the trickiest part of writing prose (this is excluding all the narrative prep, worldbuilding, and outlining you do before the actual writing stage). It’s the single most useful tool in transforming your characters from two-dimensional concepts on a page into a living and breathing cast. But writers often fall into common traps that make their dialogue feel unnatural, confusing, or ineffective.
Here’s a breakdown of the most frequent dialogue mistakes and how to avoid them.
Balancing believable and realistic dialogue
Aiming for authentic dialogue doesn’t mean transcribing real conversations word-for-word. In real life, people meander, lose their train of thought, repeat themselves, and exchange mundane pleasantries. When you’re writing, you want to exclude all the “umms” and “uhs” and get right to the point – that is, whatever moves the plot forward.
Fictional dialogue should be believable by mimicking realism, but not by exhibiting the way people really talk. Aim for dialogue conventions like interruptions, individual word choices, and natural rhythms of speech.
Too much realism
Look at this line of dialogue:
“Hey, what do you want to do on Friday? The skate rink is closing for the season soon – if you want to go again this year we should probably go within the next week or two. Oh! And that new superhero movie is out. We could go at the 3 o’clock or 9 o’clock showing. Hmm, what else? We haven’t been to Greco’s in a while. I always liked their pasta and it could be fun to dress up.”
While this might be realistic, it’s not compelling. It drags on too long about details that won’t be relevant to the story. If you have dialogue like this, try condensing it into a main point. Something like this:
“Hey, let’s go to Greco’s Friday night. We haven’t been in a while and I want to dress up.”
This eliminates unnecessary fluff while revealing more about the character.
No real purpose
Look at this boring exchange:
“Hey, how are you?”
“Hi Todd! I’m good. How are you doing?”
“I’m all right. Work’s got me beat. You know how it is.”
“Yeah.”
“So…”
“You know, I was wondering something.”
“What’s that?”
“Are you really going to talk to Eva about the dog problem?”
Every line of dialogue should serve a function, whether it’s advancing the plot, revealing character, or creating tension. Conversations like this that add nothing to the story should be cut or replaced with something meaningful. You could sum this dialogue into:
“Todd! Are you really going to talk to Eva about the dog problem?”
Other conversations that have no purpose are ones that exist only to showcase a character’s personality or witty banter. While entertaining, these exchanges should tie back to the narrative or they risk losing the reader’s interest.
An exception to this would be if you add action or internal thought to the meaningless dialogue to make it stand out, such as if two neighbors stood exchanging pleasantries on the sidewalk, but their actions revealed conflict between them.
Too formal
Another aspect to consider when aiming for authentic dialogue is to make sure your characters don’t sound like they’re reading a grammar textbook. People rarely speak with perfect grammar or even in complete sentences. And since you can’t actually add an audio track to a printed book to hear tone or individual voices, if all your characters use correct grammar, they’ll start to sound the same.
People naturally use contractions, colloquialisms, and fragmented sentences in everyday speech. Leveraging those with your characters can reveal their personalities and give you unique ways to express their thoughts.
Take a look at these:
“I am going to clean the kitchen. Would you lend a hand?”
“I’m gonna tidy up a bit. Help me out, would ya?”
The first one is stilted. The second one feels more natural.
When writing dialogue for any characters, think about their background, education, and personality to find their vocabulary, speech patterns, and any quirky mannerisms.
Info-dumping in conversation
One of the most jarring mistakes is using dialogue as a way to clumsily deliver backstory or exposition. When characters tell each other information they already know just to cue the reader in, it feels unnatural and breaks immersion.
Lines like, “As you know, Colin, your father went off to war just two years ago,” feel forced. Instead, find more organic ways to share essential details, such as through inner thoughts, narration, or revealing snippets during active scenes.
Subtext vs. spelling things out
When was the last time you said everything you were thinking while talking to someone? Not every emotion or thought needs to be spelled out. In fact, the most compelling dialogue often lies in what’s left unsaid. People leave things out all the time or say the wrong things. Your characters should too.
Subtext allows readers to infer deeper meaning from a character’s words and actions. For instance, a character saying, “It’s no problem at all” while visibly irritated conveys far more than outright stating, “I’m annoyed and don’t want to do that.”
Overusing names
In real conversations, people don’t use each other’s names repeatedly. Overuse of names in dialogue feels unnatural and can make characters seem stiff. Avoid lines like:
“Mary, are you coming?”
“Yes, John, I’ll be right there.”
“Okay, Mary. Just hurry.”
Instead, let the flow of conversation make it clear who is speaking. Use names only when it feels natural or when the reader may need a reminder.
