on Live Write Thrive:

We fiction writers want to write terrific dialogue. After all, dialogue is the “make or break” element in a story. Writing it well can mean the difference between a manuscript’s being published and staying in a drawer collecting dust.

Dialogue is one of the most powerful, engaging, and memorable elements in fiction. So it behooves writers to learn all they can about how to turn good dialogue into great dialogue.

But, perhaps more than any other element of fiction, dialogue is dependent on good technique for it to really work—and it’s the only element of fiction that is doomed if it too closely resembles reality.