The best way to write dialogue is to listen to the conversations around you and practice re-writing them.  Dialogue has to sound realistic but, on the page, you can cut all the boring bits and get right to the most important parts, meaning it isn’t actually realistic at all.  None of the ‘Hey, how are you?’ stuff needs to be in there.

To practice, rewrite the last conversation you had/or the last conversation you overheard.  Try and do it word for word, no matter how dull it was.  Now re-write it but cut to the chase – delete all the uninteresting parts and leave yourself with a few lines of sparkling back and forth.

I just received Gotham’s regular email newsletter.  I love what Jonathan Franzen says in it about reading being a great writing prompt.  Picking up a book is exactly what I do if I’m feeling creatively flat.

Read all of Franzen’s writing tips and thoughts here.

Using your favourite character from a novel or story, write a brand new scene where they might appear.  Perhaps the scene could be from this character’s life before the novel began, or after i is long finished… or perhaps you’d rather put your favourite character somewhere entirely new and unexpected.

How do they react to the change in circumstances?

What is it about this character that makes you want to write about them?