Writer's Digest: 4 Tips on Writing Dialogue

[nuxvomica]

3. I read the short article and I think the tips are useful

Especially "ditch the tags." I think a lot of people feel they must describe how someone's saying something, that that is more imaginative writing. It's often called for but when it's not, a simple "he/she said" is fine. I find dialogue fairly easy to write but I have to restrain myself from writing pure dialogue by breaking in with description, often about what a character is thinking. My general rule about dialogue is to keep in mind that every conversation between two people is actually two different conversions, with different issues, different rhythms, and even different outcomes.