How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript

Act first, explain later.

This is the first and most important lesson in dazzling dialogue: be clear on every character's

agenda in a scene, and set the agendas in conflict. Before you write take just a moment to jot down what each character in the scene wants, even if (as Kurt Vonnegut once said) it is only a glass of water.

So that's the foundation for dazzling dialogue. It comes from a character who has an agenda, and is directed toward another character who has an agenda. No matter how small or large the objectives, if they are in conflict the dialogue will work.

dramatic dialogue should always be "a compression and extension of action.

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 first thing to look out for is a character saying anything that both the characters already know.

And Bosch is sarcastic, so his last line uses repetition as a weapon.