Voice and Dialogue [Binnie Kirshenbaum]

Words on paper are “spoken” by a narrator whose voice might be similar to our own, but it’s not our own. Whatever the point of view, and even in memoir or autobiographical fiction, the narrator is a character discrete from the writer. In a similar vein, dialogue is not dialogue verbatim. What might be real rarely sounds real in prose. In this class we will aim to create a voice that is both true to the narrator and uniquely individual to the author. To create believable and lively dialogue, we will consider how our characters differ from one another, and how to keep the dialogue moving. We will write short narratives from various points of view along with situational dialogues with an eye and ear toward improvement. Please bring paper and pen or your laptop.