Dialogue

I often come a cropper when it comes to writing dialogue between groups of characters. I am strong at descriptive passage, and inventive when linking events, but when dialogue time approaches I fall short of the mark.

For example:

'I thought we'd go out today. We could go shopping and maybe stop off at the park on the way home' said Mom, hopefully, 'What do you think? Great idea, right?'

Eugene shrugged resignedly 'I guess' he mumbled, 'But can't we skip the shopping and just go straight to the park Mom, please '

The look on his face would melt stone, but Mom was adamant.

Do you see what I mean? I don't like the way it appears in print, it doesn't look right to me, it looks disjointed and, well, clunky.

I could use lessons in making characters come alive, in fleshing them out and giving them personality. Off the top of my head I would guess that it's just practise I need, but I tend to give dialogue a wide berth in my writing just because I know how bad I am at it.

Maybe I should read more? That could give me some openers on the subject, because I have stopped reading books altogether ever since I downloaded Prose.

Hmmm. But then, reading on Prose is still reading isn't it.

I guess I just need to practise. What do you think?