Q: It is natural to feel sad and out-of-sorts for a while when love fails. Don't expect yourself to be over your ex in a day or two. Be patient with yourself, and work through everything you are feeling about the breakup. The only way you will eventually be happy is if you give yourself time to completely move on. Don't immediately rush into another relationship or try find someone new to love. Make time to get over this first. Allow yourself time to process everything that you are feeling. It's okay to think about the love and why it failed. People may tell you to just get over it. Don't let anyone else try to rush you into getting over your failed love. However, if it has been several months since your love failed, you may want to put more effort into moving on. At first you may not want to believe that this love has failed. Don't get stuck pretending that nothing has changed and that your love is the same as it was. In order to move on and be happy you have to stop denying (to yourself and to others) that this love failed. Don't contact your ex and act as if things are still the same. This will probably make your ex annoyed or angry and it will make it harder for you to move on and be happy. Put away reminders of your ex. For example, if the background on your phone is a picture of the two of you, then change it. Don't lie to people if they ask you about the relationship. You don't have to go into detail, but you should be honest with them. You might try saying, "We didn't work out, but I'd rather not talk about it any further than that." Then change the subject. Even though you may admit that your love has failed, you might think that if you change certain things about yourself or can convince your ex the love can work, you'll get back together. This usually doesn't work. Instead, accept that it's over so that you can move on with the rest of your life and be happy. Stop trying to think of ways to make your love work. Don't try to make your ex jealous or do something dramatic to make them realize how much they miss you. Look in the mirror and tell yourself, "This is really over. It didn't work out and I accept that." Do this as often as you need to. Give or send back your ex's possessions as soon as you can. For example, don't keep their winter coat in the hopes that you will be back together by the time they need it again. It's natural for you to feel angry once you admit to yourself that this love has failed. You may want to blame someone for things not working out. But, anger can make you more stressed and bring negativity into your life. In order to move on and be happy, you've got to let go of the anger and forgive whomever you need to. Write a letter to your ex forgiving them if they did something to cause the love to fail. You don't have to give it them. Do something physical to get your negative energy out. Punch a boxing bag, go for a run, swim a few laps, or do some yoga. Forgive yourself if it is your fault that the love failed. Sometimes we make mistakes. You have to forgive yourself, learn from it, and move on to be happy.
A: Give yourself time. Move past denial. Accept that it's over. Forgive your ex.

Q: This will give you an opportunity to hear how it sounds. You can make changes based on what you hear as well as what you read. Allow a little time to go by after you've written the dialogue to read it, otherwise your brain will fill in what you were going for rather than what is actually on the page. Have a trusted friend or family member go over your dialogue. A fresh pair of eyes can tell you whether your dialogue is natural sounding, or needs work. There is nothing more irritating to a reader (including and especially, publishers and agents) than punctuation that is being abused, especially in dialogue. There should be a comma after the end of the dialogue and the closing quotation mark. For example: "Hello. I'm Jane," said Jane. If you add action to the middle of a piece of dialogue, you'll either capitalize the second half of the dialogue, or not. For example: "I can't believe he killed my father," Jane said, her eyes filling with tears. "It's just not like him." or "I can't believe he killed my father," Jane said, her eyes filling with tears, "since it's just not like him." If there's no said, only an action, then there's a period in place of a comma in the closing quotation mark. For example: "Goodbye, Aunt Agatha." Jane slammed the phone down. Sometimes, less dialogue is more. When people talk, they are not overly verbose. They say things in short, simple ways and you'll want to reflect that in your dialogue. For example, instead of "I cannot believe that after all these many years, it was Uncle Red that put the poison in my father's evening cocktail and murdered him," said Jane, you might say "I can't believe Uncle Red poisoned my father!" Each character should have her own sound and voice, but too much of an accent or a drawl will become annoying or even offensive to readers. Also, using a dialect you aren't familiar with can end up employing stereotypes and being incredibly offensive to the natural speakers of the dialect. Establish where characters come from in other ways. For example, use regional terms such as "soda" versus "pop" to establish geography. Make sure if you're writing a character from a specific geographic area (like England or America) that you use the appropriate slang and terminology (pants in England, underwear in America, for example).
A:
Read your dialogue out loud. Punctuate your speech correctly. Cut out any unnecessary words or phrases. Use dialect carefully.