Seven Keys to Writing Good Dialogue
Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: Seven Keys to Writing Good Dialogue
3. Good dialogue evokes the way people actually talk in real life without actually sounding precisely like the way people talk in real life.
Paraphrasing Elmore Leonard, good writers leave out the boring parts. This goes doubly for dialogue: it's usually best to cut to the chase rather than spending time on the pleasantries that normal people use in everyday conversation.
In real life our conversations wander around all over the place, and a transcribed real life conversation is a meandering mess of free association and stutters. In a novel, a good conversation is focused and has a point.
Amen! :)
3. Good dialogue evokes the way people actually talk in real life without actually sounding precisely like the way people talk in real life.
Paraphrasing Elmore Leonard, good writers leave out the boring parts. This goes doubly for dialogue: it's usually best to cut to the chase rather than spending time on the pleasantries that normal people use in everyday conversation.
In real life our conversations wander around all over the place, and a transcribed real life conversation is a meandering mess of free association and stutters. In a novel, a good conversation is focused and has a point.
Amen! :)