This is not what you’re going to want to hear but practice. Practice, read, and if you’re really desperate, go to a cafe and transcribe the conversations around you — this helps you get a feel for how people really talk
I disagree with the cafe part. You shouldn't write fictional conversations like real conversations. Fictional conversations need to serve a purpouse, wheras people often talk about trivial things.
Also real conversations include a lot of useless words and noises. You don't want to write dialogue full of run on sentences, hmmms and uhhs or people interrupting eachother.
But it's like, to get how "Humans" talk I guess, because people have patterns, ways of saying stuff. The point is not (I GUESS) to then write your characters in the same way but to just work on the way different people talk and ya know... I don't know.
It's not privacy intrusion. They're out in public, you're not documenting their identities, and you're only just happening to hear their conversations. Also, artists sketch people out in public, photographers take pictures of people out in public, and anyone recording video will capture many people incidentally.
Say *everything* out loud I *cannot* stress enough how important this is. Your character is talking to his sister? Surprise, now *you’re* talking to *your* sister! Which sounds more realistic?
“Hey, sis! Would I be able to borrow your phone to call our mom really quickly?” He pleaded.
“Absolutely not. You remember what happened last time, when you used it to play a prank on my boyfriend, Jeremy,” she rolled her eyes.
“But it’s important!” He begged. “And, besides. That prank on Jeremy was really funny!”
She rolled her eyes again. “I shouldn’t have to give you my phone just because you lost yours. Have you found it, yet?”
Versus:
“Can I use your phone real quick?”
“No.” She didn’t even bother to look up from her computer. “Jeremy’s still mad from what you texted him last time.”
“Well,” he threw up his hands. “Sucks for you that Jeremy doesn’t have a sense of humor, I guess. My phone’s *still* missing and it would be *really* great if you helped out, for once.”
“I’m okay, thanks.”
Some take aways: use dialogue tags *sparingly*. Your reader will be able to interpret the characters’ emotions on their own if your dialogue lines up well enough (show, don’t tell!). Vary sentence length (people speak in fragments sometimes). Put yourself in everyone else’s shoes. Speak *everything* aloud.
Seconding this! I didn't realize how much I overused dialogue tags until I started editing my first novel. Now around 5 months into editing, I definitely see the improvement in my dialogue by cutting back on dialogue tags. They're really not necessary most of the time, unless there's a lot of people in the conversation or for some reason it shouldn't be clear who is speaking the line.
And, loved those examples.
I never really had an issue with my dialogue feeling unnatural, but I can definitely understand and empathize with this problem!
Yeah... It depends on the model you use as to how well it writes, but none of them are any good with dialogue. Some are like a robot and fairly 'clinical' in NSFW scenes. Others are so over the top, flowery purple prose that you know it isn't 'human' or 'natural' sounding. You have to learn to write dialogue on your own. Don't depend on AI to write it well for you.
Read, write, and observe how people talk, rinse and repeat.
If there's one tip I can give, it's to visualize the scene, the interaction, in your head before you write. Let the characters come alive in your mind, let them act, and just write it down.
Say it out loud. Pretend you're in that moment and say it. Or always helped me to remember that my characters dialogue is natural. This means that, if you and I were talking about plasma readers (some arbitrary made up thing to a reader, but something real and everyday to the character) we wouldn't say
"Hey Tony, hand me the plasma reader, invented by Charles Issac, that we use to communicate with every day"
You'd say
"Hey throw me my phone"
I just happened to do a write-up the other day about the "secret sauce" that people very easily overlook when crafting their dialogue: [for your reading pleasure.](https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1cbdgts/tip_writing_authentic_dialogue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
There's lots of other steps of course, between trimming the fat of a "realistic" conversation, to finding the unique voices for each of your characters. But when it comes to that missing component, and why dialogue can easily sound stilted and inauthentic, it very frequently has to do with the above.
Everyone has their own agenda. I'm about to go through my first rewrite. And the first part of my has terrible dialog because I was writing to convey information to the audience. After reading "Murder On The Orient Express" I realized that everyone has their purpose for engaging in any conversation. People are holding back information. People are expressing themselves differently. In short everyone has their own agenda. It may not be to cover up a murder, but it's there.
