: Re: Is a novel less credible if the dialogues are too perfect? I always find myself trying to make dialogues perfect. For example, the perfect advice, the perfect punch line, the perfect joke or

@Debbie451

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Your two examples are from very different people. The first guy is confident, mocking, and ironic. The second guy is insecure, nervous, and looking for validation.

So as iajrz points out, it depends on your characters. Would that particular character always have le mot juste on the tip of his tongue, or does he suffer from l'esprit de l'escalier like most people? As long as you're consistent, whichever one you pick is fine.

I would caution that if all your characters speak perfectly all the time, unless you're doing it that way on purpose and tipping your hand to the reader about it somehow (for example, if you were writing about a kind of utopia where everyone was trained to speak beautifully), I think it will start to sound fake. If you feel like you can't tell, mention it to your beta readers when you hand off your first draft that it's a weakness and you would like them to be on the lookout for it.

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