Part One: The Art of Dialogue radically expands the definition of dialogue and multiplies its usage. Chapters Two through Five look at the functions, contents, forms, and techniques of character talk across the four major storytelling media.
Part Two: Flaws and Fixes pinpoints maladies from incredibility and clichés to writing on-the-nose and repetitiousness, seeks their causes, then prescribes cures. To illustrate the varied techniques of crafting dialogue, I cite examples from novels, plays, films, and television.
Part Three: Creating Dialogue examines the writer’s final step—finding the words that create the text. When we say an author has an “ear for dialogue,” we mean he writes character-specific talk. Each of his characters speaks with a syntax, rhythm, tonality, and, most importantly, word choices that no one but that character would use. Ideally, every character is a walking dictionary of his or her unique collection of words. Dialogue originality, therefore, begins with vocabulary.
To illustrate the power of character-specific dialogue, we will look at scenes from Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Elmore Leonard’s novel Out of Sight, Tina Fey’s television series 30 ROCK, and Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor’s film SIDEWAYS.
Part Four: Dialogue Design opens with a study of the components of story and scene design. Chapter Twelve shows how these forms determine what characters say. Six case studies follow using scenes of balanced conflict from the cable series THE SOPRANOS, comic conflict from the network series FRASIER, asymmetric conflict from the play A Raisin in the Sun, indirect conflict from the novel The Great Gatsby, reflexive conflict from the novels Fräulein Else and The Museum of Innocence, and implied conflict from the film LOST IN TRANSLATION.
In these scansions, we look at the two primary principles of effective dialogue: First, each exchange of dialogue creates an action/reaction that progresses the scene. Second, although these actions find expression in the outer behavior of talk, the wellspring of character action flows invisibly from the subtext.
Like a GPS for writers, Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action offers guidance to the aspirant and redirection to the perplexed. If you recently ventured into this art and find yourself backed into a creative cul-de-sac, Dialogue will put you on the path to excellence; if you write for a living but have lost your bearings, this book will guide you home.