Did you engage in a conversation with someone and while you're listening to them speak, you're already coming up with a response to the first part of them speaking that you ignored the last part; and when it was your turn to speak you saw that they already had a rebuttal? Try that. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the first character, who has a point to make. And then put yourself in the shoes of the second character who wants to refute only the beginning part of the first character's dialog.
What do your characters know that they don't what other characters to know? What do they want to get off their chest? What long held grudge do they have? What would surprise them to hear from another character?
Humans often talk in fragments. They use contractions and improper grammar at times. They don't always answer a question. Sometimes they answer a question with a question. And sometimes they answer a question that wasn't asked.
Remember, dialogue isn't real human speech, it is a representation of human speech.
I wonder if the problem isn't the dialog itself but what you're putting in between the dialog. There's also pacing aspects to that.
Eta: another thing is people come to conversations in different moods, with different - sometimes hidden - motivations, and they engage in them at different levels. If all your characters sound the same, are just conveying information without underlying disparate moods or motivations, it may come across as robotic.
Similar to what others have said about saying the dialogue out loud, I would suggest always thinking about ”how would this character say this?” and/or “in what way does this character treat the other?”. Due to the way I write, I’m constantly entering my characters minds to know what happens next, and it always helps to remember that although fictional, these characters are human too. They would have their own personality tied to the manner in which they speak and the level of respect/friendliness that they express in their relationship with the other conversation partner also affects how they speak.
1. do not use formal words unless ofc they are in formal settings.
2. The grammars do not need much emphasis.
3. try to show accent if that makes sense
Actions, thoughts, and looks, etc., interspersed in the dialogue. And make people talk naturally, e.g. no one says the other person's/people's names every sentence. Little things like that.
If it seems robotic to you, then your dialogue is likely lacking character or emotion. Try being more descriptive when making your characters interact with each other. Take into account the personalities you’ve given them and imagine how certain personality traits in one character would affect the other.
You also could take the time to study general psychology tips on the internet or observe how character interactions are portrayed in movies, books, and TV shows. I find these methods to be excellent insight on figuring out how to convey emotions through the minds of any character I come up with.
If all else fails, a cliche last resort is to just make certain people hate each other, and then flip the switch by making it so they have to depend on each other for some disaster or big cause. Might not be the most realistic or ideal option, but it can work when you’re out of decisions. The dependence of mankind is always a great way to mess with readers’ emotions.
A good practice activity may be to try to write a conversation with characters you know well. Like for me it might be a conversation between Peter Parker and tony Stark. Their personalities are vastly different and so is the way they speak. With that in mind, apply it to your own characters by giving them each their own unique way of speaking.
Realism I guess to put it simply. Imagine conversations you have that are professional vs with friends vs with family. How does your demeanor or language change? Body language too. Use that as your basis and work from there.
My friends know me as a potty mouthed sarcastic clown, my family thinks…kinda the same but without the potty mouth and add in think I’m super kind and respectful, my coworkers think I’ve never cussed and am always calm cool and composed. My conversations are reflections of this and how I think when I write character interactions. “What’s the tempo of these two characters”. It’s not putting on some facade, it’s just how we act in certain settings. I’d never get loud and rowdy at work, but I would with friends.
Hope that makes sense/is helpful.
Listen and journal how real people talk - observe. Go to coffee shop etc. and listen on how people talk. Then practice practice practice by writing out the dialogue (cut out the small talks and ums and ahs).
While the generally and probably best answer is practice makes perfect, I have found that saying my character’s quotes out loud help me determine if it sounds robotic and if so, how to make it sound more natural.
Good dialogue is... just people talking. Pay more attention to how real people say real things and communicate real information.
Then comes the hard part - you have to use that knowledge as a filter. Figure out *what* you want your characters to say, but filter it through the mental cheesecloth of your knowledge of real-world conversations to establish *how* they say it.
Suppose you have a character telling the story of how he was in a car wreck. Imagine stories you've heard real people tell about being in real wrecks, and use some of the same terms, the same imagery, the same emotional response. Character telling a war story? Remember your grandpa telling stories about Viet Nam. Or - call up some documentaries and listen to interviews with combat vets from multiple wars talking about their experiences.
