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

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

The biggest difference between a writer and a would-be writer is their attitude toward rewriting. . . . Unwillingness to revise usually signals an amateur.

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.

To create tension, dialogue needs to be stretched out. That is, characters should not be immediately responsive.

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

Dialogue is a lean language in which every word counts.