This is a presentation from the Indi novelist summit. Any inaccuracies is the fault of the note taker. The presenter was James Scott Bell.

 Dialog is an extension of a character’s actions
 Dialog always has an agenda.
 Dialog is an extension of a character’s ability to act.
 Don’t try to recreate real-life speech any um ah works
 Dialog moves the story forward.
 It can deliver story info.
 It characterizations the person by how they speak
 You don’t have to give all the backstory of a novel at the beginning. it can come gradually
 Make sure the dialog is what two characters will actually say.
 You don’t have to use a character’s name too much in the dialog.
 Places to see dialog being used.
 Each character will have a distinct way of talking influence by employment, past, experiences.
 Some will create a voice journal to have the characters recorded on how they talk.
 Orchestration in the past get created so you have a possibility of conflict.
 Movie city slickers has three well-defined characters with dialog.
 Transactional analyses and games people play presents a theory we tend to have a relationship influenced by roles we see ourselves as. ie adults ( authority figure) power to enforce rules and execute judgments. Adults are even minded and reasonable. The child is the most unreasonable. Does not know how to negotiate. What roles do the characters see themselves in? The cop is the authority figure ad the criminal might be the child trying to evade.
 Googol screwball comedies from the 30,40 and 50x such as His girl Friday) and listen to their crisp dialog. Shows compressed and crisp and how to write it.
 Look for movies directed by Preston and Sturgis
 Common mistakes on the dialog.
 Make sure the characters are distinct and need to make sure they each have an agenda.
 Have characters interrupt each other or they might respond in an unpredictable manner during a dialog.
 Try using silence in action short story hills like white elephants by Ernest Hemmingway a couple at a railroad station that has personal tension.
 If a character is thinking the thoughts need to sound like the character as if they are speaking.
 In cases of long blocks of dialog. You want to avoid long paragraphs. Readers want to see white space. Use interruptions in speech or actions that can be observed by the speaker. Find ways to break it up.
 Breaking up paragraphs on a page is a good way to increase ease of reading
 Interweave dialog with scene some will do dialog first and add descriptions later.
 Some will edit the previous day’s work first and then continue writing
 Some will copy a scene over to a new text and see how much you can cut to compress it and cut flab. Have an action replace the words. The word no could be cut out from “No. I don’t feel like going out.
 Speech tags: ‘said’ are default setting
 You can often cut out he said. Let an action tell you who the current point of view character is. Be careful of actions be careful of having a character do a false action such as scratch an eyebrow just to avoid saying said. Use the action as a substitute for variety on occasion. It can wear a reader out.
 Practice dialog by creating a scene and just have the word exchange.

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