Too much humor vs none at all
Humor is a natural part of life and should be reflected in dialogue, even in serious moments. A couple unfunny characters is normal, but an entire cast of humorless people is unbelievable. A character cracking a joke or offering a sarcastic remark can make conversations more relatable and break the tension.
Too much dialect or technical jargon
Here is an excerpt from Brian Jacques’ The Bellmaker: A tale of Redwall, 1994:
Joseph surveyed the guilty-looking band. Pursing his lips in mock severity, he said, “Hmm, guarding the strawberry patch against robbers, no doubt. A very difficult job, I’d say, eh?”
A tiny mousebabe, covered from ear to tail with strawberry pulp and seeds, puffed out his chest and squeaked, “Most ’ardest job I doo’d in all me life, sir!”
Foremole prodded the babe’s swollen stomach gently. “Burr, you’m sure ee can manage dinner arter all yon ’ard wurk ee dunn?”
An equally small mole patted the mousebabe heartily. “Ho aye, ee surpintly can, zurr. Ee be a growen choild an’ needen lots o’ dinner, doant ee, matey?”
Jacques’ Redwall series uses various written out dialects for different species of animal characters. When used to such an extent, it can be difficult to understand the dialogue at times, which can lead to two outcomes: (1) the reader gets frustrated and stops reading, or (2) the reader pushes through until they start to understand the dialect.
The majority of readers will go with the first outcome. If that bothers you, then you should consider using limited amounts of accents, slang, or even technical jargon (think medical, scientific, or military terminology) so that it’s easier for readers to understand what’s being said. Look for a balance where someone can use context to figure out the meaning of a word instead of following along with a dictionary.
All dialogue, no action or thought
Dialoque without any actions or thought can feel flat and monotonous. To the reader, the characters are just talking to each other without doing anything or reacting to their environment. But that’s not right, is it? Characters don’t exist in a vacuum. Readers need cues about how they’re moving, feeling, and thinking.
Small actions like frowning, clenching fists, avoiding eye contact, or pursing lips can add layers to a scene and prevent conversations from feeling like scripts. It’s not about including wild, dramatic action – even a character fiddling with a coffee mug can convey mood and tension to bring your story to life.
Too much punctuation
Emotion in dialogue should come from the words and context, not an overuse of punctuation. For example, exclamation points can lose their impact fast if they’re overused. Instead of relying on punctuation to signal intensity, let the dialogue and accompanying actions do the heavy lifting.
The problems surrounding tags
Tags are the text that follows, goes before, or breaks up a piece of dialogue. They indicate who is speaking and how their words are said. One of the most common mistakes found when looking at tags is the complete lack of them. Now, this is fine for about four lines of dialogue in a conversation between two people – generally, the people are identified before the lack of tags so that the reader can follow the natural flow of conversation to understand who is speaking when.
This becomes problematic when dialogue goes untagged across five or more lines. Toss in a few more speakers and you have absolute chaos. Your audience has no way of knowing who is saying what, when they say it, or how they say it.
There are several more problems associated with tagging, though.
Tagging each piece of dialogue
This is the opposite of not using tags. Overusing them can disrupt a reader’s flow as much as the lack of them. It makes the conversation feel stilted. Take a look for yourself:
“Did you hear that noise? It came from the attic,” Emma said.
“Relax, Emma,” Jake said. “It’s probably just the wind.”
“The wind doesn’t make footsteps, Jake,” she replied.
“Fair point,” he said. “But it’s probably a raccoon or something.”
“A raccoon that drags furniture?” Emma asked. “Okay, let’s go check it out together.”
Balance truly is key. Try to use tags only when you have to, such as if nothing has been tagged in a few lines or to emphasize emotion.
Another note with this particular dialogue example: “said” should be your go-to tag, but it shouldn’t be used too much. That gives it more visibility. Instead, sprinkle it around. When you don’t use “said,” attach some action to your dialogue to tell the reader more about what’s going on with your setting and characters.
Dysfunctional tags
These come in two varieties: descriptive and impossible. Descriptive tags try to tell the reader how something was said (ex: uttered, mouthed, mumbled). These are too fancy and disrupt the natural flow of the conversation your reader is trying to read. Impossible tags are similar to descriptive, but they don’t make sense physically. Think of laughing, sighing, or hissing – you can’t hiss words. All of these words describe actions you do before, in between, or following speech.
Read it aloud
The ultimate test for dialogue is reading it aloud. Whether you read it yourself, listen to a friend read it out loud, or use a text-to-speech program, hearing the words can reveal awkward phrasing, unnatural rhythms, or excessive use of certain words.