Crafting Dynamic Dialogue: The Complete Guide to Speaking, Conversing, Arguing, and Thinking in Fiction

by The Writer's Digest (Editor), Cheryl St. John (Foreword)

Exceptional dialogue isn't just important when writing fiction -- it's essential. In order to impress an agent or editor and keep readers turning pages, you need to deliver truly standout dialogue in every scene. Crafting Dynamic Dialogue will give you the techniques and examples you need to impress your readers.
This book is a comprehensive guide to writing compelling dialogue that rings true. Each section is packed with advice and instruction from best-selling authors and instructors like Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Sims, Steven James, Deborah Halverston, James Scott Bell, Donald Maass, Cheryl St. John, and many others. They'll show you how to:
- Bend the rules to create a specific effect
- Understand the role of dialogue in reader engagement
- Use dialect and jargon effectively
- Give every character a believable, unique voice
- Set the pace and tone
- Reveal specific character background details
- Generate tension and suspense
- Utilize internal dialogue
Whether you're writing flash-fiction, a short story, or a novel-length manuscript, Crafting Dynamic Dialogue will help you develop, write, and refine dialogue to keep your readers hooked.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference

295 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2016

Reviews

[Jeffrey Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this ... but as what happens when a bunch of magazine articles get strung together there is a LOT of both redundant and contradictory advice. A better edit would have brought the useful nuggets of advice (and they are here, but buried) to the forefront -- probably shorter book, too. I read a writing "craft" book a month, and there are far better ones than this, I'm afraid.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitive - a collection of essays by different authors, who often covered the same territory. Mostly I read through the examples of excerpted dialogue, but a lot of them weren't super helpful in explaining why this piece of dialogue was good, or the excerpt was so short it lacked emotional punch because it was incomprehensible.

[Shalene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic resource! Though sometimes repetitive when different essays say the same thing, I appreciated the varied angles and nuggets of gold. I enjoyed trying to read an essay or two before a writing session, and ended up getting my own copy to highlight. Reading it all at once would probably be tedious, though, which is why I preferred reading a chapter or two a day as a priming method.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine but repetitive. After a while my personal notes on each chapter were just "nothing new". Which, I guess, should be expected from a book that is made entirely of chapters cut from other books or magazine articles. Would recommend reading those instead, if you have the time.

Also, the kindle edition's formatting is a little off.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recorded 117 dialogue techniques from this book and once pruned of redundancy will likely yield about 50 solid methods to use in writing narrative. It was worth the read and useful for any new or experinced writer.

[Rajat Bansal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly useful! For a compilation of my key learnings, see my book reviews blog post

[Mark August · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up a physical copy of Crafting Dynamic Dialogue at a local bookstore and thumbed through the pages. Within moments, I was ready to make a purchase due the depth and breadth of information presented in this Writer's Digest volume. My writing craft bookshelf is layered with many books from the Writer's Digest series, and this book is a significant addition.

Good dialogue is a goal for every author. Characters come alive with their words, action moves forward with snappy dialogue, and the darkest secrets come to light with the phrases of an antagonist or protagonist. Dialogue, even if the talk in entirely internal, is necessary for an enjoyable story. Crafting Dynamic Dialogue shows the author how.

In 28 chapters, the editors pull together six parts dealing with dialogue basics, character and dialogue, dialogue setting the stage, and dialogue driving the plot. Each chapter is the length of a short story, typically less than 10 pages of wisdom from teachers and practitioners. Very few ideas are repeated across the chapters, allowing the reader to push through this book in any order.

Looking to build your character or advance your plot? Use dialogue. Want to write better dialogue? Start right here with Crafting Dynamic Dialogue.

- Mark August

[Mikko Tolonen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything, repeatedly, highlighted

This is a book about a topic that I wanted to read about. The contents were well-chosen and explored in more depth than I expected, but I experienced a lack of enthusiasm along the way, because a lot of information is repeated in the book. So, you will hear the same recommendations over and over again, and that can get a little tiresome.

Yet, if you get a little bored reading this book I encourage you to push on, because it is definitely worth it. The lessons this book gives are given from different perspectives from different writers, and that’s ultimately what saved the book from a mediocre rating.

As usual, there are gems of writing advice secreted away throughout the chapters, so remember to read everything carefully. Lots of delicious tidbits that don’t really have anything to do with dialogue, but I collected them all enthusiastically nonetheless.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but it is a little repetitive to read.

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be beneficial in how to write dialogue, especially since this was something I was trying to work on.

However, other reviews stated the same thing I noticed about how this book is made up of articles written by different several people, and a lot of information was repeated. It helped to get you on the same page with what they were saying, but, unfortunately, started to be redundant.
I think it could have been edited a little bit better to avoid that, but overall I rate 4/5, and would recommend.

[Catrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The advice was very helpful, the only issue is that there is only so much that can be said about dialogue. The advice did help generate helpful ideas for my writing. After awhile it was redundant but that could be a good thing if your the type of person who needs to be told something constantly.

[Chad Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a lot of good advice here; my biggest issue is that a lot of it is very repetitive. I understand this is a collection of articles compiled together, but better editing could’ve made this feel less redundant. Still, there are also me really good nuggets of info here.

[April Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compilation of dialogue writing information from different authors. A lot of good info but can be redundant.

[Lia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes a lot of helpful details that are applicable to many different situations. Easy to adapt advice to fit different projects.

[Lindy]

Useful for a beginner but not well put together. As others point out, it is repetitive and the different styles of each writer gives no coherence to the whole.

[Sterling Badon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dialogue is essential. It keeps people turning pages. This book is one of the many available on the proper use of dialogue. It addressed my needs.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for ways to improve my own dialogue writing, and this book helped me see all the flaws in my dialogue.
It is also engaging in its own right.

[clivey · Rating 3 out of 5]

(more 3.5 stars)

[Liliana Sturman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Repetitive

[Chris Wilkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great down to earth types of dialogue and how to use them to build great characterization.

[J.T. Salen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viable resource for descriptive character dialogue and speaking references. My book is full of post-its for future reference. I would recommend to reader and writers alike.