Writing convincing dialogue is often a fiction writer’s toughest challenge. When should a character speak or hold a conversation during a scene? What should be spoken aloud, left unsaid, or presented as interior monologue?
Drawing on my experience as a playwright, where dialogue is the heart of the art, as well as a novelist and speechwriter, we’ll explore ways to use dialogue to reveal character and to build tension through words spoken and unspoken. Through numerous examples drawn from a wide variety of genres, we’ll look at beginning and ending conversations between characters, and how to recognize how dialogue works in combination with other literary techniques, such as body language. We’ll also explore the impact of different styles of speech, such as formal and informal.
Participants will have an opportunity during the workshop to write and share a short scene based on a prompt, which will consist mostly of dialogue between characters. This workshop is open to published and unpublished fiction writers with all levels of experience and all ages. We all learn from one another when we bring varied skill sets and experiences into a room together.
yellowarrowpublishing.com/workshop-sign-up/march-may-revealing-character
When: May 19, 6:30-8:30 pm EST
Cost: $45 each
Where: Zoom (link provided after registration)
Class Size: 20 participants
About the instructor:
Amy L. Bernstein writes for the page, the stage, and forms in between. Her novel, THE POTRERO COMPLEX, is forthcoming from Regal House Publishing in August 2022 and was a finalist for that publisher’s Petrichor Prize in 2020. THE NIGHTHAWKERS, a paranormal romance, will be published by The Wild Rose Press. Amy is also the author of a novel for teens, FRAN, THE SECOND TIME AROUND, which won the Maryland Writers Association’s Best Short Novel contest in the Young Adult category. Her plays include RAW (included in the 2015 Women’s Voices Theater Festival and featured on a national list of plays about rural America), TERMINAL LUCIDITY, THE LEGEND OF TOMMY TREMAIN, and DAYS OF RAGE. She is a former award-winning journalist and speechwriter. She also posts essays and poetry on several Medium publications. Amy develops and teaches grant writing workshops for artists, nonprofit organizations, and social entrepreneurs.