5 Secrets to Writing Dialogue That Sounds Natural
Natural-sounding dialogue is one of those things readers notice when it's wrong—but when it's right, it's invisible. It just flows. Characters feel like real people having real conversations, and readers sink into the story without a second thought.
The tricky part? Natural-sounding dialogue isn't the same as realistic dialogue. Real conversation is full of filler words, tangents, awkward pauses, and dead ends. If you transcribed an actual conversation between two people, it would be almost unreadable.
This means that your job isn't to capture how people actually talk—it's to create the impression of natural speech while making sure every line earns its place on the page. That's a tricky balance to strike, and most writers struggle with dialogue for the same handful of reasons.
In this post, I'm sharing five secrets that will help your dialogue sound natural, stay purposeful, and pull readers deeper into your story. Let's dive in.
Secret #1: Every Line of Dialogue Should Earn Its Place
The number one thing that separates good dialogue from forgettable dialogue is purpose.
Every conversation in your novel should connect to something that matters—whether that's what the character wants in the scene, what they're trying to avoid, or how this particular moment ties into the bigger story. If the dialogue isn't serving one of those things, it's just taking up space.
Plus, here’s the thing. It’s really easy for dialogue to drift, even if it starts out purposeful. Characters say things that sound natural but don't actually do anything. Pleasantries. Filler. Lines that exist because that's how people talk in real life—not because they're moving the story forward.
But readers aren't here for small talk. They're here for dialogue that reveals character, builds tension, or shifts the dynamic between people.
So how do you know if your dialogue is earning its place?
Ask yourself: What is this conversation doing? Is it revealing something about the character speaking? Is it creating or escalating conflict? Is it giving the reader new information? Is it advancing or blocking a goal?
If your dialogue (or a line within your dialogue) isn't doing at least one of those things, it might be dead weight.
So when you're revising, look for the lines you can cut without losing anything. The "Oh, hey, how's it going?" exchanges. The responses that just echo what was already said. The filler that sounds realistic but doesn't move anything forward.
And cut more than you think you need to. The lines that remain will hit harder—and your dialogue will feel tighter, sharper, and more purposeful.
Related: 10 Tips For Writing Better Dialogue
Secret #2: Natural-Sounding Dialogue Isn't the Same as Realistic Dialogue
This might be the most counterintuitive secret on the list, but it's essential: if you want your dialogue to sound natural, don't write the way people actually talk.
Real speech is messy. People say "um" and "uh." They repeat themselves. They start sentences and don't finish them. They go off on tangents, circle back, and talk over each other. In real life, this is normal. On the page, it's exhausting.
So why do writers fall into this trap?
Usually, because they're trying to make their dialogue feel authentic. They want readers to feel like they're eavesdropping on a real conversation, so they include all the messiness that comes with actual speech.
But here's the thing—readers don't want a transcript. They want the impression of natural conversation. Dialogue that feels real without being tedious.
So what does that actually sound like?
It's looser than formal writing but tighter than real speech. Characters speak in fragments when it makes sense. They interrupt each other. They trail off. Sentences don't always follow perfect grammar—because real people don't talk in complete, polished sentences.
But at the same time, every line still moves efficiently. There's no wandering, no throat-clearing, no filler that exists just to mimic how people talk.
The trick is finding the rhythm. Dialogue should have a flow to it—a musicality that makes it easy to read and easy to hear in your head.
One of the best ways to find that rhythm? Read your dialogue out loud.
If it sounds stilted or overly formal, loosen it up. If it sounds rambly or hard to follow, tighten it. Trust your ear. When dialogue is working, you'll feel it—and so will your readers.
Secret #3: Dialogue Needs to Be Grounded in the Scene
You've probably heard the term "talking heads" before. This is what happens when two characters go back and forth in conversation, but there's no sense of place, no physicality, no grounding in the moment. Just disembodied voices exchanging words in a void.
The problem is that dialogue is only one layer of a scene. When it exists on its own—without any sense of where we are or what characters are doing—readers lose their footing. The conversation might be interesting, but it doesn't feel like it's happening.
So why does this happen?
Often, it’s because dialogue is fun to write. It moves fast, it feels dynamic, and it's easy to get caught up in the back-and-forth without pausing to anchor the exchange in the physical world.
The fix is to braid your dialogue together with action—what I call "action beats."
