I’ve written a fair amount about Dialogue over the past few years … partly because I love writing dialogue! And I figured it was about time I collated those posts in one place.

Whether you enjoy dialogue too (and want to make yours even better) or whether it’s something you struggle with, these posts will help you.

Seven Simple Tips for Writing Great Dialogue

If you’re fairly new to writing fiction, or if you’ve had feedback suggesting your dialogue skills need a brush-up, check out this post. I go through seven straightforward (but crucial) tips for getting it right, giving you an example for each one.

Stylised Talk: Writing Great Dialogue [With Examples]

Here, the focus is on examples that show how accomplished authors write quite different types of dialogue – all of which can be very successful. I also offer some more advanced dialogue-writing tips, and warn you what to steer clear of when attempting these.

Are You Using “Said” Too Frequently? Dialogue Tags and Dialogue Beats Explained

Many new writers worry about using the word “said” too often and come up with all sorts of variations – muttered, pondered, exclaimed, and more. The problem is, these tend to distract from your actual dialogue. You can get away with using “said” surprisingly often – but there are also more elegant solutions to avoid repeating it, which I explain in this post.

When Dialogue Gets Weird: Representing Unorthodox Forms of Speech on the Page

Much of the time, dialogue in your novel will be quite straightforward: one character talking to another (or a group of others). Sometimes, though, you’ll have a more unusual form of dialogue to represent. This post offers options for how you can handle situations ranging from phone calls to texts, emails and psychic speech.

Is it OK to Use Swear Words in Your Writing?

One tricky dialogue situation is when you’ve got characters who, realistically, need to swear (usually because of the type of person they are and the type of situation they find themselves in). Some readers dislike salty language, especially in certain genres. This post offers some thoughts on swearing in fiction and how you can handle it skilfully (even in more conservative genres).

Good luck with your dialogue!