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Dialogue Tips & Traps: A Guide for Fiction Writers
In this chapbook (about 50 pages), an award-winning writer of novels, short stories, and screenplays shares a lifetime’s worth of insights, strategies, tricks, and best practices about the writing of dialogue in fiction, with examples from the great and the not-so-great. (Booklet: 11, 244 words)
Brent Spencer, the author of The Lost Son, Are We Not Men?, and Rattlesnake Daddy, has written, published, and taught fiction writing for many years. His short stories have been published in Best American Mystery Stories, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Missouri Review, Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, and other places. He’s the recipient of an Editor’s Choice Award, the Distinguished Artist Award from the Nebraska Arts Council, the Little Bluestem Award, the Midwest Book Award, and the Silver Award from ForeWord Reviews. He holds the MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop (in fiction), where he won the James Michener Award, and he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer in the Stanford Creative Writing Program. He’s a tenured professor of English at Creighton University, where he teaches fiction writing and screenwriting.
Brent Spencer, the author of The Lost Son, Are We Not Men?, and Rattlesnake Daddy, has written, published, and taught fiction writing for many years. His short stories have been published in Best American Mystery Stories, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Missouri Review, Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, and other places. He’s the recipient of an Editor’s Choice Award, the Distinguished Artist Award from the Nebraska Arts Council, the Little Bluestem Award, the Midwest Book Award, and the Silver Award from ForeWord Reviews. He holds the MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop (in fiction), where he won the James Michener Award, and he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer in the Stanford Creative Writing Program. He’s a tenured professor of English at Creighton University, where he teaches fiction writing and screenwriting.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
50 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 25, 2012
13 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Brent Spencer
7 books6 followersI’m an award-winning fiction writer whose work has been published in Best American Mysteries, The Atlantic, GQ, The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. I’m the author of the novel The Lost Son, the story collection Are We Not Men?, and the memoir Rattlesnake Daddy. My most recent book is The Last of Her, a crime thriller. I teach creative writing at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska and live in Ponca Hills, Nebraska with my wife, novelist Jonis Agee.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 6, 2013
I rated it based on its usefulness to writers within their first 5,000 hours of practice & study in the craft. With my being far past that, I only found myself writing down a few notes here and there. I do like the chapbook's design. It's concise, provides a quick example, and it moves forward after completing the topic. I would consider it a decent amount of nutrient content, however lean. It is more nutrient dense than a lot of longer books on writing, however not as nourishing in caloric value.
It's hard for me not to compare it to Mary Buckham's Writing Active Setting: Characterization and Sensory Detail, since I just finished reading that. It covers a different skill needed on the sentence level of writing, but I like the way Buckham provided more in-depth studies of her examples and also provided practice exercises. Furthermore, because her reviews were so detailed, you could easily extrapolate the design for your own study exercises. Brent Spencer, unfortunately, moves so quickly that I'm not sure the level of writer who would find this book useful could create their own study exercises afterward. Nor do I recall him providing any.
To make it more valuable to the beginning and mid-level writer, I would suggest some material that takes continuing education into consideration. Some meaningful study exercises that indicate what writers should look for (learning goals), and some practice exercises indicating what writers should try to accomplish (performance goals) would push this book to a solid five stars.
One may assume that it would be a given that writers would study and practice the advice in this book. But I believe many people who read the multitude of boks on writing blaze through them, highlight here and there, and try to simply remember the insights. Study and practice allow students to more deeply assimilate information. Without these things, the book feels geared toward lecture-based learning, which is not nearly as useful.
It's hard for me not to compare it to Mary Buckham's Writing Active Setting: Characterization and Sensory Detail, since I just finished reading that. It covers a different skill needed on the sentence level of writing, but I like the way Buckham provided more in-depth studies of her examples and also provided practice exercises. Furthermore, because her reviews were so detailed, you could easily extrapolate the design for your own study exercises. Brent Spencer, unfortunately, moves so quickly that I'm not sure the level of writer who would find this book useful could create their own study exercises afterward. Nor do I recall him providing any.
To make it more valuable to the beginning and mid-level writer, I would suggest some material that takes continuing education into consideration. Some meaningful study exercises that indicate what writers should look for (learning goals), and some practice exercises indicating what writers should try to accomplish (performance goals) would push this book to a solid five stars.
One may assume that it would be a given that writers would study and practice the advice in this book. But I believe many people who read the multitude of boks on writing blaze through them, highlight here and there, and try to simply remember the insights. Study and practice allow students to more deeply assimilate information. Without these things, the book feels geared toward lecture-based learning, which is not nearly as useful.
August 11, 2015
This was a wonderful short guide on how to write proper dialogue. The advice was easy to read and made perfect sense. You can tell the teacher is secure in his lesson plan, and doesn't feel the need to try and confuse you so he can pass as a scholar.
He first gets into the practical grammar ground work one needs to write proper dialogue, then delves into more nuanced material, such as pacing, rhythm, realism, culling, and subtle artistic flourishes. He uses excellent examples to make his points, while also poking fun at Shakespeare and other greats. It's all educational and fun.
What's really gold is a passage at the end where he color codes an entire section, showing why it's such a good writing. He shows you the delicate balance of all the elements. Then he writes the same section again as some younger writers would do today: First-person, stream-of-consciousness, art school garbage sorely missing J.D. Salinger. It is horrible to see the metamorphosis, but through it we get to see through the eyes of a teacher and understand why he is both pious and joyous about his craft.
Highly recommended. If you have Kindle Unlimited it's free right now.
He first gets into the practical grammar ground work one needs to write proper dialogue, then delves into more nuanced material, such as pacing, rhythm, realism, culling, and subtle artistic flourishes. He uses excellent examples to make his points, while also poking fun at Shakespeare and other greats. It's all educational and fun.
What's really gold is a passage at the end where he color codes an entire section, showing why it's such a good writing. He shows you the delicate balance of all the elements. Then he writes the same section again as some younger writers would do today: First-person, stream-of-consciousness, art school garbage sorely missing J.D. Salinger. It is horrible to see the metamorphosis, but through it we get to see through the eyes of a teacher and understand why he is both pious and joyous about his craft.
Highly recommended. If you have Kindle Unlimited it's free right now.
November 10, 2012
I really enjoyed this short "chap book" by Brent Spencer. He gives great ideas on ways to write effective dialogue and how to set the scene, describe events, etc without making a work seem contrived. Plus, he adds a little bit of humor in his examples. Easy processes to put to use in my work as a struggling writer...
April 9, 2013
This book is really an extension of an article. I found the information concise and informative. I bought this for my kindle which was a slight problem as when the author is trying to make a point using color coded sections. With no color on the kindle I was forced to go to my computer to read the content. Otherwise I liked it but would have like it to be longer.
April 9, 2013
Concise, useful, and cheap. I really appreciated the last few pages on passages laden with too much exposition and not enough variety, more dialogue being one way. Provides excellent guidance on the topic of dialogue.
November 24, 2016
Just what I needed
I typically wire non fiction, but for some reason decided to take a creative writing course. I didn't know how to construct dialogue and needed some help. This book was the perfect addition to my formal coursework.
I typically wire non fiction, but for some reason decided to take a creative writing course. I didn't know how to construct dialogue and needed some help. This book was the perfect addition to my formal coursework.
August 15, 2012
Chiaro e preciso.
June 5, 2015
Nice Tips
There are some good tips in here. I found it to be worth the money.
Quick and to the point.
There are some good tips in here. I found it to be worth the money.
Quick and to the point.
Read
April 25, 2016Some basic info on this subject that I had to get so I can write better.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews