: Re: How can one write good dialogue in a story without sounding wooden? I began an assignment to write a short story for a Creative Writing submission to a publication and although it was accepted,

@Kevin153

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Every aspect of writing comes alive when it has multiple levels to it. Characters saying exactly what they mean, in a purely functional manner, is boring, unnatural, and superfluous. But great dialogue is so much more than functionality:

Sound: Even in real life, some people have a tendency to speak in unconscious poetry. And in fiction, you have free license to make your character's utterances as beautiful as you want --if it fits your story.
Attitude: Your dialogue should expose your characters' inner lives and mental states. Is your character angry? Annoyed? Blissful? Lustful? It should come out in the word choice.
Context: There is also a host of things that make dialog more interesting that have nothing to do with the actual words. For example, your character is a bank robber trying to make small talk with the teller to distract him from her partner sneaking over to the safe: "Lovely weather, isn't it?" It's interesting because it needs to fool someone, not because of anything in the dialogue itself.
Subtext: Last, but perhaps most important, is the subtext. People often say one thing and mean another. I recommend trying two passes through on your dialogue. In the first pass, have the characters say exactly what is most important to them, in a very direct way. In the second pass, rewrite the dialogue so that the characters are hiding what they really mean. "Um..." can mean "I'm in love with you, and now that we're face to face, I don't know what to say." Or it could mean "I think that's a terrible idea, but I don't want to destroy your dreams." When the subtext is strong enough, the actual dialogue can be banal and thin and still fascinate the reader.

I always believe we write best the things we love. If you're weak on dialogue, spend some time really listening to people's conversations, and learning to love the way they talk to each other, the poetry of their metaphors and idioms, the way they do and don't say what they mean.

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