Write Great Dialogue… without Writing Dialogue?

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Write Great Dialogue… without Writing Dialogue?

October 01, 2018

Write Great Dialogue… Without Writing Dialogue?

—a podcast episode —

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Inside Creative Writing

Table Of Contents By the end of this episode, you will… The Struggles of Writing Dialogue The Dialogue Without Words Exercise Why This Exercise Works How to Apply This to Your Writing Playing with Lies and Subtext Studying Silent Storytelling The Hard Truth: We Overuse Dialogue The Key Takeaway: Less Dialogue, More Impact Wise Words: A Lesson from Robert McKee This Week’s Challenge: Try Writing Without Dialogue The Big Read: What I’m Reading Now

Dialogue is one of the most powerful tools in a writer’s arsenal. It can breathe life into characters, reveal subtext, and propel a story forward with momentum. But writing great dialogue isn’t as simple as replicating real-world conversations. In fact, realistic dialogue often falls flat on the page—too much filler, too little purpose.

So, how do you craft dialogue that feels natural, yet sharp and purposeful? How can you make sure every word spoken by your characters serves a function—whether it’s deepening character relationships, building tension, or reinforcing theme?

In this episode of Inside Creative Writing, we break down the mechanics of great dialogue. We’ll discuss common mistakes writers make, explore techniques used by master storytellers, and give you actionable strategies to take your dialogue from clunky to captivating.

By the end of this episode, you will…

Understand the key elements that make dialogue engaging and realistic.
Learn how to eliminate filler words and tighten conversations for maximum impact.
Discover techniques to make each character’s voice distinct and authentic.
Explore how subtext and conflict can elevate your dialogue to professional levels.
Gain practical exercises to improve your dialogue-writing skills immediately.

Listen to the full episode or skim the edited transcript with relevant links below.

At Inside Creative Writing, we believe in practical, hands-on storytelling techniques—not just theory. That means you won’t just learn about dialogue; you’ll get tools to start improving your writing today.

Formatted and Edited Transcript The Struggles of Writing Dialogue

I think the element of writing that gives me the most trouble is dialogue, and I’m actually not sure why. From the outside looking in, it feels like dialogue should be the easy part. I mean, I’ve been talking and listening to people talk for nearly five decades now—dialogue should be second nature to me. But when I sit down to write it, it still often comes out clunky, unrealistic, or too forced.

I understand what I should be doing with dialogue—I get subtext, I get the importance of natural rhythm—but it still doesn’t come out right on the first try. Over time, I’ve learned ways to go back and revise and rework dialogue until it’s better, but I rarely feel like it’s great.

A recent quick write exercise I did with my creative writing class actually began to change my approach to writing dialogue. It came from a book called Write Now, edited by Sheryl Ellis.

In the book, there are a bunch of different writing prompts and exercises from various writers, and one that caught my attention was written by Sands Hall, author of Catching Heaven and Tools of the Writer’s Craft. Sands introduces an exercise called Dialogue Without Words.

The Dialogue Without Words Exercise

The challenge of this exercise is simple but powerful: write a scene of conflict between at least two characters with absolutely no dialogue whatsoever. The characters never speak a word to each other. Instead, you have to figure out ways to show the conflict through setting, body language, and actions rather than dialogue.

According to Verywell Mind, approximately 80% of our communication is non-verbal, encompassing gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and body posture. This exercise forces you to bring that 80% into your writing.

Sands recommends doing a little bit of pre-planning before writing a dialogue-free scene. First, decide what the conflict will be. Maybe it’s a marital spat over who is going to cook dinner, or maybe it’s a workplace trainer who is frustrated with the ineptitude of their trainee.

Then, choose a setting that enhances the conflict—one that adds layers to what’s happening. Once you have those elements in place, simply let the characters begin to move. Let them make facial expressions, use gestures, and interact with the environment in ways that convey their emotional states and hint at their desires.

Now, the goal of this exercise isn’t necessarily to write in such a specific way that your reader could say, Oh, she’s upset because she thinks her husband is cheating on her with his secretary. Instead, you want to write in a way that lets your reader intuit something about the characters through body language, setting, and interaction—without relying on dialogue to make it explicit.

Why This Exercise Works

Without dialogue, readers become hyper-aware of other ways characters communicate. It’s like when you put on a blindfold—your other senses go into overdrive. The same thing happens with your readers. According to body language experts, observing nuances, movements, and subtext is crucial in decoding nonverbal cues, which can be effectively applied in writing scenes without dialogue

And honestly, you might be surprised at how much you can communicate without using any words at all.

This is really the essence of “Show, don’t tell.” You’re showing what the characters aren’t saying instead of outright telling the reader what’s happening. It’s a powerful technique that pulls your reader deeper into the story and makes them more actively engaged in interpreting what’s going on.

How to Apply This to Your Writing

One way I use this technique in my own writing is by first attempting to write a scene without any dialogue at all. When I sit down to write, I know there will be moments where characters need to speak, but my first draft focuses solely on body language, setting, and actions.

Once I’ve done the best I can without dialogue, only then do I go back and start dropping in lines—but as few as possible. I only add words where absolutely necessary. And when I do, I find that those few spoken words carry so much more weight than they otherwise would have.

Think of it like a quiet library. If someone suddenly yells out a single word in that silence, everybody notices. That’s what we’re accomplishing with this technique—by minimizing dialogue, we make every spoken word hit harder.

Playing with Lies and Subtext

Another thing I absolutely love about this technique is how it helps expose lies and deception in dialogue. If you write an entire scene without words, focusing on body language and subtext, and then finally allow one character to speak, the reader is hyper-aware of what’s really going on beneath the surface.

For example, let’s say you’ve built a scene where a husband clearly despises his wife. He avoids eye contact, clenches his jaw, slams his plate on the table. Then, at the very end of the scene, he leans in and whispers, I love you.

