How to Write Engaging Dialogue: Voice and Sentence Structure Tips, with Examples

When you reread your work, do you feel like your dialogue looks awkward, or sounds unnatural? In this article, we are sharing tips on how to write engaging dialogue, with an emphasis on character voice and sentence structure. This is part three of our sentence structure series. 

This blog post is a guide to help you captivate your readers' attention with well-paced dialogue. It’s broken into two parts. Part one shows you how to utilize these techniques in a book and part two focuses on tips for writing dialogue in a screenplay. You may notice that they overlap and can be applied to both mediums. Now, let’s discover how to write engaging dialogue for your story. 

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links. If you purchase through my link, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure policy, here.

Part One: Captivating Readers with Character Voice in Your Novel 

It’s harder than you think to craft characters that sound like real people, but the beauty is that if you’ve curated well-rounded characters, you’ve likely already discovered their voice. The key to crafting natural dialogue comes from unique character voices. Finding a unique character voice is discovered through various aspects of who they are, such as personality, motivations, fears, environment, etc. Build out who your characters are, and you will naturally find their voice as you write them.  

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    How to Create a Distinct Character Voice in Dialogue 

    Character voice boils down to who they are internally and externally. For example, a timid character will speak quietly and won’t contribute much to a conversation, especially if it’s within a large group.

    On the other hand, an extroverted character welcomes the limelight. Show these character traits through their verbiage and body language. The description around the dialogue says more about who the character is and how they feel more than they ever will. 

    Key Tip: Remember, real people don’t say what they feel, they talk around it. If you want your characters to feel three-dimensional, they must do this too.

    So, how do you create a unique character voice? Here are a few tips to jumpstart the process. 

    1. Only write what is necessary to the story. Your characters' dialogue should subtly reveal something about themselves, or the plot. 

      • Example: “I totally have it under control.” Sarah crossed her arms and laughed louder than she meant to. The group stared at her until she left the room, nearly running out of the class. 

          1. This sentence reveals to us Sarah is afraid, stressed, maybe even insecure about whatever it is that she has under control. But her dialogue– it’s certain and tells us something she wants others to believe even if she doesn’t herself. 

    2. Give them a unique trait, such as using a favorite word or phrase. 

    • Your character could use a favorite slang that comes from their hometown, or maybe they have a nervous tick. From the example above Sarah uses the word totally making her feel youthful. Maybe it’s a word she uses often. Another note, she laughs when she’s nervous, so we infer that she’s someone who tries to be optimistic when life is crumbling. These are unique personality traits specific to Sarah. 

    3. Avoid clichés as best as you can. 

    • Some common clichés include, a girl twirling her hair, the man’s sharp jawline, etc. 

    Are there any specific clichés that you constantly read? Tell us in the comments below. 

    To craft real characters, you need to create distinct voices for each person because, similar to real life, everyone sounds different. People are individuals. You want to write characters that sound so distinct that when a reader opens your book, they know who’s speaking. 

    Once you know who they are, and their speech, you can convey more meaning through the sentence structure. Be specific with your dialogue and alter sentence lengths to create a rhythm and pace.

    Pacing isn’t only for descriptions; it’s applied to every element of your book—including dialogue. To understand sentence structure for dialogue, you need a basic understanding of how to format it. If you don’t, don’t worry— we will show you how to format dialogue in your book. 

    Basic Formatting template for structuring dialogue in a novel. 

    When it comes to formatting, we’re referring to American literature. 

    These are the basics that you need to know about formatting your dialogue, so your manuscript doesn’t look unprofessional. 

    • Every speaker gets a new paragraph. 

    • When a character is speaking, you need to use the proper punctuation. This means adding quotations around speech, and using a question mark, period, or any other symbol to represent that character's expression within those quotations. 

    • Let the reader know who’s speaking through the dialogue tags

      • Dialogue tags are phrases created to inform the reader who’s speaking. These tags include, “she said”, “he asked”, “he whispered”, etc. These are default tags that tell the reader know who’s speaking without interrupting the pacing too much, but they aren’t the only kind. You can also use descriptions to break apart dialogue or add more ambiance to a scene if you want to slow it down. And finally, another choice is to veto them altogether, but the only way to get away with this is if you have two characters speaking.

    Most of the time, readers ignore the generic tags to see what’s within the dialogue. It’s vital to use a variety of tags to capture your scene and enhance the pacing. 