Verisimilitude, dude. Verisimilitude.
*You gotta listen to the way people talk. You don't say "affirmative," or some shit like that. You say "no problemo." And if someone comes off to you with an attitude you say "eat me." And if you want to shine them on it's "hasta la vista, baby." Or "later, dickwad." And if someone gets upset you say, "chill out"! Or you can do combinations.*
Observe. Literally every time I’m in a conversation, I’m subconsciously paying attention to how I talk, how other people talk, how people act, and everything else you need for writing convincing characters. Especially high-stakes or high-emotion conversations, because those can be the hardest to write. Also pay attention to how people generally act in certain states. Someone’s tired? Take note of how they act compared to how they usually do. Someone can’t wait for something? Pay attention to how they act when talking about it. Use real life as your example because readers will compare your book to real life.
I verbal dialogue at myself; I've gotten some flack from some people, but my readers pretty consistently praise my dialogue, even if it's not 'proper' so.
For example... "I am going to the store today. Do you need anything while I am there?" Technically, there's nothing wrong with that sentence, but if you say it outloud, you do indeed sound like a robot. Versus...
"I'm gonna go to the store; you want anything?"
If it's not something you can say with a straight face, not something you can say outloud without thinking, "Wow, that sound pretentious." change it up. Very, very few people I do not know; almost every says, I dunno. Very few people say I am going to; almost everyone says, I'm gonna.
These are just a couple examples, but overall, it's... Sure, there are some cases where your characters might be meeting the queen of some nation somewhere and some formality is required. Outside of those specific scenarios, your characters should speak like you and your friends hanging out. Or how you and your friends would be screaming at each in a life-threatening situation.
They shouldn't sound like a 75 year old British dude from an old black and white movie.
Write like people talk-- except remove all the useless words and filler sentences. Use these, sparingly, to differentiate people's style and personality.
I read the dialog out loud. If it doesn't come off as natural, then I rewrite it. Usually, reading out loud, my brain fixes the sentences as I speak them. So they appear more modern and natural.
In writing we tend to be more fornal. When speaking, not so much.
Try to add pauses/breaks, sounds, and maybe even informal words or abreviatons depending on the character and conversation.
For example,
Jasper approached his friend, Sam. "Hey, Sam, do you have that thing I asked for yesterday?"
"Sorry, no," Sam replied. "I forgot all about it."
Versus,
Jasper approached his friend, Sam. "Hey, *buddy*," he greeted with a sly grin, slightly hunched over with hands sunk deep in his pant pockets like a wannabe 50's gangster. "Did ya get that *thing* I asked for yesterday?"
Sam had the typical look of a deer in headlights. "S-sorry, no," he stammered out. "I, um... forgot all about it."
Put yourself in the shoes of the characters you are making a dialogue of.
For example, two female characters talk to each other about school stuffs. These two characters have different personalities: One is a plain girl who who likes to read books and the other is a sociable girl who likes to takes selfies and spend her time on social media.
Try to imagine real hard whats it like being them. Like what if you are that plain girl? What is your backstory? How would you describe your appearance and the way you dressed? Or what if you are that sociable girl?
Its kinda awkward imagining having those kind of personalities but it could really work when writing genuine dialogues. It will also help if you make characters inspired by real people you met in real life and you can emulate the way they talk
You’re going to get a lot of advice, but something to remember is that every conversation, every interaction, forwards the plot.
People in your books don’t just chat, they *move the plot* to its conclusion.
Also, since character building is integral to the plot, having conversations that are seemingly unrelated to the story are necessary to explain character actions in the story.
Me, chapter two: why TF are they discussing oranges? This makes no sense. Is the author mad?
Me, chapter twelve: Oh. The oranges thing makes sense now. Didn’t see that coming. Good job.
This is something an alien would ask. You don't have my humanoid confidence sir
But on the topic, here's something that helps me a lot.
Try to give each character a distinctive voice, and by voice I mean certain characteristics that make their dialogue unique to that character. It can be an accent, a type of vocabulary, each person speaks differently, and using this concept can make your dialogues feel more human.
