Dialogue is best understood as a form of music. Like music, dialogue is communication with rhythm and tone. Also like music, dialogue is best when it blends a number of “tracks” at once. The problem most writers have is that they write their dialogue on only one track, the “melody.” This is dialogue that explains what is happening in the story. One-track dialogue is a mark of mediocre writing. Great dialogue is not a melody but a symphony, happening on three major tracks simultaneously. The three tracks are story dialogue, moral dialogue, and key words or phrases. Track
