Dialogue Generator

How to use a line of dialogue

Each result is an exchange without names: three lines of speech, with an occasional stage direction between them. That is deliberate. The lines are written so that the reader can feel the pressure between two people without knowing who they are, and you supply the rest. Decide who says each line, where they are standing, and what each of them wants from the other. The exchange will change shape as you do.

Good dialogue works because people rarely say what they mean. In a tense exchange, a question is answered with another question; in a tender one, an apology is hidden in an offer of soup. Read the result aloud and listen for the line that carries the real subject. That line is the centre of your scene.

Building a scene around an exchange

Write the lines first, then add the world around them. Give each speaker a reason to be in the room and a thing they are trying to get. If both want the same thing, the scene is an agreement; if they want opposite things, it is a conflict. Most scenes work best when the speakers want different things and neither of them says so.

Use the stage directions as a model. A short action between lines (a cup set down too carefully, a chair scraping on the floor) does the work of a speech tag and shows the reader how long the silence lasts. Replace them with details from your own setting, such as a ship's bell or the smell of bread, and the exchange will start to belong to your story.

When you revise, cut the first line and the last line. Dialogue often starts too early and ends too late. If the exchange still works, you have found the part of the conversation that matters.

Dialogue mistakes to avoid

Three habits weaken dialogue. The first is people telling each other things they both know so that the reader can be informed. Replace it with a conflict in which one person needs the information and the other would rather not give it. The second is every speaker sounding the same. Give each one a different length of sentence, a different way of dodging a question and a word they overuse. The third is a scene that ends when the conversation does. End on the line that changes the situation and cut what follows. Read every exchange aloud before you keep it.

Ten example dialogue exchanges

• Tense "You were not at the station." "I could say the same of you." "Then why are your hands shaking?"
• Tense "I know what was in the box." The clock on the wall keeps ticking. "Whatever you heard, it was wrong."
• Tender "I made too much soup again." "I should have said so." "Then stay."
• Tender "Your hands are freezing." Rain begins against the window. "It was never a bother." The house settles around them. "I will keep the light on."
• Quarrel "You said you would take care of it." "That is not what I said." "I am done talking."
• Quarrel "Is that all you have to say?" A cup is set down too carefully. "Here we go again."
• Dry & funny "There is a duck in the hall." "Define again." "We never speak of this again."
• Dry & funny "I can explain the horse." Nobody moves. "That explains the smell." Someone shifts in their seat. "At least it was memorable."
• Ominous "Do not go down there." "It is only the wind." "Lock the door."
• Ominous "The tide is going out faster than it should." The candle gutters. "How long have you known?" A long moment passes. "We will not get another chance."