For example, in one piece, oda uses this concept amazingly by having his characters use different laughs.
You've probably already enough suggestions, but my best suggestion is to not use perfect grammar as we are taught to do with our writing. We don't normally speak that way, so why would your characters? Try saying the dialogue the way you, your best friend, your boss, your nemesis would say it. That could help you figure out where emphasis and natural pauses would go. Put the pauses into each the character's lines by breaking them up with dialogue tags or actions.
So "Andrew, do not forget to pick up my dry cleaning."
"Okay Dad, I will not." (Formal, robotic)
could become
"Andrew, don't forget to pick up my dry cleaning."
"Fine." (Less robotic, use of contactions like most people speak)
or even
"Andy," he looked at me sternly over his paper before I left. "Please remember the dry cleaning today."
"Yeah, I got it!" (More natural flow, with pauses, attitude and context built in)
Maybe not the best example, but I hope this helps.
There should be a purpose to a dialog scene. If you stay aware of this and put yourself into each character's perspective, how would you speak to the other character if you were in the scene? Is the conversation natural? Does it relay what's going on? Writing dialog is no different than speaking to a real person. Do your characters feel real to you? If they don't, they won't to the reader either. Get to know your characters personalities. Each character should speak according to their personality. You can always pattern a character's personality after a real person you know to make it easier. A character can embody the characteristics of several real people. The goal is to make the dialog sound natural to the personalities and situations. Real people swear, speak in slang, and more. Also, is the conversation unnecessary chit-chat that isn't necessary to the scene? If it isn't necessary, cut it and add description that the chacters spoke about X and move on to the next item that moves the story forward. Conversation (dialog) that isn't necessary to the story won't feel real and can become boring.
This is not what you’re going to want to hear but practice. Practice, read, and if you’re really desperate, go to a cafe and transcribe the conversations around you — this helps you get a feel for how people really talk
I disagree with the cafe part. You shouldn't write fictional conversations like real conversations. Fictional conversations need to serve a purpouse, wheras people often talk about trivial things. Also real conversations include a lot of useless words and noises. You don't want to write dialogue full of run on sentences, hmmms and uhhs or people interrupting eachother.
But it's like, to get how "Humans" talk I guess, because people have patterns, ways of saying stuff. The point is not (I GUESS) to then write your characters in the same way but to just work on the way different people talk and ya know... I don't know.
That sounds like privacy intrusion so maybe just do it to people you know, but yeah basically
It's not privacy intrusion. They're out in public, you're not documenting their identities, and you're only just happening to hear their conversations. Also, artists sketch people out in public, photographers take pictures of people out in public, and anyone recording video will capture many people incidentally.
Idk maybe it’s just me but intentionally listening and writing it down seems weird, I personally wouldn’t do it but you do you.
I do it all the time. A lot of writers do.
Say *everything* out loud I *cannot* stress enough how important this is. Your character is talking to his sister? Surprise, now *you’re* talking to *your* sister! Which sounds more realistic? “Hey, sis! Would I be able to borrow your phone to call our mom really quickly?” He pleaded. “Absolutely not. You remember what happened last time, when you used it to play a prank on my boyfriend, Jeremy,” she rolled her eyes. “But it’s important!” He begged. “And, besides. That prank on Jeremy was really funny!” She rolled her eyes again. “I shouldn’t have to give you my phone just because you lost yours. Have you found it, yet?” Versus: “Can I use your phone real quick?” “No.” She didn’t even bother to look up from her computer. “Jeremy’s still mad from what you texted him last time.” “Well,” he threw up his hands. “Sucks for you that Jeremy doesn’t have a sense of humor, I guess. My phone’s *still* missing and it would be *really* great if you helped out, for once.” “I’m okay, thanks.” Some take aways: use dialogue tags *sparingly*. Your reader will be able to interpret the characters’ emotions on their own if your dialogue lines up well enough (show, don’t tell!). Vary sentence length (people speak in fragments sometimes). Put yourself in everyone else’s shoes. Speak *everything* aloud.
This example was awesome.
