Un)realistic dialogue by Aprilynne Pike

As my second attempt to write down what I learned or relearned as the case may be.

If you can't recognize good dialogue when you hear it, it is hard to teach it. If you can tell when the dialogue is bad, you can learn to make it better.

Dialogue should be a text scene. Should have a balance of body language and little or few tags. Cut out about 2/3s of your realistic dialogue.

Your characters should be wittier, smarter, braver,etc. than your are on your best days. Cherry pick the best parts. Get it down to the very basics. I hate phone conversations and she avoids them whenever possible. Cut out all the unnecessary. Delete the hellos and the goodbyes. Try to cut out the interruption that we all do. Avoid that. Trust the reader to recognize the name. Delete all the bodily noises and nodding, etc.

Secondly your dialogue should be like a text TV show. TV show is gonna build the readers reportage with the character. Screenwriters don't have wasted dialogue or a wasted purpose.

She loves Gilmore Girls because it is so snappy. Everyone is smart and well-spoken. Avoid dialect, stuttering and excessive ahs or verbal ticks. Because they can be offensive. If you do it limit it to three lines.

You should have enough hints in your pros to show a reader how a character should sound. When you write dialogue you should have a lot of white space. Especially if it is supposed to be witty.

Speech tags are not needed. Use said, it is invisible. Try to use it whenever necessary. She likes the word hiss. If you can get away without speech tags, then do it. The most difficult conversation to write is a three way within the same gender.

A line of body language should replace a line of dialogue. Or a line about the character.
Read the dialogue out loud. Then maybe add something in. Best dialogue is better when it is written as it takes up lots of white space.

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