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So many authors dread writing dialogue. They struggle with it so badly that it erodes their writing confidence. Don’t let that be you!
Use these prompts to practice your dialogue. Focus on dialogue. Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. Okay? Good.
Table of Contents
Why Use Dialogue Writing Prompts?
- As writing practice (so you can improve your dialogue)
- To inspire you (especially when you have writers block)
How to Use Dialogue Writing Prompts?
You should try and do a quick 500 word writing prompt daily – but that doesn’t mean you need a new prompt every day. Look at the same prompt two or three times.
Four Ways to Use (and Re-Use) Prompts:
- Use the same story idea, but write a different scene.
- Add in a new character, or change the main character
- Write from a different perspective
- Write a completely different story idea
This post contains 3 types of prompts: visual (with ideas), plot, & character.
Dialogue Writing Prompts
Your task: Write a scene of (at least) 500 words for each prompt. Your scene should be at least 50% dialogue!
Happy writing!
Writing Prompts (Visual)
Use the image as inspiration to write 500+ words – remember to focus on dialogue. If the image doesn’t inspire you, check out one of the ideas.
STAIR INTO MY EYES Ideas
- What happens when you reach the top?
- The all-knowing eye is everywhere. It sees everything.
- That’s why we started praying to the Great Eye Deity.
CREEPY MOTEL Ideas
- In hindsight, I wish we’d kept driving.
- “Why should I get a new sign?” he asked, “You can still read the one I’ve got!”
- A pool makes everything better.
SECRET DOOR Ideas
- It was the only room in the house that was hers.
- They opened the door and found the missing gnomes.
- It’s where I kept my practice books. The dangerous ones.
LOCKED OUT Ideas
- He arrived at work to find his coworkers crowded around the locked gates.
- The teachers have been on strike for 192 days.
- Like a simple padlock could keep a thief of her skill out.
Writing Prompts (Plot)
Use the writing prompt as inspiration to write 500+ words – remember to focus on dialogue. Feel free to change any part of the prompt you want!
Writing Prompt #1
Zofia has never been on a second date. She’s never even been tempted to say yes to one. John just asked to see her again. She said yes.
Writing Prompt #2
Your character has just started work as a hotel manager. (S)he discovers that a guest is missing. (S)he calls the police then gets fired.
Writing Prompt #3
If Jamie had known then what he knows now. He never would have…
Writing Prompt #4
An alien race created humans for their entertainment. Now they’re voting on which country should be eliminated.
Writing Prompts (Character)
Use the character information/prompt as inspiration to write 500+ words – remember to focus on writing dialogue! Feel free to change any part of the prompt that you want.
Character Prompt #1
Andy’s always been the breadwinner of the family. With the birth of his third child, he realizes he wants to be a stay at home dad.
Character Prompt #2
Nancie (with an ie) is a meticulous and detail-oriented therapist.
Character Prompt #3
Steve is manipulative and thinks he’s smarter than everyone. He’s also charming, which is why he was just elected president.
Character Prompt #4
Chris has been an alcoholic since he was a teenager. Nobody knows. Today, he got a DUI.
Buy a Writing Prompt Notebook
I like to do writing prompts by hand. I feel more inspired that way. I keep my writing prompts in a separate notebook, just for prompts. You can use any notebook you want (or scraps of paper).
Here are four of my favorite cheap and pretty writing prompt notebooks.
Talk About It!
Dialogue is tough. But practice will help you get better.
I hope you were inspired by (at least one of) these 12 writing prompts.
Ready for more? Check out these 12 unique Creative Writing Prompts next.
Remember: Practice! Practice! Practice! It’s the only way to improve.
Want to inspire someone else? Post your scene(s) (or a link to them) in the comments. Be bold! Be brave!
Read what others have come up with – offer praise and/or constructive criticism. Accept the same.
We’re all in the same boat – just trying to be better writers.
If you like this post, please share it on Pinterest or with your writer friends. You can also follow me on Pinterest, Twitter, & Facebook. Thanks!
Exciting New Books (Mar 2020)
Check out these three books, set to be released in March 2020. I can't wait to get my hands on all of them (although when I'll actually read them is another story).
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life-working hard all day and partying all night-until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She'll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose-to assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he's offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.
As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City's underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion-one that could set them both free, if they'd only let it.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.
2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past.
THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John Mandel
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: "Why don't you swallow broken glass." High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients' accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan's wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.
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