"Hi." "Hi." "How are you." "Oh fine..."
*yawn* Can we throw in vampires now?
Dialog isn't just speech. If it were, half of most books would be like the above.
No, dialog has a purpose. Actually, it has one of three purposes.
Move the story forward.
Reveal something about the character.
Show conflict.
Good dialog has two out of three. Brilliant has all three. But if your dialog doesn't seem to do even one of these, cut it. Then see if you're missing anything. If you are, it's one of these three things but very subtle.
More on dialog next month!
Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing
wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular
order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.
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