Sometimes dialogue seems to ramble on and on without direction and just when I think it makes sense and should stop, it doesn't.
I came across a section in chapter 23 that I tweaked and edited until it sounded "natural." It's an interrogation scene. The original chapter was so long that I was able to break it down into three separate chapters. Much of what is revealed in these chapters is based on the events the character unveils a few chapters before. So I went back and forth between chapters, making sure things were consistent and I'd finally gotten the first two chapters in this scene to work. They have a natural flow of information; the questions/answers were logical and played up to each character's voice. Great!
I was nearly done with the third section and again, it was going well. The focus is the detective's interest in knowing if the woman he's interrogating had anything to do with a recent murder of her former employer. He senses that even if she didn't actually shoot the weapon, she's hiding or possibly protecting someone. He suspects the victim's business partner and pushes her for answers about him. The dialogue between the two works well, so well that the detective redirects the line of questions. I thought I was nearing the end of the chapter when I realized I'd started beating a dead horse with more of repetitive stuff.
There are some workable lines in that section so it's not a matter of just cutting the entire section. I’ll just read the entire chapter again and pick the bests lines--the ones that keep the scene focused, and cut the rest. Grrr. I'll never get done.
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