    How to write dialogue between two characters

    If you are writing an intimate scene with two characters, you could avoid the tags altogether to make it fast-paced, but ensure you've established who’s in the scene before you ditch the tags. 

    Or, if your character is out fishing with a friend—say they are reflecting on something— you will want dialogue tags with description. This allows you to slow the moment down and paint a picture for your reader.

    Dialogue tags impact the pacing of your story, and as the writer you need to choose which best fits the scene.

    Let us show you a book example: This excerpt is from Where the Crawdad’s Sing by Delia Owens.

    Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Excerpt

    In this example, Owens established a few elements that make the sentence structure of her dialogue captivating and distinct. Let’s explore what they are:

    1. She’s created a voice for Kya; we immediately know she’s the speaker because of her grammar mistake. That makes her unique because within the context of the story, she didn’t have a proper education. This is why Tate helps her learn how to read and write. 

    2. Owen’s has also created a rhythm; she altered her dialogue tags to create an atmosphere. The varying sentences create an ambiance for the reader. It also shows us the scene. We feel the silence between them because the characters notice the trees and branches. The author uses the word shaking because the characters are nervous to see each other again after being apart for so long.

    This example shows us how to apply character voice, pace, and the proper sentence structure for crafting compelling dialogue in a novel. Honestly, the best teachers for the craft are books! It’s also helpful to keenly listen to movies or tv shows.

    Part Two: How to pace dialogue in a screenplay. 

    basic Tips to screenplay sentence structure that will help you write engaging dialogue. 

    To begin, you’re going to need to understand proper formatting; there’s a lot that goes into building a script, and Studio Binder breaks it down best. In this part two section, we are covering what’s most important for creating engaging dialogue in screenwriting. 

    The two most vital aspects of screenwriting are the dialogue itself and the action, which is the description after a scene heading that shows what your characters are doing before the dialogue.  

    How to write engaging dialogue in your screenplay. 

    Here are two key qualities of well-paced dialogue that keeps readers hooked. 

    1. Clarity 

    2. Subtext 

    1. Since screenwriting consists of mostly dialogue, it must be purposeful to the narrative and clear. Like we discussed earlier—what your characters say within a scene must move them and/or the plot forward. You can build conflict with intentional dialogue. Oftentimes screenwriters overwrite dialogue; I’ve done this myself. And what that causes are unnatural awkward monologues that don’t show who the character is but tell us. 

    Like novel writing, you need to know who your characters are; create unique voices and use applicable colloquialism in their speech. Your characters actions and dialogue reveal more about who they are then any exposition ever will. 

    2. Discover what the characters are not saying though their subtext. This goes back to the key tip mentioned earlier— people don’t express what they truly feel, so as the writer we need to show how they feel through subtext. You can build tension through subtext because you can show your characters needs and desires without outright telling us. 

    What is subtext? It's unspoken emotions your characters feel without actually saying it. From our example earlier about Sarah, it’s the subtext within that dialogue that makes her unique, and makes the reader relate to her. Within the scene, she is saying one thing but her body language is showing us another. Subtext helps us create dynamic and layered characters that feel three-dimensional. 

    So how would you show that in a script? 

    Tips for writing dialogue in a screenplay

    How to ensure your dialogue is well-paced? 

    After you’ve created a character voice and found rhythm in the words, read your piece aloud and ask if there is clarity within the conversations. Do scenes drag with unnecessary exposition? Do the characters sound like real people?

    Much like we learn through books, it’s just as important to read other scripts. StudioBinder has compiled a whole catalogue of screenplays available for free.

    Here is a great scene from Batman Begins, the Christopher Nolan film from 2005. Read the first eight scenes and you’ll understand what I mean. 

    Pro Tip: As an experiment, if you’re having trouble writing dialogue for a novel, try working it out as a screenplay, or vice versa. This may get you to find your character’s voice from a different angle and help you focus on figuring out what they need to say


    Now that you have some tools for writing engaging dialogue, apply them to your story and let us know which one helped you. 

    Happy writing! 

    Serena Montoya

    Serena is the founder and owner of Humming Hearts Publishing, LLC. She’s also a writer, editor, and filmmaker. Serena specializes in developmental editing for fiction, memoir, poetry, magical realism, YA, fantasy, sci-fi, and children’s books.

    Read her fiction, here.

    Read Serena’s published clips with city lifestyle magazines: Parker and Highlands Ranch.

    Serena also co-produced and was the assistant director for the same forthcoming feature film alongside Alex Graff.

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