Look, don't just stare at the pages," I used to tell my students. "Become the characters. Live inside the book.
Change what you can, accept what you can't, and be smart enough to know the difference
Dialogue comes naturally to me and I can hear the characters' voices in the scenes.
Take what people give you. Drink their milkshakes.
Love grows from the rich foam of forgiveness, mongrels make good dogs, and the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things.
Only there's two sides to every story, you know. You just remember that.