Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

Chapter 4

Creating Drama through Dialogue

In This Chapter

Discovering effective dialogue

Developing your dialogue dexterity

Seeing when and how dialogue works best

Great dialogue is intrinsically dramatic. Whether you’re writing a novel, a play, a film script or a memoir, you need to master the art of dialogue to reveal aspects about your characters and to express conflicts between them.

Dialogue is a wonderful tool because it enables characters to speak directly, giving readers explicit access to their thoughts and personality (see Chapter 6). In addition, lively, snappy dialogue is quick to read and breaks up long slabs of text, making your story more readable and enjoyable.

In this chapter I introduce you to the vitally important skill of writing convincing dialogue, including specific issues relating to choosing a situation, conveying conflict and implying subtext.

Recognising Great Dialogue

Writing effective, successful dialogue takes a lot of practice. You need to take time to really listen to what people say and the way that they say it. As you go about your day-to-day business, make a point of actively listening to how people speak – the words they use, the inflections ...