Why Subtext Matters

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Sometimes this kind of straightforward clarity isn't always what you're going to want. And most of the time, dialogue without any subtext falls flat because it's just all sitting up there on the surface. There's nothing for readers to pick up on between the words, nothing for them to infer or interpret, and nothing to lean into. And so the best dialogue is going to invite readers to read between the lines. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo, and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, I'm going to share five secrets for writing dialogue that sounds natural and pulls readers deeper into your story. Now, natural sounding dialogue is one of those things that readers will notice when it's wrong. But when it's right, it becomes

Welcome And Episode Promise

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invisible and it just flows. Characters feel like real people having real conversations, and readers sink into the story without a second thought. The tricky part is that natural sounding dialogue isn't the same as realistic dialogue. And that's because 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. So your job as a writer isn't necessarily

What Makes Dialogue Feel Natural

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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. And that's a tricky balance to strike. Most writers struggle with dialogue for the same handful of reasons. So today I'm breaking down five secrets that will help your dialogue sound natural, stay purposeful, and keep readers hooked. So let's go ahead and dive right in, starting with secret number one. Secret number one is that every line of dialogue should earn its place. So 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 a scene, what they're trying to avoid, or how this moment ties into the bigger story. If your dialogue isn't serving one of those things, then it's just taking up space. And within any given conversation, it's really easy for dialogue to start to drift. Characters say things that sound natural but don't actually do anything, so pleasantries, filler, lines that exist because that's just how people

Secret 1: Every Line Must Earn It

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talk in real life and not because they actually move the story forward. But we have to remember that readers aren't here for small talk. They're here for dialogue that reveals character, that builds tension, or that shifts the dynamic between people. So how do you know if the dialogue in your draft is earning its place? Well, you can ask yourself questions like, what is this conversation actually 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, right? Just what is its purpose within that scene? And if your dialogue or a line within your dialogue isn't doing at least one of those things, then it might just be dead weight. So when you're revising, you want to look for lines that you can cut without losing anything. The oh hey, how's it going exchanges? And the responses that just echo what was already said, and the filler that sounds realistic but that doesn't really move anything forward. And you might be surprised that you'll need to cut more than you think you need to. But the good news is that the lines that remain will hit harder and your dialogue will feel tighter, sharper, and more purposeful. All right, so that is secret number one. Every line of dialogue needs to earn its place. Now, secret number two is that natural sounding dialogue is not the same as realistic dialogue. And secret number one did hint at this a little bit, but I want to go deeper into this specifically because I see it all the time. And this might be the most counterintuitive secret on the list today, but it is an essential one. If you want your dialogue to sound natural, then don't write the way that people actually talk. Real speech is messy. People say um and 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 super normal, but on the page, it's really exhausting. And I know why it's easy for us writers

Secret 2: Natural vs Realistic Speech

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to fall into this trap. It's because we're trying to make our dialogue feel authentic. And we want readers to feel like they're eavesdropping on a real conversation. So what do we do? We include all the filler and the meandering that comes with actual speech. But the thing to remember is that readers don't want a transcript, they want the impression of natural conversation. So dialogue that feels real without being tedious. Now, what does that look like? Well, it's gonna be looser than formal writing, but tighter than real speech. Characters will speak in fragments when it makes sense, they're going to interrupt each other, they're going to trail off, their sentences won't always follow perfect grammar because of course real people don't talk in complete polished sentences, right? But at the same time, every line still moves the story forward efficiently. So there's no wandering, no throat clearing, no filler that exists just to mimic how people talk and things like that. And the trick is in finding the rhythm and the balance. So dialogue should have a natural flow to it, a musicality that makes it easy to read and easy to hear in your head. And one of the best ways to find that rhythm or see if your dialogue has that rhythm is to read your dialogue out loud. If it sounds stilted or overly formal, then that's your sign to loosen it up. If it sounds rambly or hard to follow, then you can tighten it. So really you just want to trust your ear. When dialogue is working, you're going to feel it, and so will your readers. All right, so that is secret number two. Natural sounding dialogue is not the same as realistic dialogue. Now, secret number three is that your dialogue needs to be grounded in what's happening in the scene. And you've probably heard the term talking heads before. And if you haven't, this is what happens when two characters go back and forth in the conversation, but there's not really a sense of place, so there's no physicality, and there's just no grounding into the actual environment of the scene. So it kind of just feels like disembodied voices exchanging words in a void. And the problem with this is that dialogue is only one layer of your bigger scene. And when it exists on its own, so separate from action, environment, and interiority, readers will lose track of where they are, what your characters are doing, and how they're feeling, which is not great. And

Secret 3: Ground Dialogue In Scene

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even if the conversation that you're showing on the page is interesting, it's not going to feel like it's happening in a real moment, and that's going to pull readers out of the story. So why does this happen? Well, it often happens because dialogue is just 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. So if you find yourself falling into this trap or if you're reading back over your draft and you're like, yep, I have some talking heads here, then the fix is to braid your dialogue beats together with your action beats. So action beats are essentially the small moments of physical movement or gestures that are woven between the lines of dialogue. Things like nervous fidgeting, deliberate eye contact, the way someone turns away from the speaker at a key moment, you know, things like that. And these types of beats do a few things at once. They ground us in the scene so we know where we are and what the characters are doing. They reveal emotion and subtext without you having to spell it out, and they help you control pacing, so giving readers a little breath between lines of dialogue or speeding things up when these little moments of action disappear. Alright, so I'm gonna read you two different versions of the same moment, and I just want you to hear the difference so you can see what I mean. So version number one says this. 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? Okay, so that's version one. Version two says, 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. Alright, so maybe not the most compelling or interesting example, but it's the same moment of dialogue, and you can definitely see or feel that the second version feels more like a real moment. We can feel the tension that's slowly building through what they're doing, not just what they're saying, things like that, right? So when you're revising, I want you to watch for long stretches of unbroken dialogue. And if you've got more than three or four exchanges without any grounding, then that's usually a sign that your readers need an anchor back into the present moment. Okay, so that is secret number three. Your dialogue needs to be grounded in the scene. Alright, moving on to secret number four. Secret number four is that each character should have a distinct voice. And here's a quick little test you can do. If you go to a scene in your work in progress and you covered up the dialogue tags, do you think a reader could tell who is speaking just by the words themselves? If the answer is no, your characters probably all sound like the same person,

