At The Write Practice, Joe Bunting offers not only sound writing advice; he offers the opportunity to practice whatever skill he’s exploring on a given day. This article, 16 Observations About Real Dialogue, is one of the best I’ve read. Very practical.

For example, here’s Observation # 5:

5. Real People Refuse to Repeat Themselves

Sometimes, when the other per­son can’t hear and says, “Huh? What did you say?” real peo­ple don’t repeat them­selves. They say, “Nothing. It’s not impor­tant. Never mind. I’ll tell you later. Forget it.”

Sometimes, this leads to bickering.

This tech­nique is espe­cially effec­tive if a char­ac­ter has just said some­thing vul­ner­a­ble. People will rarely repeat some­thing embar­rass­ing or hurt­ful or vul­gar. You can draw atten­tion to their vul­ner­a­bil­ity by hav­ing them refuse to repeat themselves.

“Team Solitary”
Image Courtesy of Idea go/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Visit  The Write Practice, a great resource  for both beginning and more experienced writers.