At a glance / Find the action beneath the words
| Spoken turn | Possible intention |
|---|---|
| “Did you call her?” | Test a promise |
| “I had three emergencies.” | Deflect responsibility |
| “None of them had her number.” | Refuse the explanation |
Hear the action underneath the line
Dialogue becomes generic when every speaker is only exchanging information. Before changing diction, write a private verb beside each speech: recruit, deflect, test, conceal, soothe, corner, perform, refuse. Two people can discuss a delayed train while one is asking for forgiveness and the other is trying not to grant it. The verbs give revision a pressure line that tags and decorative gestures cannot supply.
Give each turn a consequence
For each line, ask what it makes harder or easier. “You missed it” may invite explanation. “You knew it started at six” shifts the dispute from absence to responsibility. If a reply could be moved to any conversation in the manuscript, it probably needs a stake, a specific reference, or a change in tactic. Silence can be a turn too, but name what the silence permits the other speaker to assume before trusting it to carry drama.
Work a plain exchange
Draft: “Did you call the editor?” “No, I was busy.” “You said you would.” Revised intention: Nia wants to avoid admitting she missed the deadline; Tomas wants evidence that she no longer trusts the project. “Did you call her?” “I had three emergencies.” “None of them had her number.” The revision does not need dialect spelling or a longer backstory. The final line makes Tomas’s private concern audible without stating it as a diagnosis.
Treat voice as more than sound
Voice may appear in a speaker’s preferred detail, sentence length, evasions, assumptions, professional vocabulary, and tolerance for interruption. Accent can be one element of a represented language, but phonetic rendering is not a shortcut to personhood and can make a reader work hardest on characters already marked as different. Consult people and materials with relevant knowledge when a real linguistic variety matters; do not use a spelling scheme as proof that research has been done.
Read it aloud with a question
A read-aloud pass can reveal where breath, interruption, and repetition are doing nothing. It cannot certify naturalness: people speak variously, and published dialogue is arranged speech. Ask a listener to say what each person wanted by the end of the exchange, not whether it “sounds real.” UW–Madison’s peer-review guidance usefully puts purpose and specific reader response before small corrections. Apply that order here: first the exchange’s movement, then its words, punctuation, and tags. If the listener guesses a different intention, do not correct them immediately; decide whether that difference creates productive tension or simply hides the scene’s necessary turn. Keep the answer in revision notes, then test the scene again.
Sources & limits
Not every conversation needs conflict or hidden motive. Expository, comic, and communal dialogue can have other forms of movement.
- Peer Reviews
University of Wisconsin–Madison Writing Center · Source undated · Consulted 19 Sept 2026The guide asks reviewers to establish writer purpose and give specific, large-issue-first feedback; this entry applies that priority to dialogue revision.
Send a correction with the passage and supporting source.