18.28: Writing Conversational Dialogue

07/09/23 • 25 min

1 Listener

How do you write dialogue that sounds natural? We have some things to keep in mind when you write conversations between characters. When people converse, they do so with more than just words. Body language, tone of voice, and societal context all play a role in understanding what a person means. How do you convey that on the page or in audio?

Homework:

Take dialogue you've written. Delete every third line, and replace those lines with blocking.

Thing of the Week:

Cunk On Earth

Mentioned Links :

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Homework:

Take dialogue you've written. Delete every third line, and replace those lines with blocking.

Thing of the Week:

Cunk On Earth

Mentioned Links :

Join Our Writing Community!

https://writingexcuses.com

Previous Episode

18.27: Framing Stories

Have you ever framed a story within a story? Are you looking for a way to add structure or tension to your story? In this episode, we contemplate the value that can be added to your writing by putting it into a framework. Our hosts discuss various frameworks in fiction—from Frankenstein to Dark One: Forgotten to The House of the Spirits.

[“Dark One: Forgotten” Deep Dive Ep. 4]

Homework:

Take something you’ve already written (or are currently writing), and add a frame story to it. Start with a prologue and an epilogue. Has this changed anything that happens in the middle of your story?

Thing of the Week:

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective, by Katy Siegel (Published on June 27!)

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Next Episode

18.29: Collaboration And Partnership

What are the best practices for collaboration? How do you write in an established intellectual property (IP)? How do you write a new story in an established world? We dive into working with an individual or a group. We hear stories from our hosts about how they have navigated creative endeavors with different types of collaboration.

Homework:

Grab something on your TBR (to be read) pile and pick a random paragraph from it. Use that as the opening for a short story.

Also prepare for our upcoming Deep Dive (starting in two episodes), by reading through Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary.

Thing of the Week:

The Original by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Kowal

Mentioned Links :

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