7 Dialogue Writing Tricks for Natural Persian Conversations
Dialogue is the hardest form of writing. Because the reader can tell in two seconds whether a conversation is "written" or "spoken." First, let's set aside a misconception: good dialogue does not resemble real speech — real speech is full of repetition, pleasantries, and half-finished sentences. Good dialogue is its essence.
1) Cut the hellos and goodbyes
The opening how-are-yous and closing farewells usually carry zero information. Start the scene in the middle of a conversation:
- Weak: "Hi, hope you're not too tired." — "Hi, thanks. You good?" — "Not bad…"
- Strong: "Did you sign the paper?" — "Weren't we supposed to wait two more months?"
2) Make every line do two jobs
Every line of dialogue should both deliver information and reveal character — or both advance the plot and clarify relationships. If a line is only functional, cut it.
3) Build subtext
Chekhov is a master of subtext in his plays: people talk about the weather precisely when the most serious question of their lives is on the table.
"You still go there?"
"The weather turned cold early this year."
"So… Monday?"
From these three lines, the reader understands more about the relationship than from a full page of explanation.
4) Replace adjectives with action
Instead of "he said sharply," let a short sentence and a physical action create the sharpness:
- "How many times do I have to say it?" He pushed back the chair.
Cutting adverbs (angrily, sadly, in a soft tone) works wonders: the reader constructs the tone from the content.
5) Give every character a speech rhythm
Even without names, it should be clear which line belongs to which character. The tools: sentence length, specialized vocabulary, catchphrases, level of formality, use of proverbs.
6) Turn long conversation into conflict
If the replies are just rubber-stamping agreement, the scene is dead. Each side must have an agenda (something they want to get) and hide it from the other.
7) Break the order, keep the information
Inject evasion into the conversation: incomplete answers, topic changes, calculated silences. These three tools alone turn dialogue from reporting into suspense.
Three common Persian mistakes
- Excessive dialect spelling: Transcribing local pronunciation precisely makes reading difficult. Rhythm and a key local word are enough.
- Swapping names for the reader: If you change "I said" to "said" just to be artistic, the reader gets lost.
- A seated conversation for delivering history/geography: Instead of "As you know, this city was founded in 1260…" drip-feed the information through routine.
Exercise: write a dialogue scene, then cut one-third of the lines and see whether anything is lost.
