Dialogue beats, or how to perfect your dialogue

Illustration by Alex Jenkins

A phenomenon occurred. Though I should be hardly surprised about it. Reading books on writing saturated my mind to the point where I can no longer read a book and not analyze its structure. And the worst (or best?) part is, when reading dialogue, I suddenly see the emotional subtext underneath it and whether or not it's done right. By "right" I don't mean it adheres to some unbreakable rules, as there is no right way to write. By "right" I mean the reaction it...