Time flies

Wow, I can't believe it's been ten days since I last posted.
For my birthday my mom took me to a movie. We saw Untraceable.
Very good, scary. I think Diane Lane did an awesome job playing her character. And I was actually able to guess a future plot point in the movie.
It actually was foreshadowed in the dialogue, and that's how I knew it was coming. It made me think of the use of dialogue in novels.
When I first started writing I hated dialogue. It was boring. What would my characters say? So I tended to narrate alot and let me tell you, that was some really boring stuff. The problem was, I didn't understand the use of dialogue. I thought it was conversation.
"Hi, how are you?"
"Fine. Nice day out today."
"Sure is. See ya."
"Bye."
Guess what? There's absolutely no purpose to the above conversation. Conversation in life can be super dull. Characters should never Conversate.
Every word spoken should have meaning, whether it points to character, foreshadows, or reveals backstory.
And that is what makes reading a book so interesting. Each word reveals something new to be learned or something new to look forward to.
Here's dialogue.
"Boy, these ol' joints sure are hurting today."
"You took your medicine, didn't you?"
"Don't worry about your Grandpa none. Just means the rain is coming."
Okay, so that's not the most earth shattering dialogue in the world, but hopefully you see what I mean.

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