Dialog - Check!

Right now, I'm editing and trying to wrap some things up before I leave for WorldCon next week! (Can I get a Woohoo?!!) So, I'm going to keep this short and sweet today.

When I'm editing, I like to go through my dialog and make sure every line is necessary and either teaches or evokes emotion for the reader. I try to make sure it accomplishes whatever I need it to accomplish.

The dialog shouldn't repeat something that has already been stated in narrative and vice versa. I try to keep it as snappy and dynamic as possible, and make sure that each line really fits the character and sounds like something they would really say.

What do you watch for when editing dialogue? What do you struggle with the most?

Random Dialog

For fun today, I thought I'd run through a couple of my manuscripts and post some random lines of dialog just to play around.

Let's see how messed up I really am, shall we?

"We should take bets on whose leg he'll break this year."

"You just said you are dying. How can it not matter?"

"You guys do anything new or did he follow the routine and act like he wanted to put you in his blender?"

"No, but in your hands I'd consider even this over-sized roller skate a lethal weapon."

"Could you please throw me your coat? I've made a lot of stupid mistakes tonight, but I don't want to add 
getting arrested for public indecency to the list"


"This whole sheltered innocence thing you've got going on. It's awesome."


Now how about a little internal dialog... characters talking to themselves are always fun. 
~~Being a zombie sucks rocks. I'm sure the whole feasting on human flesh thing wouldn't be so bad eventually--and man would I love to see those snobby cheerleaders run when they saw me coming. Talk about zombie vengeance at its best. But Mom and Dad wouldn't let me anyway. It'd be breaking "the zombie 
rules" and what's worse than being a teenage zombie? Being a grounded teenage zombie, that’s what.


~~Now they are just dying--just dead.
And I don't regret what I've done.


How about you? Any fun, random (internal or external) dialog from projects you'd like to share? What is your favorite line in your books? In any books?