Scrivere grandi dialoghi. Come far parlare i propri personaggi

by Linda Seger, John Rainey

Tutto quello che c'è da sapere per scrivere un grande dialogo. In questo libro, scritto a quattro mani con lo sceneggiatore John Rainey, Linda Seger tenta di sciogliere uno dei nodi più misteriosi della scrittura creativa: dare vita a un dialogo credibile, capace di rivelare con naturalezza l'interiorità dei personaggi, i loro conflitti, e attivo nel mandare avanti la storia e coinvolgere il lettore. Nessun altro dispositivo letterario, sostengono gli autori, crea emozione quanto un dialogo ben scritto. Così, capitolo dopo capitolo, il dialogo viene esplorato in tutte le sue prospettive, e allo scrittore viene suggerito come dare a ogni personaggio la sua inconfondibile voce. Supportato da esempi tratti da commedie, film e romanzi, ogni capitolo si conclude con una sfida pratica: dialoghi poco riusciti, annotati e poi riscritti, per imparare non solo a riconoscere un dialogo ben fatto, ma anche i segreti per migliorare i propri.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Audiobook

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Dr. Linda Seger has a Th.D. in Drama and Theology, and created her script consulting business based on her dissertation project about the elements needed to make a script work. She explored the integration of Drama and Spirituality during her five years in seminary. She holds three M.A. degrees: Drama from Northwestern University, Religion and the Arts from Pacific School of Religion, and Feminist Theology from Immaculate Heart College Center.
She has a broad religious background. She grew up Lutheran and did several years of spiritual seeking in her 20s. She became a Born-Again Christian and then joined the Quakers (Society of Friends) and is a member of The Colorado Springs Friends Meeting. Throughout the years, she has meditated at a Zen Buddhist center, attended New Age conferences, has done the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignacious, and has read and taken classes in the religions of the world.
Dr. Seger's thoughts about how spirituality influences her work:

“Many readers are surprised and even confused when they see I’m the most prolific writer in the area of screenwriting, an international screenwriting consultant and a screenwriting teacher. Yet, I also do theology/spiritual books. Some of this comes from having an M.A. In Drama, 2 M.A.s in theology and a ThD in Theology and Drama. They seem to be separate, but they are actually integrated.

Drama shines a light on the human condition. It explores the conflicts, struggles, doubts, uncertainties, and possibilities for transformation and redemption. Even secular drama deals with hope and goodness and the struggle for authenticity and love.

When I consult on scripts, I am trying to help the writer reach deeper into the truth about who we are as humans and what are our possibilities. When I write books on spirituality, I am doing the same thing – digging deeply into our experiences and struggles, and then shining the light of Scripture and theology on making some sense out of what we see and feel. I am trying to get at The Truth and to dig deep into our experiences. So, I never look for easy answers, and I don’t try to pigeonhole either our stories or our spirituality.”

Reviews

[Brie Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapter on poetic devices was very helpful, clearing up all the confusion I carried from back in freshman English class.

[Pamela Jaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

The new book You Talkin’ to Me? by Dr. Linda Seger and John Rainey has even more than you’d expect from a book about script dialogue. They present many different aspects of types of dialogue and also offer easy-to-understand examples of the effective devices of speech that writers and story-tellers have been using for thousands of years.

In the audio book, narrator George Newbern speaks their words in a welcoming and easy-to-understand way. He puts just enough emotion into it while still maintaining the sense of a well-written fact-filled how-to book.

Some things I especially found interesting?

What’s often missing in the ‘keep it simple’, ‘show don’t tell’ tropes of script-writing is a sense of the world the writer is creating, the art direction if you will. The section on using visual dialogue can really help flesh out a scene in the reader’s-buyer’s-filmmaker’s and ultimately the audience’s mind.

The section on regional dialect is quite interesting and fun, again with specific examples on how to do something that if not done well, can sound clumsy. Your colloquial characters’ dialogue won’t be if you follow this book’s suggestions.

In these times of globalization and the inter-mixing of people across borders, the section on writing dialogue for non-native English speakers is more relevant than ever.

As an English major I appreciate the very specific examples from different produced scripts of the tools of writing such as alliteration, iambic pentameter, simile, metaphor, and more. Using these tools can make your scripts a joy to read and will make your characters so much more vivid.

And here’s something you don’t think about much – writing dialogue for animals, aliens, and other critters. This clever section about nonsensical situations makes a lot of sense.

This audio book will no doubt be attractive to young writers with its conversational style, to those who prefer listening as a way of learning, and to those who like to simultaneously read and listen for an increased impact of information.

I’ll certainly be recommending this rich, helpful, and inspiring book to writers. And as a result, no doubt we’ll all be hearing much better dialogue coming out of the mouths of story characters.

Pamela Jaye Smith
MYTHWORKS – Applied Mythology
www.mythworks.net

Mythologist, International Speaker-Consultant, Author of six books for media-makers, and Award-winning Writer-Director-Producer.

[Mordecai · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is all over the place.

It loses focus almost immediately and tries to teach you about overall story structure, occasionally touching on how this all applies to dialogue. Which may be nice, if that's what you are looking for, but I already have books on story structure. I wanted to read about dialogue specifically.

I wouldn't call the advice on story structure too illumating either. It's basic stuff. Useful, but most likely already heard it before, if you read any other books on the subject.

[BookCupid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook for inspiration and technique advice. Althought the content is quite basic, I enjoyed the part of letting go of some "highlighted or tilted" text to emphasize meaning. You are better off rewritting that sentence.

A lot of it was mostly geared to TV and scripts rather than manuscript. But the advise works well for both.

[Reid Echelmeier · Rating 4 out of 5]

While some advice is perhaps too broad to provide any real help to writers, there are many great nuggets of wisdom throughout the book. Case studies at the end of each chapter put the principles into action.

[Hamish Downie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful tool for the rewriting process

[Moses Cirulis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is in some respects very simple, but it offers some solid advice for the process of writing dialogue and some of its chapters are superb.

[Nicole]

More along the lines as a resource for screen writers ten novelist. Some useful information though.

[為元 蕭 · Rating 4 out of 5]

寫的算蠻細的，例子也給的很多，很具體，但就沒也特別讓你覺得裡面的對話很吸引人的感覺，不知道是不是問題不在對話本身，而是沒有人設基礎，你就很難對對話起興趣。
如果單論對於對白寫作的教學來說，這本感覺還是挺不錯。

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice is several areas but a little bloated.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just another dialogue “writing” book that provides lots of examples of good dialogue then discusses why they’re good but not especially useful for writing it in the first place.

[Sara Cardelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Utile come manuale per autori di narrativa e sceneggiatura, però speravo fosse più approfondito, invece è molto generico, però comunque valido per approcciarsi a come scrivere un buon dialogo