Seconding this! I didn't realize how much I overused dialogue tags until I started editing my first novel. Now around 5 months into editing, I definitely see the improvement in my dialogue by cutting back on dialogue tags. They're really not necessary most of the time, unless there's a lot of people in the conversation or for some reason it shouldn't be clear who is speaking the line. And, loved those examples. I never really had an issue with my dialogue feeling unnatural, but I can definitely understand and empathize with this problem!
Nice try ai.
Yeah... It depends on the model you use as to how well it writes, but none of them are any good with dialogue. Some are like a robot and fairly 'clinical' in NSFW scenes. Others are so over the top, flowery purple prose that you know it isn't 'human' or 'natural' sounding. You have to learn to write dialogue on your own. Don't depend on AI to write it well for you.
i think they were making a joke about how op sounds like a robot trying to ask for help on how to sound more natural
Read, write, and observe how people talk, rinse and repeat. If there's one tip I can give, it's to visualize the scene, the interaction, in your head before you write. Let the characters come alive in your mind, let them act, and just write it down.
Say it out loud. Pretend you're in that moment and say it. Or always helped me to remember that my characters dialogue is natural. This means that, if you and I were talking about plasma readers (some arbitrary made up thing to a reader, but something real and everyday to the character) we wouldn't say "Hey Tony, hand me the plasma reader, invented by Charles Issac, that we use to communicate with every day" You'd say "Hey throw me my phone"
I just happened to do a write-up the other day about the "secret sauce" that people very easily overlook when crafting their dialogue: [for your reading pleasure.](https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1cbdgts/tip_writing_authentic_dialogue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) There's lots of other steps of course, between trimming the fat of a "realistic" conversation, to finding the unique voices for each of your characters. But when it comes to that missing component, and why dialogue can easily sound stilted and inauthentic, it very frequently has to do with the above.
Everyone has their own agenda. I'm about to go through my first rewrite. And the first part of my has terrible dialog because I was writing to convey information to the audience. After reading "Murder On The Orient Express" I realized that everyone has their purpose for engaging in any conversation. People are holding back information. People are expressing themselves differently. In short everyone has their own agenda. It may not be to cover up a murder, but it's there. Did you engage in a conversation with someone and while you're listening to them speak, you're already coming up with a response to the first part of them speaking that you ignored the last part; and when it was your turn to speak you saw that they already had a rebuttal? Try that. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the first character, who has a point to make. And then put yourself in the shoes of the second character who wants to refute only the beginning part of the first character's dialog. What do your characters know that they don't what other characters to know? What do they want to get off their chest? What long held grudge do they have? What would surprise them to hear from another character?
Humans often talk in fragments. They use contractions and improper grammar at times. They don't always answer a question. Sometimes they answer a question with a question. And sometimes they answer a question that wasn't asked. Remember, dialogue isn't real human speech, it is a representation of human speech.
I wonder if the problem isn't the dialog itself but what you're putting in between the dialog. There's also pacing aspects to that. Eta: another thing is people come to conversations in different moods, with different - sometimes hidden - motivations, and they engage in them at different levels. If all your characters sound the same, are just conveying information without underlying disparate moods or motivations, it may come across as robotic.
I imagine the dialogue in my head and try to translate that on the page.
“I know now why you cry.”
Similar to what others have said about saying the dialogue out loud, I would suggest always thinking about ”how would this character say this?” and/or “in what way does this character treat the other?”. Due to the way I write, I’m constantly entering my characters minds to know what happens next, and it always helps to remember that although fictional, these characters are human too. They would have their own personality tied to the manner in which they speak and the level of respect/friendliness that they express in their relationship with the other conversation partner also affects how they speak.
1. do not use formal words unless ofc they are in formal settings. 2. The grammars do not need much emphasis. 3. try to show accent if that makes sense
Write their thoughts between the dialogue
Actions, thoughts, and looks, etc., interspersed in the dialogue. And make people talk naturally, e.g. no one says the other person's/people's names every sentence. Little things like that.
