It's not about the dialogue, it's about what surrounds it

Photo by Phillip Schumacher

I had this epiphany strike me while reading Anna Karenina. There is a scene of conflict between Anna and Vronsky (several of them) where the dialogue is almost meaningless if you looked at it as puredialogue. It has no information in it, no explanations; the lines are broken, unfinished. It was while reading those scenes that I undestood something I already knew yet failed to apply fully to my own writing.

You know how they say, you're blind to something until y...