How to Make Dialogue Come to Life
The Novelry on Writing
Speaker intent and agendas in dialogue
Tara advises giving speakers agendas and Nic shows how intent and subtext reveal emotion beyond words.
Stale dialogue can cause a reader to set a book aside in just a few lines. Learn how to craft dialogue that captivates readers with The Novelry writing coach and New York Times bestselling author, Tara Conklin, and The Novelry senior editor Nic Caws. Explore how your dialogue can be realistic without imitating exactly how people speak, how to convey emotions through showing and not telling, and tips to avoid info-dumping in your dialogue.
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Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:44 - Tip #1: The dialogue conundrum
03:34 - Tip #2: Focus on the speaker’s intent
07:04 - Tip #3: Don’t info-dump
13:09 - Tip #4: Show your character
17:47 - Tip #5: Read the dialogue aloud
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Guest Bios
Tara Conklin is the New York Times bestselling author of three novels, personal essays, and short stories. Her books have been selected by Read with Jenna, the Today Show Book Club, Barnes & Noble Book Club, Target Book Club, as a No.1 IndieNext Pick and other accolades. Her work has been translated into eight languages. She is based in Seattle.
Before joining The Novelry, Nic was Senior Commissioning Editor at Headline, part of Hachette, with a particular focus on their boutique romance imprint Headline Eternal, the publishing home of bestselling authors such as Sarah Adams, Erin Sterling and Mariana Zapata.
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Resources
Check out these blog posts for more insight on how to write engaging dialogue:
How to Write Dialogue in Fiction
Read the full episode transcript!
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Show description
Learn how novels work from publishing’s top experts at The Novelry, the world’s #1 school for writers. Hosted by our bestselling writing coaches and publishing editors, this podcast is a practical, helpful guide to writing novels for every genre. Enjoy inside tips and tricks to make your writing a joyful experience while building your expertise in writing craft.
With new topics every week, there is always something to learn at The Novelry, the world’s top-rated fiction writing school with more 5* reviews from writers than any other creative writing course.
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