Literary Dialogue is Not Real Talk

Well-written dialogue does not imitate the way real people speak. Real talk is repetitive, rambling, and redundant. It is boring and often meaningless. Good literary dialogue, therefore has to be carefully crafted. In his book, Stein on Writing, Sol Stein points out that the majority of published writers write dialogue instinctively with little knowledge of the craft. He defines creative dialogue this way: "It is a semblance of speech, an invented language of exchanges that build in tempo or content toward climaxes. Learning the new language of dialogue is as complex as learning any new language."