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Dialogue should sound natural while remaining economical. Revise dialogue to remove filler, strengthen characterization, and ensure each exchange advances plot or reveals character.

Dialogue in first drafts often includes excessive pleasantries, unnecessary explanations, and repeated information. Revision can tighten dialogue dramatically while improving its effectiveness. Real speech includes hesitations, interruptions, and incomplete thoughts, but transcribing speech directly produces boring dialogue. Good dialogue mimics natural speech while remaining purposeful. Remove filler words and expressions that don't strengthen characterization. If both characters say "um" and "like," maybe only one does—this creates distinction. Remove exchanges where characters repeat information the reader already knows purely for other characters to learn it. Each line should reveal something about character, advance plot, create tension, or accomplish multiple purposes simultaneously. Dialogue reveals character through what they choose to discuss, what they avoid, their vocabulary, speech patterns, and reactions to others. A character who speaks in brief sentences under stress but elaborates extensively when comfortable reveals character through pacing changes. A character who jokes to avoid emotional topics reveals avoidance through deflection. Consider subtext—what's unsaid beneath the words. Two characters can discuss weather while genuinely discussing relationship tension. The dialogue about weather is literal; the actual conversation is about intimacy and distance. This layering creates depth. Read dialogue aloud during revision. Your ear catches rhythmic problems, repetition, and unnatural phrasing that silent reading misses. If dialogue is hard to speak, readers will feel that difficulty, creating subtle awkwardness. Test whether removing a line of dialogue creates problems—if not, it probably wasn't necessary. Strong dialogue serves multiple purposes and creates efficiency.