Sins of Our Fathers | Author Blog

I’m sitting at my favorite Panera.

I am ease dropping on conversations around the room, watching how people move, how they dress, and working my non-fiction book project. All at the same time! I’m a super writer, what can I say.

Oh, yeah. I’m also writing a quick post here to tell you how to improve your character dialogue.

Here’s the secret. Get out.

Go where people are and listen. Carry a pen and a pad with you. Or like me right now, have a separate doc open on your laptop where you can jot down what you hear. I’m not telling you to use it verbatim in your writing. What I am telling you, is that it will help you improve the voice of your characters.

I’m reminded of a rather famous Christian author who was stymied early on in his career in making his dialogue real. He spoke at this years Florida Christian Writers Conference. He did just what I’m telling you to do and he even went the extra step of recording conversations and typing them back up so he could get the feel for it.

Give it a shot. I think you’ll find it will help your characters to come to life.