How to Write Great Dialog

by James R. Callan

How to Write Great Dialog is a how-to book for writers of fiction. It explains why novel dialog is different from natural dialog. It tells what dialog must do and what dialog can do. More than 85 examples are used to show how to capture the power of dialog. Forty exercises, designed to reinforce the key points in the book, encourage the reader to produce strong, engaging dialog. The power of internalization is explained, with cautions on its use. The often tricky problem of attribution is demystified and many examples show how to avoid problems. The concept of a dialog signature is explained and illustrated with examples. The need to consider the audience as well as the speaker is explained and illustrated with examples. Finally, the rules of format and punctuation are clearly defined and simplified through examples.

90 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2015

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

JAMES R. CALLAN took a degree in English, intent on writing. When writing didn’t support a family, he went to graduate school in mathematics, then pursued a career in mathematics and computer science. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Data Processing Management Association. He has been listed in Who’s Who in Computer Science, and Two Thousand Notable Americans.

But writing was his first love. He has published a number of books and picked up some awards along the way. Cleansed by Fire, the first of the Father Frank mystery series, and Murder a Cappella, another mystery which Callan wrote with one of his daughters, Diane Bailey, were both published in 2012.

Callan lives with his wife in east Texas and Puerto Vallarta. They have four grown children and six grandchildren.