Our characters feel real to us, their creators, but the trick is making them seem natural to our readers.

When I begin writing a first draft, I try to approach writing each scene as if I were shooting a movie. We know that each conversation is an event that must advance the story, but it must also give us glimpses of who each person is.

To that end, dialogue must do at least one (if not all) of these things:

• Offer information the characters are only now learning.
• Show the state of mind the characters are experiencing.
• Show the relationship of the characters to each other.
• Show the relationship of the characters to their world.

However, dialogue is only one layer of the scene. We try to establish the world environment in the opening pages but world-building is an ongoing task and is a foundational layer of each scene.

• We…