Brevity is the Soul of... (etc.)

A quick one:

Nobody speaks using the longest or most involved wording they can think of. Almost everyone will choose the short way of expressing something.

That is, "I have a suspicion that (blank)" is the same as "I suspect that (blank)", but 99 people out of a hundred would use the latter. So, if you're shooting for natural sounding dialogue (obviously, when writing something more stylised - think David Milch and Deadwood - this doesn't really apply), you should write accordingly.

There are exceptions, of course. But if you do decide to use a longer or more complex phrasing, that's saying something specific about your character (Sorkin can get away with it in The West Wing because he's writing about speechwriters and politicians, for example), so think long and hard before you do it.

And yes, anyone who's read my writing knows that this is possibly the most hypocritical thing I could write (I do loves me some overdone dialogue). But thinking about it, typing it down and (hopefully) getting feedback is one way for me to address the issue; this blog is as much to help me as anyone else.