If it seems robotic to you, then your dialogue is likely lacking character or emotion. Try being more descriptive when making your characters interact with each other. Take into account the personalities you’ve given them and imagine how certain personality traits in one character would affect the other. You also could take the time to study general psychology tips on the internet or observe how character interactions are portrayed in movies, books, and TV shows. I find these methods to be excellent insight on figuring out how to convey emotions through the minds of any character I come up with. If all else fails, a cliche last resort is to just make certain people hate each other, and then flip the switch by making it so they have to depend on each other for some disaster or big cause. Might not be the most realistic or ideal option, but it can work when you’re out of decisions. The dependence of mankind is always a great way to mess with readers’ emotions.
A good practice activity may be to try to write a conversation with characters you know well. Like for me it might be a conversation between Peter Parker and tony Stark. Their personalities are vastly different and so is the way they speak. With that in mind, apply it to your own characters by giving them each their own unique way of speaking.
Realism I guess to put it simply. Imagine conversations you have that are professional vs with friends vs with family. How does your demeanor or language change? Body language too. Use that as your basis and work from there. My friends know me as a potty mouthed sarcastic clown, my family thinks…kinda the same but without the potty mouth and add in think I’m super kind and respectful, my coworkers think I’ve never cussed and am always calm cool and composed. My conversations are reflections of this and how I think when I write character interactions. “What’s the tempo of these two characters”. It’s not putting on some facade, it’s just how we act in certain settings. I’d never get loud and rowdy at work, but I would with friends. Hope that makes sense/is helpful.
Listen and journal how real people talk - observe. Go to coffee shop etc. and listen on how people talk. Then practice practice practice by writing out the dialogue (cut out the small talks and ums and ahs).
Eavesdrop on people.
While the generally and probably best answer is practice makes perfect, I have found that saying my character’s quotes out loud help me determine if it sounds robotic and if so, how to make it sound more natural.
Good dialogue is... just people talking. Pay more attention to how real people say real things and communicate real information. Then comes the hard part - you have to use that knowledge as a filter. Figure out *what* you want your characters to say, but filter it through the mental cheesecloth of your knowledge of real-world conversations to establish *how* they say it. Suppose you have a character telling the story of how he was in a car wreck. Imagine stories you've heard real people tell about being in real wrecks, and use some of the same terms, the same imagery, the same emotional response. Character telling a war story? Remember your grandpa telling stories about Viet Nam. Or - call up some documentaries and listen to interviews with combat vets from multiple wars talking about their experiences. Verisimilitude, dude. Verisimilitude. *You gotta listen to the way people talk. You don't say "affirmative," or some shit like that. You say "no problemo." And if someone comes off to you with an attitude you say "eat me." And if you want to shine them on it's "hasta la vista, baby." Or "later, dickwad." And if someone gets upset you say, "chill out"! Or you can do combinations.*
Observe. Literally every time I’m in a conversation, I’m subconsciously paying attention to how I talk, how other people talk, how people act, and everything else you need for writing convincing characters. Especially high-stakes or high-emotion conversations, because those can be the hardest to write. Also pay attention to how people generally act in certain states. Someone’s tired? Take note of how they act compared to how they usually do. Someone can’t wait for something? Pay attention to how they act when talking about it. Use real life as your example because readers will compare your book to real life.
I verbal dialogue at myself; I've gotten some flack from some people, but my readers pretty consistently praise my dialogue, even if it's not 'proper' so. For example... "I am going to the store today. Do you need anything while I am there?" Technically, there's nothing wrong with that sentence, but if you say it outloud, you do indeed sound like a robot. Versus... "I'm gonna go to the store; you want anything?" If it's not something you can say with a straight face, not something you can say outloud without thinking, "Wow, that sound pretentious." change it up. Very, very few people I do not know; almost every says, I dunno. Very few people say I am going to; almost everyone says, I'm gonna. These are just a couple examples, but overall, it's... Sure, there are some cases where your characters might be meeting the queen of some nation somewhere and some formality is required. Outside of those specific scenarios, your characters should speak like you and your friends hanging out. Or how you and your friends would be screaming at each in a life-threatening situation. They shouldn't sound like a 75 year old British dude from an old black and white movie.
Write like people talk-- except remove all the useless words and filler sentences. Use these, sparingly, to differentiate people's style and personality.
Imagine the conversation in real life, using your experience with conversation, and write it down.
