Unrealistic dialogue

A common mistake among new romance writers is making their characters too honest, too direct too soon. What readers want is to feel the tension—the pull and longing between two people who desire each other but hesitate to act. Readers want to truly experience the slow, emotional dance that leads to the final declaration of love.

True magic exists in what is being felt without it being spoken aloud.

Other writer traps include:

• characters expressing feelings before enough tension built up,
• wandering into other topics during dialogue,
• fragmented speech

When emotions are involved, most people don’t really say what they feel, and your characters will also be no different from real people. The most genuine romance occurs in the part of an interaction that contains both longing and anxiety.

Getting better at this dialogue thing…

Reading dialogue aloud is a great start, also, eliminating unnecessary tags, and letting the characters have their own unique voices. Delve into the physical actions (nervous glances, fleeting touches), create tension between opposing desires, allow the possibility of subtext to exist, who knows, it may actually lead to conflict (smile).

Happy writing and re-writing!