1. Fresh, authentic dialogue is... NOT saying what we mean.
If your characters say flat out what they are thinking the dialogue becomes too predictable and reader senses that you're feeding him exposition. It's on the nose.
People love mystery, they love sensing what is going on, their minds need a challenge, a chance to do some intellectual work deducing the characters' true agendas.
This requires real art. And since we usually learn the best when we are (cough*stealing from*cough) looking up to professionals, let's have a look at dialogue decomposition done by Scott Myers. This month he is looking into ways of saying "I love you" without actually uttering these words.
HIGH FIDELITY
JERRY MAGUIRE
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU
2. Sometimes you may be using great language, but the very problem is that you basically have a group of people sitting round a table and talking.
To remedy that make sure that there is some conflict involved. Someone doesn't want to be there. Someone is lying and is sweating bullets that others may call the bluff. Someone realises that if he says one word too many, the listener will blow. You get the idea ;-)
Watch this "poker game from hell" scene from Training Day (2001):
Script link: Training Day (David Ayer, 1999 draft)
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