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If we listened to a real conversation and tried to put it into words, we would soon realize that the resulting dialogue fails on a narrative level. Real conversations are full of interruptions, unfinished sentences, and inconsistencies.

The key to writing effective dialogue is to keep the authenticity of a real conversation but not at the expense of fluency and clarity. But how is that put into practice?

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Dialogues are a very useful tool in any story. Not only do they give voice to the characters, but they are also helpful at many other levels.

Before talking about that, I want to share an excerpt of a dialogue from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I have selected this example because its dialogues are dynamic, lively, and very funny indeed:

• 0

“No conflict, no story” was one of the key principles of my first writing lessons. Since then, I’ve heard it and read it again and again. But what does conflict in a story mean?

According to the dictionary, a conflict is a problem, a confrontation, or a fight. Does it mean that in order to tell a good story our characters must face each other in a pitched battle? Not at all. Although conflict in literature can be represented by combat (there are thousands of stories about battles and wars), it’s a whole lot more than that. It’s what drives the plot, what makes us empathize with the characters, and what compels us to keep reading because we want to know how it will be resolved. Conflict gives life and depth to the story.

Now that we have agreed on the importance of conflict, let’s dig a little deeper into the subject. This section is about the types of conflict we can find Later on, I’ll provide the second part about how to include them naturally in your story.