#dialogue problems

friendly reminder that the word “said” did not kill your scene.

you don’t need to replace every line of dialogue with “he rasped” or “she intoned” or “they gasped breathlessly” (please no). your dialogue is not dying because of your tags. it’s dying because the rhythm is off.

👀 let me explain:

✨ what is dialogue rhythm?

it’s the flow of speech between characters. the beats. the pacing. the way words bounce, interrupt, cut off, trail, clash. it’s less about the words themselves and more about the energy they carry.

dialogue rhythm is what makes two people arguing feel like a boxing match, or a confession feel like a car crash. it’s how you keep tension in the room. if your rhythm sucks, no amount of fancy tags is gonna save you.

🔪 signs your dialogue rhythm is off:

every character is speaking in full, polished sentences like it’s a staged play

nobody ever interrupts, stammers, hesitates, or doubles back

the emotional pace stays flat, even in high-stakes scenes

all the action beats are “he nodded” “she smiled” “they looked at her” over and over

you read it out loud and it feels like a middle school skit

👂 here’s how to fix it:

Read your dialogue out loud. Like, actually out loud. if it sounds robotic, it is robotic. listen for places where people would realistically pause, ramble, get cut off, or trail off. insert those beats. add the mess.

Use white space and formatting to control speed. short lines = fast pace. long blocks = slow burn. a line break right before someone says something unhinged? elite move. example: “You really think I’d betray you?” Pause. “You already did.”

Cut 30% of your dialogue. if you can remove the line and nothing breaks, it was filler. chop chop. more silence = more tension. not every reply needs a full answer.

Let action interrupt speech. don’t wait for the character to finish talking before you show what they’re doing. intercut body language or physical actions mid-line. it mimics how people actually talk. like this: “Don’t touch that—” she lunged forward, grabbing his wrist. “—you don’t know what it is.”

Stop overexplaining with tags. you don’t need to say “she shouted angrily” if the line is literally “GET OUT.” trust the line. if the dialogue’s strong, “said” works just fine. if the dialogue’s weak, “murmured” won’t save it.

🛑 but what about dialogue tags?

use them! but treat them like punctuation, not prose. the goal is clarity, not ✨flair✨. you want the reader to know who’s speaking without noticing the machinery.

“Said” is invisible. “Snarled” is a spice. Use spices sparingly.

better yet: mix tags with beats to keep rhythm tight. example:

BAD: “I hate you,” he said angrily. “I hate you,” she snapped back.

BETTER: “I hate you,” he said, jaw clenched. She didn’t even blink. “Good. Then we’re even.”

💡 TL;DR: your scene doesn’t need fancy tags. it needs movement. conflict. silence. interruptions. character-specific tone. you fix that by fixing the rhythm, not the verbs.

go back to your WIP, open your messiest conversation scene, and test it. read it aloud. break it up. cut what drags. add one beat of silence. give someone a half-finished sentence and a reason to storm out.

watch how fast it starts to breathe.

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

I keep trying to avoid the word "say" because it feels too flat and generic…

But then suddenly every single character in my story is:

whispering

muttering

sighing

snapping

growling

and occasionally… hissing?? like who even talks like that (no they are not snakes 😭).

At this point, my dialogue doesn’t sound like a conversation anymore, it sounds like an over dramatic audio book.

And the worst part? I’ll notice I’ve used the same one three times in the same page, JUST TO AVOID THE WORD "SAID". Everyone is suddenly whispering like we’re all trapped in the world’s longest library scene, or growling like a pack of wolves...

So I haven't posted in a while because 1. I had my birthday a week ago, 2. I've been editing my short film for school, and 3. I just entered sound editing with my short film. In my development class that I have once a week we've been reading in "Screenplay, Writing the Picture" and this week's assignment was to read about dialogue, so heres a long dialogue rant about dialogue in all phases of production (What I've observed). 

Pre Production/Development:

Dialogue has 3 purposes:

Advances story

Reveals character

Plays off the visual world of the film

Dialogue isn't real speech- it sounds natural but it is edited, refined, and designed whereas real people have a tendency to ramble on and loose their train of thought and say contradictions in all the same sentence. Dialogue is what you wish you would have said at that moment- if you could have come up with the perfect words. 

The key to film writing is "Show Not Tell." Therefore wants should be shown rather than stated in 'On the Nose' dialogue. 

You're dialogue is fully informed by you characters- so you must know your characters extremely well, or they could start saying things you don't wish them to say. Some times it is best to write with a particular celebrity/actor in mind to get the right tone for the dialogue- you should be able to cover the characters name and still tell who the dialogue belongs to. 

Problem dialogue and solutions:

My scene is too long: Look to Leap Frog around unnecessary lines to get to the important things. Any extraneous detail isn't needed and emotions should be shown not stated. 

My character says "I'm stupid" : this is a conclusionary statement. Its much stronger to show an example of why this person is stupid or why they hate their mother etc. 

My characters are talking about an issue, its kinda boring: Show don't tell. If you have a character talking about how his wife is cheating on him, either show this or have the confrontation play out in subtext. 

My conversation is bland: keep in mind what is being said as well as how it is being heard. This can profoundly change the tone of the scene. Also use subtext to communicate it. 

Unnecessary Problems:

Filler lines: Try not to use "well", "so", or any name calling (using the characters name) at the beginning of the line, this makes your dialogue pretty weak.  

Monologues: No one really talks without interruption. Split up the monologue into dialogue. 

Exposition: Its not bad to use verbal exposition, but it must be used correctly, if both characters know everything they're telling each other thats bad- why would they speak what both of them already know (unless its Sherlock and Watson). The dialogue should directly affect the current action. You can hide expositional info with conflict, a joke, a confidant, a narrator, foreshadowing, or a red herring. 

Production:

Make sure you get clean dialogue on set. Get the boom microphone as close as you can to the actors and make sure the radio mics are placed in the most convenient/un conflicted place. Its also good to make sure that all the microphones have new batteries. 

Also on set get good ambient tone- just record fifteen seconds or so of silence- the air conditioning, the traffic out side, the sound of the wind through the trees- these are all going to be present with your dialogue. When you get a good ambient tone then you can fill in gaps if in editing you need to cut out an unruly sound.

Get ambience everytime you go into a new room! The kitchen has a refrigerator that will turn on and will give you different ambience than in the living room. etc.

Thats really it for on set dialogue- don't be afraid to change a line on set, thats okay, just make sure you're founded in your change. 

Post-Production:

Clean up the dialogue by deleting anything that isn't spoken. So if there's only one line in the scene cut all out everything else but that one line. Add your ambient tone everywhere else and make it a lower decibel level. 

Next add a background tone. This tells the audience the location and the time of day. If there's crickets its night, if there's birds its probably morning, wind- its probably afternoon.