Polish a Scene's Dialogue: The Final Pass Checklist

The scene mostly works but you want a proper final polish before you call it done. This runs through a fixed checklist: voice ownership, on-the-nose lines, overlap and interruption, and applies every fix directly in a clean rewrite. Good for writers at the last-draft stage who want a systematic pass rather than another vague read-through.

Perform a final-draft polish pass on the following dialogue scene. Work through each of these checks in order and apply all relevant fixes directly in a clean rewrite:

**Voice and distinctiveness:** could any line belong to any character? Tighten ownership.
**On-the-nose dialogue:** remove any line where a character states their emotion directly when action or implication would do it better.
**Overlap and interruption:** add natural interruptions, false starts, or talking-across each other where the scene calls for it.
**Dialogue tags:** replace weak descriptive tags (he said angrily) with action beats or stronger line writing.
**Rhythm and breath:** vary sentence length so the scene has natural pace shifts; flag any run of similar-length lines and break them up.
**Exit lines:** ensure the scene ends on a line with forward momentum, not a summary statement.

Scene:
{DIALOGUE_DRAFT}

Deliver only the polished rewrite followed by a brief change log (bullet points).