Example: Action Beats In Practice

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which usually means they sound like you. And when every character speaks the same way, your dialogue loses one of its most powerful functions, and that is to reveal who these characters are. So how do you go about differentiating voices? Well, it starts with knowing your characters deeply, so not just surface level details, but the stuff that shapes how someone would communicate. So their background, their education, their worldview, their emotional wiring, and things like that. So for example, a character who grew up wealthy and went to boarding school is probably going to speak differently than a character who dropped out of high school their freshman year. A teenager is going to have different rhythms than a six-year-old character would. An optimist is going to frame things differently than a cynic, even when they're essentially saying the same thing. All right, and it's not just about what any character says, it's about how they say it as well. So some people speak in long, winding sentences, others are more clipped and direct, some people deflect with a sense of humor, others get quiet when they're upset, some characters always have to have the last word, and others back down the moment there's any kind of tension. Right? So these patterns emerge naturally when you know who your characters are beneath the surface, which means you do need to do the character development work up front. All right, so here's how to put this into practice. When you're revising, you can read each character's dialogue in isolation, so just their lines and nothing else. And then you'll just want to ask, does it sound like this particular character? Or does this dialogue sound generic, like it could belong to any character in the book? And if you can swap one character's line of dialogue for another's without anyone noticing, then that's a sign that you might need to dig deeper into who these characters are. Alright, so that is secret number four. Each

Secret 4: Distinct Character Voices

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character needs to have a distinct voice. Now, last up is secret number five, and secret number five is that the best dialogue lives beneath the surface. So if you think about real life, people rarely say what they mean. They hint, they deflect, they talk around the things they actually want to say, they say, I'm fine while they're falling apart inside. They pick a fight about the dishes when they're upset about something else entirely, right? This is subtext, the tension between what characters say and what they actually mean. And it's what makes dialogue feel layered and real. Now it's also what's missing from a lot of manuscripts. So why do a lot of writers miss this? Well, probably because it's easier to write dialogue that's very direct. It's easier to write dialogue when characters say exactly what they're thinking and feeling, and the scene feels really clear when you do it that way. The reader knows what's happening and there's no ambiguity, right? But sometimes this kind of straightforward clarity isn't always what you're going to want. And most of the time, dialogue without any subtext falls flat because it's just all sitting up there on the surface. There's nothing for readers to pick up on between the words, nothing for them to infer or interpret, and nothing to lean into. And so the best dialogue is going to invite readers to read between the lines. Now, how do we create that? Well, before you write any kind of important exchange, I want you to ask yourself, what does this character really want to communicate? What are they avoiding saying directly? And what's the emotion or the truth beneath the surface? And you can do that for every single character who's involved in that conversation. Then you can write the dialogue that dances around that truth instead of stating it outright. All right, so you want to trust your reader to pick up on what's left unsaid and what's going on underneath the surface. And that's where the real power of dialogue lives. All right, so that is secret number five. The best dialogue lives beneath the surface. Now, really quickly, let me recap what each of those secrets were. So secret number one is that every line of dialogue should earn its place. Secret number two is

Secret 5: Subtext Beneath The Words

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that natural sounding dialogue is not the same as realistic dialogue. Secret number three is that dialogue needs to be grounded in each one of your scenes. Secret number four is that each character should have a distinct voice. And lastly, secret number five is that the best dialogue lives beneath the surface. All right, now these five secrets won't just improve your dialogue, they are going to elevate your entire manuscript. And that's because when dialogue is working, readers will truly disappear into your story. When it's not working, then every single clunky line is going to pull them out. Alright, now the good news is you don't have to nail this in your first draft. When you're drafting, I want you to just focus on getting the conversation down. Capture the essence of what needs to happen in each scene, even if the dialogue is clunky or too long or missing subtext. That is okay. Dialogue is one of the main things that gets refined in revision once you can see the shape of your story and understand your characters more deeply. So as you revise, keep these secrets in mind, read your dialogue out loud and cut more than you think you need to. And above all, 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 of it and they experience it as if it's happening to them, which is what we all want, right? Alright, so that's it for this episode of the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. Head over to savannagilbo.com forward slash podcast for the complete show notes, including the resources I mentioned today, as well as bonus materials to help you implement what you've learned. And if you're ready to get more personalized guidance for your specific writing stage, whether you're just starting out, stuck somewhere in the middle of a draft, drowning in revisions, or getting ready to publish, take my free 30-second quiz at savannaGilbo.com forward slash quiz. You'll get a customized podcast playlist that'll meet you right where you're at and help you get to your next big milestone. Last but not least, make sure to follow this podcast in

Recap And Revision Mindset

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your podcast player of choice because I'll be back next week with another episode full of actionable tips, tools, and strategies to help you become a better writer. Until then, happy writing.