Dialogue

Dialogue

Dialogue is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom, or 3 weeks Online). The course includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.

As Rhett tells Scarlett in the movie Gone With the Wind, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” (In the book version, there’s no “frankly.”) Either way it’s a good line, and you should give a damn about your dialogue. Dialogue is crucial to any kind of story—fiction, nonfiction, any kind of script. Bad dialogue can sink it like a hole in the hull, while good dialogue makes a story sail along beautifully.

Writing great dialogue is tricky. Here you’ll learn to write dialogue that sounds lifelike, but is carefully constructed so every line resonates with characterization and meaning.

If you feel your dialogue is in need of punching up, here’s your chance to strengthen those muscles.

About Dialogue
Dialogue

In a short time, my knowledge about the specific craft issue of dialogue went from pathetic to substantial.

Barbie Beaton

writer

Notes

This is a cross-genre course, applicable to any kind of writing that contains dialogue, including nonfiction.

Upcoming Classes

Masks are not required, but we’ll provide masks for those who want them. We are no longer requesting proof of vaccination.

More Covid details
  • Starts Tuesday, May 14
    Online, anytime
    3-Week Intensive

Price

Registration fee $25, paid once per term

3-Week

Syllabus

This course gives an overview of how to write excellent dialogue, in any genre. Course components:
     Brief lectures
     Writing exercises

New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.

Online classes
Week 1
Art and Artifice: Purpose of dialogue. A sense of reality. The illusion of reality. Stage directions. Particulars for handling prose and scripts.

Week 2
How and Why They Talk: Characterization. Character and situation. Desire and conflict. Tactics. 

Week 3 
Subtext and Such: Subtext. Exposition. Stylized dialogue. Dialect. Speeches. 


Note: Content may vary among individual classes.