Characters often find resistance through conflict with other characters. This doesn’t mean they have to physically fight with each other. Dialogue can play a big role in conflict.
The narrative of a story defines the plot and description sets the scene. But dialogue shows how your characters react to different events in their own words.
It shows what they tell other characters and what they hide from them. Dialogue is a great way to create conflict and builds tension and suspense in your book.
Here are 10 ways to introduce conflict into dialogue.
Your characters can:
- Threaten
- Lie
- Argue
- Tease
- Taunt
- Coax
- Insist
- Demand
- Taunt
- Interrupt
Great dialogue allows a character to respond another character by causing conflict. It also allows them to create conflict. Tension increases when you build doubt and uncertainty with your character’s words. You should use dialogue to show who your characters really are.
Other ways to introduce conflict outside of dialogue include making a character:
- Wait
- Lose
- Search
- Fight
- Runaway
- Manipulate
- Seduce
- Chase
- Fight
- defend
Conflict in dialogue should be supported by these crimes of physical conflicts. It will make your characters think, plan, and react to different situations.
