Stop Laughing and Smiling

I like dialogue. Maybe it's because I'm a child of television and films, but conversation really does it for me. Dialogue in prose is a little trickier. Too much of it turns a book into a script. There needs to be action to break it up. However, action needs to be meaningful.

I haven't read a lot in general, but I have read a great deal of terrible writing. And if there is one thing all bad writing has in common, it is a lot of laughing and smiling (and not from the reader). Every conversation is exactly the same:

"Blah blah blah," Dude 1 said.
Dude 2 laughed. "Blah blah blah."

One can add some variety by adding a mundane activity after laughing or smiling, but that's pretty much it. And though this doesn't seem like such a terrible exchange, the problem is that it doesn't end. Dude 2's comment causes Dude 1 to smile and speak more, which in turn causes Dude 2 to turn his laugh into a smile and say another line which will have a similar effect on Dude 1. I've read pieces of writing that must have had at least six lines of dialogue in which somebody smiled and/or laughed (because sometimes they did both at the same time). It doesn't sound like a lot, but try it out. Look for some exceptionally poor writers (wherever fan fiction is written, you will find such writers) and read it for yourself. Three is a lot. Heck, two is a lot. And now, because it is such a peeve, one line of it is too much.