Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on.

In our not-yet-acknowledged secret garden lie the seeds of some of our best not-yet-written stories

A writer writes what other people only think.

A reader's emotions can be sparked with few words. That's the power of dialogue.

Readers, transformed by film and TV, are used to seeing stories. The reading experience . . . is increasingly visual.

Our instinct as human beings is to provide answers, to ease tension. As writers our job is the opposite, to create tension and not dispel it immediately.

Most of the time, tough, combative, adversarial dialogue is much more exciting than physical action.