Some Thoughts on Dialogue

A few months ago, I got some feedback from an RWA contest which puzzled me. I'd sent in the first twenty pages of McShannon's Heart, and one judge commented "It's almost as if two different people wrote this." I was honestly befuddled, but now, I think I understand what she meant.

When I write dialogue, I try to write it the way I think that character would actually speak, but it seems that isn't always the best option. Dialogue has to match the writer's descriptive style. I read the passages ...