Build the room
At the start of a scene, note who is present, who enters and who leaves. An entrance can expose a lie, change what may be said or transfer control of the conversation.
Give every line an action
A speaker may be persuading, hiding, testing, delaying or attacking. Naming that action keeps dialogue from becoming a sequence of quotations without consequence.
Hear more than one voice
Read important exchanges aloud or use speech playback. Changes in pace and sentence length often reveal power, embarrassment or comic timing that silent reading misses.
