Dialogue suckage

Yep, i've discovered while editing that i really suck at dialogue.

It's not the first thing i gravitate towards while writing - i really prefer to write internal dialogue (perhaps because i tend to live in my own head quite a lot?!).

However, i did notice that one of my scenes really lacked impact.
It contained a lot of he did, she did and then, and of course internal dialogue.
So i went back to the beginning of the scene and inserted dialogue - taunts really - (it was a fight scene) and suddenly it felt real, alive and so much better! I was able to delete a good chunk of the internal dialogue because the characters speaking and their reactions to each other, told more about them than the internal stuff.

Do you suck at dialogue, or is this your natural style?

From the Write Practice i found two great articles. One about rumours and another about observations. Even if you are awesome at dialogue, do visit them, they are well worth the minute to read :)

Introspection vs Dialogue

So, over the past few years i have come to realise what my writing style is, which is an essential part of your writing career, in my opinion.
I've also come to realisation that my style is not what i like to read in other books!
Weird huh?!

So, i really enjoy writing the characters internal thoughts and feelings and struggle quite a bit with dialogue.
When i read, i usually skim through this part and get right to the dialogue!

So, slowly i have been trying to write more dialogue and less introspection - which for me is very tricky!
However, i write the introspection first, as this comes naturally for me, then i take a step back and try to write the same stuff through dialogue, through both POV's until i feel it clicks.

Another way, is to write the entire scene using only dialogue - this way you need to try and get emotion and thoughts across through the characters voice first, then you can layer in a bit of introspection and what the character is doing, eg hand gestures, frowning etc.

All the writing advice out there has told me that more action through dialogue is more readable and more liked than the thoughts stuff - which i tend to agree with when i'm reading! It's something like 60% dialogue, 40% introspection.

Do you have difficulty writing dialogue? How do you combat it?