---
title: Dialogue Writing
description: Dialogue writing is the craft of composing spoken exchanges between characters. Learners will understand how to write natural, subtext-rich conversations that reveal character, advance the plot, and establish narrative pacing.
category: literature-writing
subcategory: creative-writing
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/dialogue-writing
---

# Dialogue Writing

Dialogue writing is the craft of composing spoken exchanges between characters. Learners will understand how to write natural, subtext-rich conversations that reveal character, advance the plot, and establish narrative pacing.

## Available Resources

3 Books • 1 Courses • 1 Websites

## Books

### 1. Writing Dialogue

**Author:** Tom Chiarella

Story Press craft guide on writing fiction dialogue that sounds authentic, covering listening and note-taking, using speech to advance plot and reveal character, when characters should stay silent, plus formatting, punctuation and dialogue tags.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1884910327?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing

### 2. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue

**Author:** James Scott Bell

Short practical guide drawn from Bell's fiction-writing seminars on the tasks dialogue must perform, building conflict and tension in exchanges, training an ear for speech, and diagnosing the most common dialogue problems, illustrated with examples from novels and screenplays.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0910355142?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing

### 3. Dialogue: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Effective Dialogue

**Author:** Gloria Kempton

Writer's Digest craft book on fiction dialogue: using conversation to build character, create tension and move plot, balancing dialogue with action and narrative, and handling subtext, with exercises for practicing each technique.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1582972893?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing

## Courses

### 1. Creative Writing: The Craft of Story

Your style is as unique and distinctive as your face, your voice, except that you can choose it, you can can work on it, enhance it. In this course we will introduce aspiring writers to the art of putting pressure on written language.  We will study the use of metaphor and imagery, and demonstrate how clarity, grace, and inventiveness in word choice are imperative to a story’s success.  Writers will emerge with the revision skills essential to all writers of good stories and good prose.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** 4 weeks of study, 2-4 hours/week | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/craft-of-style

**Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, creative-writing

## Websites

### 1. writersdigest.com

WritersDigest.com is a comprehensive resource for writers, featuring craft articles, writing prompts, market guides, contests, and publishing tips to help aspiring and established authors improve their craft and get published.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://writersdigest.com

**Tags:** websites, personal-development, communication

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