Dialog: Who doesn't love it? It's fun to set characters against each other and imagine what they would say. Add the pleasure of a new paragraph for each change of speaker and pages fly from your fingers. But wait! Characters don't have conversations like we do. (At least they shouldn't!) There are a few things to bear in mind:
1) Dialog is never small talk.
2) Dialog either reveals character, creates tension, builds suspense or moves the story forward.
3) Characters may be like us, but they don't talk like us. No unnecessary words, no repetitions, or irrelevant information.
4) "If you have to tell the reader how your character feels," she said pompously, "you haven't got good dialog."
"But I love my adverbs," he said, his forehead imprinted with small squares from striking it against his keyboard. "I can't leave them to fend for themselves!"
"Just compare our dialog!" she asserted proudly, enjoying his misery. "I am as dull as a menu, while you..."
"...sound like a real person?" He lifted his head and stared at her. "That's what you want, isn't it?" His fingernails dug into his palm.
"That's what all writers want!" she said triumphantly.
He sighed and dumped an armload of adverbs into a nearby trashcan
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