Overheard a guy at the library say 'dialogue is just people talking' and it got me thinking about my own scenes

I was sitting near the fiction section last Tuesday and this older guy was telling his friend that dialogue should just be two people chatting, not some big dramatic thing. I've been writing these super tense conversations with hidden meanings and he's probably right. My characters never just talk like normal humans. Anyone else catch themselves making every chat way too heavy?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jana1mo ago

Does your own dialogue pass the grocery store checkout line test?

gavin_allen481mo ago

Nah, I'm gonna disagree completely. Real people in real life rarely just chat about nothing, every conversation has some kind of subtext or goal behind it. If your dialogue is just two people talking about the weather, your reader is gonna get bored and put the book down.