Write Great Fiction - Dialogue (Write Great Fiction)

Dialogue by Gloria Kempton has some sound advice for writing dialogue. While not perfect, those giving it such bad reviews seem more interested in explaining their opinions rather than objectively explain why it's a bad book. Certainly a review must have personal opinion, but an objective criticism that cites clear specific examples and compares that to better books is far more convincing. The people who gave such low scores on this book provide no such information, so even if I was convinced that this book was awful, I wouldn't immediately know where else to look for a better book on dialogue.

Someone who is curious about how to write dialogue would do well to get this book. The chapters focus on clear, distinctive aspects of dialogue and, like the other books in the "Write Great Fiction" series, show how the other elements (such as plot, description, characters, etc.) tie into dialogue. The book does tend to use a tad bit more literary examples than I would like, (I'd prefer a balance of literary and commercial examples) but this is hardly a harsh criticism. Buy a notebook, get this book and take notes on it. The information inside will help you write better dialogue, and that's all the author intended to do.

I read the few reviews that were available on this book before I purchased it. That said, I wasn't expecting the dead-on, delightfully comedic, phychology behind every chapter written!! I found myself thinking '...who is this author and how does she know my every thought, my every fear and my every excuse to put off until tomorrow what I should have done last year.' I have taken one of her on-line writing classes and found it to be a non-productive experience (for myself). But she deserves 5 STARS--connecting very well with each of her students--via her own written word. I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND HER BOOK.

Everything you wanted to know about writing dialog and more. This book has it all. From writing for different genres, pacing, intensity, and being able to effectively "weave" dialog throughout your narrative structure. I highly recommend this book for anyone thinking of writing fiction. It provides many insights into writing dialog that I had never even considered before. Well worth the money and time.

At first I was not very hopeful about this book, because at some points the writing was pretty sketchy and made me wary of being able to learn anything. However, once I got far enough into it, it evened out and had some valuable tips and suggestions for fixing dialogue. If you have had a lot of writer's workshops or classes I wouldn't necessarily reccomend this to you because most of the avice is quite basic, but at least once or twice in most of the chapters you stumble on something you can really use. It is worth at least a skim if you are serious about writing. My only complaint is that it claimed it applied itself to more types of dialogue than it actually does, so a lot of the examples did not apply to me and didn't teach me much. As I stated above, it was still worth it.

I think I understand why some ratings here are low and I also have feeling some folks were expecting someone to magically plop all the rules of dialogue in their laps. Sad news, darlings, you must WORK at learning dialogue and practice as the author delineates in this book. Before, I was very stiff in my dialogue and overworked it to death, and after this book? I'm no longer afraid of it. I have a better grasp on how character personalities work in combination with how they speak. I'm know now that every dialogue needs three crucial components to have balance. The author uses concise examples and literary excerpts from top notch authors to get her points across, and she does a great job.

Don't worry about the lazy naysayers, they wanted a quick list of how to's and don't understand how patience and practice DO pay off in the end.

(And to Thriller lover in particular, you don't have a clue do you? A character's personality has everything to do with dialogue, it's what makes their voice unique. Why do you think she included an entire chapter on it? Gah! *shakes head* )