Lynn Price, editorial director for Behler Publications, on receiving submissions with badly written dialogue:
How many of us speak without using contractions? Unless you’re Data from Star Trek, you don’t say, “I do not think I will have meatloaf tonight for dinner.” Yet time and time again, I see stilted dialog like this and it makes me want to scream.
I’ve seen cases where dodgy dialogue has let otherwise brilliant writers down completely. It’s like some kind of martial art for writers.
Unless it’s your intent to bore your readers to a slow, miserable death, use only the dialog that will actually engage the reader. It’s not small talk – it’s the interesting stuff. If you don’t know the difference, then you need to read more books and analyze effective dialog from your favorite authors. Or take a writing class.
I tend to err towards the economical. I figure we don’t really speak much without someone interrupting or replying. Long, drawn-out pieces of dialogue from one character always make me suspicious.*
It’s like they pop up from the page, slap you round the face and remind you that you’re reading a book, not eavesdropping on another world.
Edit: *Apart from those written by Big Billy Shakespeare of course. He can do whatever he wants.
