Creative Colloquy Presents The Writer's Workshop Series: The Spoken and the Unspoken: Making Your Dialogue Sing.

Like music and poetry, dialogue works with notes and rests, sound and silence. The best dialogue happens when the writer knows when to let the character speak and when to keep the character quiet and let the narrator do their job.

Whether you are a dialogue-writing machine whose prose could be easily translated into a play or film script, or whether you prefer to allow your narrator to do most of the talking and paraphrasing, you’ve probably encountered some difficult dialogue. We usually want our character conversations to sound authentic and natural—at the same time, authentic and natural can be really boring. So where do we go from there?

In this workshop, we’ll discuss the basic purposes of dialogue and some tips on how to write dialogue while staying true to your particular writing style. We’ll talk about the value of direct dialogue and the value of allowing the narrator to paraphrase. We’ll also discuss when to break into the dialogue with narration to maintain the visual elements of the prose and its pace. The workshop will include one or two writing prompts and discussion on how to move your writing forward.

Before the Workshop: If you currently have a project you are working on, please bring a scene that uses dialogue to the workshop. You’ll have a chance to work on it. If you don’t have a current writing project, no problem. Just allow the writing-prompt muse guide you in workshop.

In addition, please bring 1 - 2 pages of dialogue that you admire.

Level: Beginner-to-Intermediate, though more advanced writers may appreciate the opportunity to think through and discuss a particularly challenging scene.

While the workshop is geared toward prose and includes discussions on narration, script writers are welcome to attend. Writing prompts can always be adapted to best suit anyone’s writing project.

*Zoom Meeting Information will be given just prior to meeting day/time.*

This event is FREE to attend.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-spoken-and-the-unspoken-making-your-dialogue-sing-tickets-106983849574
Though space is limited and registration is required:
The event will be live streamed on CC's Facebook so topic materials covered will be accessible to ALL, even if they are unable to register.