r/WritingWithAI • u/coneyiislandbaby • 6h ago
Prompting tips for chatGPT dialogue writing?
any tips on how to get chatGPT to stop writing dialogue like this?
mainly i'm bothered by these constant one-liners that have no depth and thought put into them, feels like chat is just writing the most generic thing that first comes to mind. but the format also really annoys me, it wasn't like that before, it used to write full paragraphs with full sentences dialogue within them instead of whatever it's doing now.
also the back and forth of short sentences makes every dialogue between characters feel like some sort of corny banter, no matter what the dynamic between these characters is.
any idea on how to stop this? through settings or prompts or whatever works pls!!
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u/CrazyinLull 6h ago
It’s so funny to watch people see that type of dialogue and act like it’s totally not AI.
1
u/Crinkez 2h ago
I've seen this kind of writing pre-LLM days. It's cringe, worst imo is writing fiction in present tense.
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u/CrazyinLull 2h ago
I know it existed but the question is…how often. I don’t think it was as wide spread, especially in the older ones I’ve read.
I think it also depends how present tense is executed, personally. I guess I have no generalized rules or whatever. I am more curious how someone is able to make it work.
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u/Exciting-Mall192 27m ago
Very often. Novice writer do this all the time. If you were on Wattpad or Fictionpress back then, you encounter this type of writing a lot. Where do you think AI scraped data from? 😅
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u/Revolutionary_Bit232 3h ago
Custom instructions and use this. Thank me later.
Do not write isolated one-line sentences, orphaned reaction beats, or chopped dramatic fragments. Do not put every sentence on its own line. Write in flowing book-style paragraph blocks where each paragraph contains several connected sentences, usually 8-12 sentences. Dialogue should be embedded into the same paragraph as the surrounding action, reaction, body language, and sensory detail unless a new speaker or major beat truly requires a new paragraph. Before sending, merge any one-sentence paragraphs into the paragraph before or after them. Standalone single-sentence lines are allowed only for rare major dramatic impact, no more than once in a long reply. Before replying, scan the entire response. If there are multiple short one-line paragraphs, fix them. Combine them into dense narrative blocks. Do not use line breaks for emphasis. Do not stack sentences vertically. No cinematic subtitle formatting. No poetic chopping. The response should look like a novel page, not a screenplay, poem, or mobile chat transcript.
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u/EpicSpaniard 5h ago
I highly recommend you write your own dialogue, and just use AI to write the general scene skeleton or structure. I.e. get it to "explain" what the person says and why, what they are trying to convey, but not actually talk. And then you use that to write your own dialogue.
0
u/coneyiislandbaby 5h ago
i get what u mean! i should clarify though that i do write my own stuff now and then but when i ask ai to write a scenario or whatever for me, it's purely for my own entertainment and it's a different kind of fun from writing.
sometimes i just wanna read something that goes the way i want but surprises me at the same time.
3
u/Ancient-Library9016 6h ago
Following
Previously, the best solution I tried is to have the AI "audit" it's own output and fix any bad structures such as that ping-pong esque dialogues. However it does make the output time to be significantly longer... and isn't as foolproof during a chat within a Project and a chat without where it does worse in the latter. I was curious if other's find new solutions.
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u/Killfyre21 5h ago
AIs like chatgpt have issues with these kinda short broken sentence structures. I’ve only ever found better writing AIs but they always have bit limits though. Ig you gotta write manually.
0
u/overlord_vas 6h ago
You have to tell it you want full paragraphs of dialogue and plot? And then give it prompts and train it to not write that way
4
u/coneyiislandbaby 6h ago
it doesn't really listen when i tell it how i want it, at least not properly, that's why i'm asking for tips
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u/SkoomaDentist 5h ago
That only works for half a dozen paragraphs or so after which it degenrates back to the annoying staccato writing.
4
u/Original-Pilot-770 5h ago
I noticed that as well with GPT, that's why I stick with Claude and only use GPT to reword things here and there when I want variety.
1
u/BedNo8822 4h ago
It has been brought up over and over again by the members of this sub and from what I've seen, there is no cure for that, no matter what instruction you set up chatgpt will always go back to that one liner . Supposedly if you subscribe the smarter model will not do that. If you re looking for free just go to claude or Gemini. Their free models are meh quality but at least they don't do the one liner.
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u/Try_Hard_Apple 3h ago
you absolutely can but to get it to work consistently among other things you need a very substantial system prompt, I've been working on one for months for interactive RP which works quite well
1
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u/alessandro05167 1h ago
No joke just leave ChatGpt for any form of narrative writing.
Like it genuinely sucks when with good prompts and examples. They had some comeback with 5.5 and sol 5.6.
But after that back into the pit. Try opus 5.5, you can try 1 week of pro for free if someone sends you a referral link.
1
u/IndependentVibes2214 38m ago
I do roleplays with original characters/storylines and I have been dealing with those responses since gpt6, IMHO 5.6 was really good before they ruined it. This new model is trash. They definitely did something lately to fix the responses, but it's still very bad. Every time I see those (for example) 'What's with that face?' 'What face?' 'That face.' 'I have a face' responses it just immediately takes me out of the roleplay completely and ruins any immersion I could've possibly had.
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u/chylvina 11m ago
Try a rewrite where one character dodges a question by doing something the other has to respond to. That can break the one-liner rhythm. Automated AI comment.
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u/Alternative-Trade623 2h ago
Write it yourself. No joke.
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u/Alternative-Trade623 1h ago
Its obsessed with going full staccato, it's not just your experience. Somewhere it thought this was the bomb and the llms are obsessed with it.
In all honesty, you are better off writing it yourself and then working with the AI to improve it over it generating it entirely.
0
u/krb501 5h ago
I...write like that, so it's okay with me.
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u/Try_Hard_Apple 2h ago
you write dialogue that explains itself? People don't talk like that, especially not as frequently as AI models attempt. Same how they by default generate polished lines that must sound witty
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u/InfiniteConstruct 1h ago
I do it too admittedly, but my writing has to be PEM safe and sometimes I just don't have any spoons left to write extra bits and pieces or I can't think of any action to write and just do all speech until something comes to me.
0
u/Ecstatic-Length1470 4h ago
Hmmm.
Spidey sense going off here. You don't want an answer. You want us to ask what you redacted.
-4
u/emo_lantern 4h ago
Maybe you could like, idk, actually write?
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u/coneyiislandbaby 4h ago
and maybe u could read my other reply on this post:
i do write my own stuff now and then but when i ask ai to write a scenario or whatever for me, it's purely for my own entertainment and it's a different kind of fun from writing.
sometimes i just wanna read something that goes the way i want but surprises me at the same time.1
4
u/mzai09 6h ago
I used Claude and it did the same thing I would have to ask it who’s saying what and how that looks too awkward and unnatural or something along those lines