How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript (Bell on Writing)

by James Scott Bell

If you think of speech as action, it will keep you from writing soggy, inert dialogue. Speech as action reminds you that characters talk in fiction because they want to further their own ends.

The character has, in short, an agenda.

So the first secret of dazzling dialogue is to give your characters their own agenda checks in every scene. Then, put those agendas in opposition.

At any given time, every character in a scene can be fearful about something.

Simple rule of thumb: If you want to slow down the pace of your story, you increase the description between the dialogue and decrease the white space on the page.