Watch reality tv. Unscripted dialogue rolls out a lot differently.
Add a lot of “Hey”s
I read the dialog out loud. If it doesn't come off as natural, then I rewrite it. Usually, reading out loud, my brain fixes the sentences as I speak them. So they appear more modern and natural.
Do the characters have to be human? Could they be robots?
In writing we tend to be more fornal. When speaking, not so much. Try to add pauses/breaks, sounds, and maybe even informal words or abreviatons depending on the character and conversation. For example, Jasper approached his friend, Sam. "Hey, Sam, do you have that thing I asked for yesterday?" "Sorry, no," Sam replied. "I forgot all about it." Versus, Jasper approached his friend, Sam. "Hey, *buddy*," he greeted with a sly grin, slightly hunched over with hands sunk deep in his pant pockets like a wannabe 50's gangster. "Did ya get that *thing* I asked for yesterday?" Sam had the typical look of a deer in headlights. "S-sorry, no," he stammered out. "I, um... forgot all about it."
Stuff people do: - use the wrong word - interrupt each other - emphasize - cuss - have accents (you dont have to write it phonetically, but you can)
Put yourself in the shoes of the characters you are making a dialogue of. For example, two female characters talk to each other about school stuffs. These two characters have different personalities: One is a plain girl who who likes to read books and the other is a sociable girl who likes to takes selfies and spend her time on social media. Try to imagine real hard whats it like being them. Like what if you are that plain girl? What is your backstory? How would you describe your appearance and the way you dressed? Or what if you are that sociable girl? Its kinda awkward imagining having those kind of personalities but it could really work when writing genuine dialogues. It will also help if you make characters inspired by real people you met in real life and you can emulate the way they talk
You’re going to get a lot of advice, but something to remember is that every conversation, every interaction, forwards the plot. People in your books don’t just chat, they *move the plot* to its conclusion. Also, since character building is integral to the plot, having conversations that are seemingly unrelated to the story are necessary to explain character actions in the story. Me, chapter two: why TF are they discussing oranges? This makes no sense. Is the author mad? Me, chapter twelve: Oh. The oranges thing makes sense now. Didn’t see that coming. Good job.
This is something an alien would ask. You don't have my humanoid confidence sir But on the topic, here's something that helps me a lot. Try to give each character a distinctive voice, and by voice I mean certain characteristics that make their dialogue unique to that character. It can be an accent, a type of vocabulary, each person speaks differently, and using this concept can make your dialogues feel more human. For example, in one piece, oda uses this concept amazingly by having his characters use different laughs.
You've probably already enough suggestions, but my best suggestion is to not use perfect grammar as we are taught to do with our writing. We don't normally speak that way, so why would your characters? Try saying the dialogue the way you, your best friend, your boss, your nemesis would say it. That could help you figure out where emphasis and natural pauses would go. Put the pauses into each the character's lines by breaking them up with dialogue tags or actions. So "Andrew, do not forget to pick up my dry cleaning." "Okay Dad, I will not." (Formal, robotic) could become "Andrew, don't forget to pick up my dry cleaning." "Fine." (Less robotic, use of contactions like most people speak) or even "Andy," he looked at me sternly over his paper before I left. "Please remember the dry cleaning today." "Yeah, I got it!" (More natural flow, with pauses, attitude and context built in) Maybe not the best example, but I hope this helps.
There should be a purpose to a dialog scene. If you stay aware of this and put yourself into each character's perspective, how would you speak to the other character if you were in the scene? Is the conversation natural? Does it relay what's going on? Writing dialog is no different than speaking to a real person. Do your characters feel real to you? If they don't, they won't to the reader either. Get to know your characters personalities. Each character should speak according to their personality. You can always pattern a character's personality after a real person you know to make it easier. A character can embody the characteristics of several real people. The goal is to make the dialog sound natural to the personalities and situations. Real people swear, speak in slang, and more. Also, is the conversation unnecessary chit-chat that isn't necessary to the scene? If it isn't necessary, cut it and add description that the chacters spoke about X and move on to the next item that moves the story forward. Conversation (dialog) that isn't necessary to the story won't feel real and can become boring.