Reviews

The Book of Dialogue: How to Write Effective Conversation in Fiction, Screenplays, Drama, and Poetry by Lewis Turco

jenniferworrell's review

1.0

NO. This is the most irritating self-help book on dialogue. It's for people who can't afford a class but want to do things the hard way. It's hard to follow, written all in dialogue with a character that doesn't exist, and it includes excerpts that go on forever. It's the writing instruction book equivalent of the William Shunn manuscript format guide (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html) I wanted to throw it through a wall. Here's the best thing I learned, a nice, succinct definition:
Dialogue is natural conversation tightly compressed.

Boom.