How to Get AI to Write Better Dialogue: A Guide to Authentic Character Voices

Writers often find that while AI is excellent at structuring a plot or describing a sunset, it tends to fail miserably when two characters start talking. The result is often "vanilla" dialogue—too articulate, too polite, and far too focused on explaining emotions rather than showing them. Real people don't usually say, "I am feeling very vulnerable right now because of our shared history." They say, "Don't look at me like that," and let the subtext do the heavy lifting.

If a story’s dialogue feels like a chatbot having feelings, the reader disconnects. To build trust with an audience, a storyteller must move beyond generic prompts and learn to treat AI as a scene partner, not a ghostwriter.

The Problem with "Standard" AI Dialogue

Most AI models are trained to be helpful and clear. In fiction, however, clarity is often the enemy of tension. Characters hide things, they lie to themselves, and they have unique speech patterns based on their background.

When marketers or novelists use a basic prompt like "write a tense conversation," the AI defaults to a theatrical, melodramatic tone. To fix this, writers must provide the "invisible" layers of a conversation before the AI generates a single word.

Step 1: Contextual Programming

Before asking for lines of speech, establish the character’s internal state and their specific "voice." Instead of generic instructions, give the AI a persona to inhabit.

Writers can use style guidelines like these:

• The Vocabulary Gap: Does the character use punchy, short sentences or flowery, academic language?

• The Emotional Shield: How does this person avoid difficult topics? Do they use humor, anger, or do they simply change the subject?

• The Goal: Every character in a scene wants something. If the AI knows Character A is trying to borrow money and Character B is trying to hide a secret, the dialogue naturally gains friction.

Step 2: Using the Right Tools for the Job

Different AI storytelling tools offer specialized features for refining dialogue:

• Sudowrite: This is often the go-to for fiction writers because of its "Describe" and "Rewrite" features. If a line feels flat, writers can highlight it and ask the tool to make it "more suspenseful" or "more sensory," which helps replace dry statements with physical beats.

• Rytr: Marketers and short-form creators can leverage Rytr’s "Custom Tone" feature. By feeding the tool a sample of a character's previous dialogue, it can mirror that specific voice in new scenes, ensuring consistency across a script or campaign.

• Storylab.ai: This tool is particularly effective for generating multiple variations of a "hook" or a key revelation in a scene, allowing creators to pick the one that feels the least like a cliché.

Step 3: The "Dialogue Assassin" Method

Once the AI produces a draft, the real work begins. To turn AI-generated text into a professional narrative, writers should apply these three rules:

1. Kill the "Therapy-Speak": If a character explains exactly why they are sad, delete it. Replace it with a physical action—like fidgeting with a phone or adjusting a strap—that shows the discomfort.

2. Add Quirk and Flaw: Real speech is messy. AI-generated dialogue is often too grammatically perfect. Injecting a few sentence fragments or a specific recurring word can make a voice feel grounded and earned-through-experience.

3. The Read-Aloud Test: If a line feels difficult to say or sounds like something no one would ever utter in a kitchen at 2 AM, it needs to be cut or simplified.

A Final Thought for Solopreneurs

Using AI for dialogue isn't about letting a machine speak for you; it’s about using it to generate the "raw clay" that you then sculpt into something authentic. By shifting from "Write this scene" to "Help me find three different ways this character could avoid answering this question," marketers and writers can create stories that truly resonate.

Next Step: Take a flat piece of dialogue you've recently written. Input it into a tool like Sudowrite and use the "Rewrite" function with the instruction: "Make this character sound more defensive and less articulate." Compare the results to see how much subtext changes the scene's energy.