Action beats are the small moments of physical movement or gesture woven between lines of dialogue. The nervous fidgeting. The deliberate eye contact. The way someone turns away at a key moment.
These beats do a few things at once. They ground us in the scene so we know where we are and what characters are doing. They reveal emotion and subtext without you having to spell it out. And they control pacing—giving readers a breath between lines, or speeding things up when the beats disappear.
Here's an example. Compare these two versions:
Example #1 (without action beats):
"I don't think we should do this," Sarah said.
"Why not?" Tom asked.
"Because it's dangerous."
"Since when do you care about danger?"
Example #2 (with action beats):
"I don't think we should do this." Sarah crossed her arms, her eyes fixed on the door.
Tom laughed. "Why not?"
"Because it's dangerous."
"Since when do you care about danger?" He was already reaching for his coat.
Same dialogue, but the second version feels like a real moment. We can see these people. We can feel the tension building through what they're doing, not just what they're saying.
So when you're revising, watch for long stretches of unbroken dialogue. If you've got more than three or four exchanges without any grounding, that's usually a sign your readers need an anchor.
Related: The 5 Functions of Dialogue in Your Story
Secret #4: Each Character Should Have a Distinct Voice
Here's a quick test: if you covered up the dialogue tags in your manuscript, could you tell who's speaking just by the words themselves?
If not, your characters might all sound like the same person—which usually means they sound like you. And when every character speaks the same way, dialogue loses one of its most powerful functions: revealing who these people are.
So how do you differentiate voices?
It starts with knowing your characters deeply. Not surface-level details, but the stuff that shapes how someone communicates—their background, their education, their worldview, their emotional wiring.
A character who grew up wealthy and went to boarding school will speak differently from a character who dropped out of high school and worked construction. A teenager will have different rhythms than a sixty-year-old. An optimist will frame things differently than a cynic—even when they're saying the same thing.
And it's not just about what they say. It's about how they say it.
Some people speak in long, winding sentences. Others are clipped and direct. Some people deflect with humor. Others get quiet when they're upset. Some characters always have to have the last word. Others back down the moment there's tension.
These patterns emerge naturally when you know who your characters are beneath the surface.
So here's how to put this into practice: when you're revising, read each character's dialogue in isolation. Just their lines, nothing else. Does it sound like them? Or does it sound generic—like it could belong to anyone in the book?
If you can swap one character's line for another's without anyone noticing, that's a sign you need to dig deeper into who these people are.
Secret #5: The Best Dialogue Lives Beneath the Surface
In real life, people rarely say exactly what they mean. They hint. They deflect. They talk around the thing they actually want to say. They say "I'm fine" when they're falling apart. They pick a fight about dishes when they're really upset about something else entirely.
This is subtext—the tension between what characters say and what they actually mean. And it's what makes dialogue feel layered and real.
So why do writers miss this?
Because it's easier to write dialogue that's direct. When characters say exactly what they're thinking and feeling, the scene is clear. The reader knows what's happening. There's no ambiguity. But clarity isn't always what you want.
Dialogue without subtext feels flat because it's all surface. There's nothing for readers to pick up on beneath the words. Nothing for them to infer or interpret. Nothing for them to lean into.
The best dialogue invites readers to read between the lines.
So how do you create that?
Before you write an important exchange, ask yourself: What does this character really want to communicate? What are they avoiding saying directly? What's the emotion or truth beneath the surface?
Then write the dialogue that dances around that truth instead of stating it outright. Trust your readers to pick up on what's left unsaid. That's where the real power of dialogue lives.
Related: 3 Common Dialogue Mistakes (And How To Fix Them)
Bringing It All Together
These five secrets won't just improve your dialogue—they'll elevate your entire manuscript. When dialogue is working, readers disappear into your story. When it's not, every clunky line pulls them out.
Here's the good news: you don't have to nail this in your first draft. When you're drafting, focus on getting the conversation down—capture the essence of what needs to happen in the scene, even if the dialogue is clunky, too long, or missing subtext. That's okay. Dialogue is one of the things that gets refined in revision, once you can see the shape of your story and understand your characters more deeply.
As you revise, keep these secrets in mind. Read your dialogue out loud. Cut more than you think you need to. And trust that the work you put in will show on the page—because when dialogue is working, readers don't just read your story. They live inside it.
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