When writing dialogue, I often struggle to differentiate my characters both from each other and from my voice as the author. In writing dialogue that feels realistic and three-dimensional, I love putting my characters into new environments unrelated to my story and working to develop their voices. How do you write realistic, interesting dialogue?
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Something that has helped me with developing dialogue with distinct voices is observing conversations that I have with other people. Everyone has their own vocabulary and although some people have similar voices, word choice, and syntax we all approach saying the same thing differently. I also make sure that the dialogue matches the character. For example, if I'm writing dialogue with a five-year old girl I have to make sure that I'm not using big words and that I keep my sentences short and simple.
This is great advice! I find myself doing basically the same thing when I approach writing dialogue. Especially for new characters or characters I haven't quite found a voice for yet.