Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Dialog

Good morning,

Yesterday we did not have a blog post, so lets review for those of you playing along at home. Our lesson was about the difference between writing that tells the reader something and writing that shows the reader something. I'll give you one of the favorite examples we used in class.
Instead of: He was proud of his car
We wrote: I can't believe it is mine, all mine. Tomorrow I will wash it and wax it. When I save some money I will get chrome rims.
Hint: watch out for the words: was, is, were, are. That could mean you are telling instead of showing the reader the story.

Today we move on (quickly I know) to dialog. Lucky for us lots of writers like to write about writing and one of the things they really like to write about is dialog. I'm sending you to a few blog posts about dialog. Read what you find. I expect you to write about your findings in your English Journal.
Robert J. Sawyer- His blog give some great advice about making dialog sound real and still be readable.
Top 10 Tips for Writing Dialogue- There is some very good advice here.
A Few Good Men- This site gives an example using dialog from the movie and it really shows you how important it is to be clear about what you are saying.
Link

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