Dialogue is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom, or 3 weeks Online). It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
As Rhett tells Scarlett in the movie Gone With the Wind, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” (In the book version, there’s no “frankly.”) Either way it’s a good line, and you should give a damn about your dialogue. Dialogue is crucial to any kind of story. Bad dialogue can sink it like a hole in the hull, while good dialogue makes a story sail along beautifully.
Writing great dialogue is tricky. Here you’ll learn to write dialogue that sounds lifelike, but is carefully constructed so every line resonates with characterization and meaning.
Whether you’re working on fiction, nonfiction or a script, we’ll show you how make your dialogue pack a punch.
This course gives an overview of how to write excellent dialogue, in any genre. Course components:
- Lectures
- Writing exercises
Online classes
- Week 1
- Art and Artifice: Purpose of dialogue. A sense of reality. The illusion of reality. Stage directions. Particulars for handling prose and scripts.
- Week 2
- How and Why They Talk: Characterization. Character and situation. Desire and conflict. Tactics.
- Week 3
- Subtext and Such: Subtext. Exposition. Stylized dialogue. Dialect. Speeches.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
About
- The Online classes bring students from all over the globe to Gotham—New York City’s most famous writing school.
- The Online classes happen asynchronously—not in “real time.” You can participate in class any time, day or night, but the classes advance week-by-week, and certain things should be accomplished within that week-long session.
- You can take an Online writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Online students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available.
- Aside from the convenience of time and location, you have a record of everything that transpires in class, which you can print out and keep for future reference. (The material is text and image, not video.)