Your reader will immediately know he’s lying. Why? Because everything in his body language has told them otherwise. And that’s what makes the moment powerful. That’s what makes your reader feel like a genius—because they’ve figured it out for themselves rather than having it spelled out for them.

Studying Silent Storytelling

If you really want to see this technique in action, go back and watch old silent films. Filmmakers in the early days of cinema had to master the art of storytelling without dialogue, relying entirely on facial expressions, body movements, props, and setting to convey meaning.

Watch how these films handle emotion. Notice how they use every little detail—the way a character holds their hat, how they shift in their seat, how they look at someone—to tell you exactly what’s happening without a single spoken word.

Another great modern example? Pixar’s short films. Many of them are completely wordless, yet packed with emotion, conflict, and story. I showed Paperman to my class recently, and despite having no dialogue, it’s one of the most emotionally impactful short films I’ve ever seen.

These films prove that words aren’t always necessary to create powerful moments. The same principle applies to writing.

The Hard Truth: We Overuse Dialogue

The more I play with this technique, the more I realize how often I use dialogue as a crutch. It’s so much easier to have a character just come right out and say, I’m angry with you, Bill, rather than putting in the effort to show it through body language, actions, and setting.

But that extra effort is worth it.

Readers are masters of reading between the lines because it’s how we navigate the real world. Before we even learned to speak as children, we understood body language. We knew when a parent furrowed their brow that we were in trouble. That’s deeply ingrained in us.

So why not tap into that as writers?

The Key Takeaway: Less Dialogue, More Impact

Here’s the simple takeaway from today’s episode: write far, far less dialogue. Challenge yourself to convey as much meaning as possible without words. Then, only add dialogue where absolutely necessary.

And when you do? Make sure it counts.

I can already hear some of you saying, But I have a character who’s defined by how talkative they are! Or, I’m writing a courtroom scene where people have to argue! Yes, there are always exceptions. But those exceptions should be intentional.

If your protagonist is the only talkative one in a world where everyone else is more reserved, their dialogue will stand out and carry even more impact. If your courtroom scene is packed with fast-paced dialogue, it’ll be even more powerful if you contrast it with moments of silence.

Remember this: watch what people do, not what they say. People lie, embellish, and withhold through words. But what they do? That’s who they truly are.

Wise Words: A Lesson from Robert McKee

Today’s Wise Words segment comes from none other than writing guru Robert McKee, author of Story and Dialogue.

As Robert McKee, renowned author of Story and Dialogue, famously stated,

If the story you’re telling is the story you’re telling, you’re in deep shit.

I’m going to read that again—and I apologize for the swear word:

If the story you’re telling is the story you’re telling, you’re in deep shit.

Now, this might sound cryptic at first, but it’s actually an essential truth about storytelling. Sometimes we think that having a great premise or a unique character is enough. But stories are always about something deeper than just the plot. They’re about human nature, personal transformation, and emotional truth.

And you know what? The same applies to dialogue.

We might actually rework McKee’s quote to say:

If the dialogue your character is speaking is really what they are saying, you’re in deep shit.

In real life, people rarely say exactly what they mean. We dodge, we manipulate, we hint at things instead of stating them outright. Dialogue should work the same way—it should mask what the character really wants.

Great dialogue isn’t just conversation. It’s strategy. It’s a weapon that characters use to get what they want from the person they’re talking to.

So if your character says something outright, ask yourself: Could this be communicated in a more subtle, layered way? More often than not, the answer is yes.

This Week’s Challenge: Try Writing Without Dialogue

Normally, this is where I’d give you a weekly writing challenge—but today, the entire episode was a writing challenge.

I want you to try writing an entire scene without dialogue.

Specifically, write a scene of conflict between two or more characters, using only body language, setting, and action to communicate what’s happening. Let the reader feel the tension without a single word being spoken.

Then, after you’ve done that, go back and carefully drop in dialogue—but only where absolutely necessary.

See how much you can strip away. You might be surprised at how much more powerful your dialogue becomes when you use less of it.

The Big Read: What I’m Reading Now

Right now, I’m reading Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston. You probably know this story—the guy who gets trapped by a boulder and has to cut off his own arm to escape. They called it 127 Hours when they made it into a film. Yeah. Intense.

Now, I know I’m late to the party on this one—it was a bestseller in 2010—but honestly, I was afraid to read it. I love survival stories, but the idea of reading about someone amputating their own arm? Yikes.

But I finally picked it up because it’s a great model for what I’m working on in my own writing.

One of the things I’ve already noticed is how Ralston uses backstory to keep the narrative engaging. Because let’s be honest—aside from that one scene, the majority of the book is just a guy stuck under a rock. That could get boring fast.

So how does he sustain it? By weaving in flashbacks. He alternates between the present moment (his struggle to escape) and chapters that build his backstory—his outdoor adventures, his mindset, his experiences that led him to this moment.

Now, I’m not sure I love this back-and-forth structure. Honestly, I already feel tempted to skip the flashbacks and get back to “the good stuff.”

But it’s got me thinking: What’s the best way to weave in backstory without losing narrative momentum?

A book that does this really well is Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. Instead of rigidly alternating chapters, she allows backstory to naturally emerge from the present moment. As she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail, memories surface organically based on what she’s experiencing.

So, if you’ve read Between a Rock and a Hard Place, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you like the way it’s structured? Or do you prefer a more fluid approach like Wild?

You can reach me at bradreed@insidecreativewriting.com

Thanks for listening!

Want to take your writing to the next level?
Visit our How to Write a Novel page, where we break down every step of the storytelling process. Writing is a craft, and mastering dialogue is just one piece of the puzzle—let’s build something great together.

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