The Best Way to Write Dialogue

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Readers love it when your characters talk.  Readers hear the characters.  They hear the nastiness, the sweetness and the sincerity.

And please, “he said” and “she said” are the only tags a reader needs.

If the character is angry or happy or expressing any other emotion the emotion will come out in what the situation is and in what the character says.

Writing dialogue is all about the words that come out of a character’s mouth.  It is not about the tag line the writer attaches to the dialogue.  Think of it this way.  If the reader cannot tell the character’s emotional state from what the dialogue is the writer is doing something wrong.

So, keep the tag lines at “he said” or “she said”.  But that is just the introduction to the best way to write dialogue.

The best way to write dialogue is to make sure there is tension in the dialogue.  The best way to make tension is to have ongoing conflict.

The conflict can be obvious or it can be subtle.  Just make sure it’s there.  It doesn’t have to be there every moment, just in general.

That is the best way to write dialogue.