Every individual has their own set of beliefs and opinions. These beliefs help to shape the stories we write, but they can pose a threat to character dialogue.

If authenticity is your objective, then you’ll want to keep your favoritism in check. For example, I recently published a novel where two of the characters were highly intelligent diametric opposites. One was a religious conservative and the other was a liberal freethinker.

Naturally, we gravitate toward showing favoritism to the characters who align with our belief structures the most. But this can take away from the value and intellectual honesty of your story. A writer must learn to keep the favoritism at bay.

In my story, the two rival intellectuals butt heads, and I wanted to show an authentic, strong dialogue; something you would hear if these two were real people having a debate at a college university.

Studying philosophy, politics and religion for over twenty years, I know both sides of their argument very well. The challenge for me was keeping my favoritism out of it, and letting the dialogue be organic and natural. Staying true to being objective and balanced, I was able to create a very powerful dialogue in the story.

This is the type of writing that people resonate with. They want authenticity. And it’s not just with politics. This reasoning can be applied to any dialogue, whether it be a discussion about cars, business, clothing, or even a lover’s quarrel. You know who you want to win, but in real life, your guy doesn’t always win. Remember to keep your favoritism out of the dialogue, and let the story be its own entity that you are guiding.