Judith Searle from The Editorial Department in Santa Monica, California states, "More than any other element of a novel, short story, memoir or screenplay, the handling of dialogue separates the talented amateur from the published writer."

Writing effective dialogue is a skill. Often, new writers mistake dialogue for everyday conversation between two people. This is not the purpose of dialogue. Dialogue in fiction does not sound like ordinary language, which can be dull, repetitive and very long.