Writing Dialogue

All Levels | As Elizabeth Bowen wrote, “Speech is what characters do to each other.” The best dialogue is the nastiest: the sharpest, the most conflict-driving, the most layered and fraught, the truest to our contemporary experience of inattention and misunderstanding. We’ll look at how good dialogue cuts, examining scenes by Joan Didion, Justin Torres, Jamel Brinkley, and others. You’ll bring a dialogue-driven scene to class and have the opportunity to sharpen it—and, should you feel so inclined, to share it.