effective tips for crafting realistic dialogue

Here are practical, play-specific notes on dialogue — the kind that matters in rehearsal, not just on the page:

Dialogue is action

In plays, speech replaces narration.  Every line should do something:

• pursue a want

• block another character

• reveal a decision

• change the power dynamic

If a line could be removed without altering the scene’s trajectory, it’s decorative.

Characters don’t speak to inform the audience

Exposition must be motivated.

Characters speak because:

• they need leverage

• they are hiding something

• they are trying to win

If a line exists only so the audience “understands,” it will sound false on stage.

People rarely answer the question they’re asked

Strong dialogue is oblique:

• dodge → counter → redirect

• answer emotionally, not logically

• speak past each other

Direct answers flatten tension.

Power lives in rhythm, not words

Onstage, power is shaped by:

• who interrupts

• who changes the subject

• who forces silence

• who speaks last

Short lines can dominate long speeches.  Silence can win a scene.

Subtext is the engine

What matters is what can’t be said:

• social rules

• shame

• desire

• fear

If characters say exactly what they mean, the scene ends too quickly.

Dialogue must be speakable

Plays are written for bodies in space:

• breath matters

• consonants matter

• repetition is natural

• grammar is optional

Read lines aloud.  If an actor has to “act around” the language, rewrite it.

Each character has a verbal fingerprint

Listen for:

• sentence length

• metaphor habits

• humor or avoidance

• certainty vs. qualification

If lines can be swapped between characters, the dialogue isn’t finished.

The best dialogue creates trouble

A strong line should:

• escalate the scene

• force a response

• make the next beat unavoidable

Good dialogue doesn’t decorate moments — it corners characters.

Some examples of good dialogue

Annie Baker — The Flick

Why it matters: Silence, hesitation and banality as pressure.

“I don’t know.  I just — yeah.”

What’s happening:

• The line refuses completion

• The pause is the action

• Emotional avoidance replaces exposition

Baker’s dialogue trusts the audience to listen between words. Nothing is explained; everything accumulates.

Lynn Nottage — Sweat

Why it matters: Class conflict encoded in everyday speech.

“You don’t know what loyalty is.”

What’s happening:

• Simple vocabulary, loaded accusation

• Moral judgment replaces argument

• Past friendship collapses in one line

Nottage lets ordinary language carry historic weight — no speeches, no slogans.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins — An Octoroon

Why it matters: Meta-theatrical dialogue that attacks the form itself.

“This is the part where we pretend not to notice.”

What’s happening:

• Dialogue names the audience’s complicity

• Humor masks accusation

• Breaks theatrical comfort without stopping the play

The line doesn’t advance plot — it destabilizes the contract.

Tracy Letts — August: Osage County

Why it matters: Aggression disguised as honesty.

“I’m just telling the truth.”

What’s happening:

• Violence framed as virtue

• Emotional cruelty justified as clarity

• The phrase repeats until it curdles

Letts uses repetition to show how language becomes a weapon.

Caryl Churchill — Love and Information

Why it matters: Fragmentation as meaning.

“I know this about you.”

What’s happening:

• Context withheld

• Intimacy implied, not defined

• Audience completes the thought

Churchill’s dialogue often functions like a theorem: minimal inputs, expansive consequences.

Lucas Hnath — A Doll’s House, Part 2

Why it matters: Argument as dramatic engine.

“I don’t believe in compromise.”

What’s happening:

• Ideology stated plainly

• No metaphor, no poetry

• Stakes rise because the position is absolute

Hnath writes clean, philosophical dialogue that sharpens conflict instead of softening it.

What these plays share

Good dialogue tends to:

• Understate rather than explain

• Let conflict live in phrasing, not speeches

• Trust the actor’s body and silence

• Use language to withhold, not reveal