Workshop
Crafting Conversations: Elevating Your Fiction Through Dialogue
with Joanna Cantor
November 14 • 6:00 PM (EST) - 9:00 PM (EST)
Dates
November 14 • 6:00 PM (EST) - 9:00 PM (EST)
Duration
3 hours
Location
Online
Price
US$75
About the workshop
Do you feel lost when it comes to writing incisive, memorable dialogue that elevates your fiction rather than dragging it down?
Details
In this three-hour intensive, we'll explore what makes dialogue effective and exciting in fiction. We'll discuss direct, indirect, and summarized dialogue; some ground rules for writing dialogue (though, of course, rules are made to be broken!); study dialogue in several published short stories; and use writing exercises to experiment.
Along the way, we will also discuss the interconnected relationship between character and plot and the balance between dramatization ("showing") and exposition ("telling") in our work.
Workshop takeaways
• How to craft dialogue that builds tension, reveals character, advances plot, and takes your work to the next level. • Students will also receive a reading packet (including short stories, brief craft essays, and writing exercises)
What you will be reading
Jhumpa Lahiri, Brandon Taylor, Emma Cline
Additional info
This workshop will be recorded for the convenience of those unable to attend live. The recorded session will be emailed to participants the following day.
About the instructor
Joanna Cantor holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and a BA from Colorado College. Her debut novel, Alternative Remedies for Loss, was an Amazon Best of the Month and was featured in Vanity Fair, Real Simple, Nylon, and elsewhere. Her writing has appeared in Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Departures, Fodor's Travel, Greatist, and the Willamette Week. Joanna was the 2014 recipient of a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship. Along with teaching fiction writing, she is also a yoga teacher. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.
Learn to write pithy, propulsive, characterizing dialogue in short stories and novels