Believable Dialogue and other babbling

I've been thinking about writing and believable dialogue. If you take time and listen to how people talk around you, most of it isn't believable!

Take my 6 y.o. daughter, who took a short nap last week when she wasn't feeling well. She got up and asked if she could read for a bit because, "I feel refreshed."

If I had a kid say that in my novel, I'd be laughed out of the editor's office.

I have a tendency to write in fragments, especially for emphasis, and I get called on it regularly in my writing groups. Gee... you mean people don't talk in fragments? Can't understand them?

What's the balance between believable and canned? We're supposed to create unique and memorable characters, right? But when they act or talk differently than is expected, it's questioned.

In other news...

I woke up with a sore throat this morning. That better not mean I'm catching a cold. Grrr... we haven't -- any of us -- been sick this year until recently. My DD had a slight cold last week. I was hoping for a healthy winter.

My nineteen-year-old niece is so cute. She has a boyfriend, and his picture is everywhere! It's wallpaper on her computer and her cell phone. It's on her keychain... Oh my, I vaguely remember those days. They text message back and forth constantly. She sat next to me on the couch watching TV last night (we corrupted her... she's never seen an "R" rated movie, and we watched Armageddon... of course, it was on TNT, so I guess it was more like PG-13, but still). Anyway, on the couch, her cell phone in hand, she'd flip it open about every ten minutes and type away and then close it, open, type, close. How did we ever survive without constant communication with our boyfriends back then?

If this keeps up, I may have to try my hand at a YA novel.