On a hunt for dialogue...

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macalicious731

About four pages back there's a thread that was started discussing bad dialogue. A couple of examples were given of good dialogue, also.

At the moment I'm in need of examples of good diagloue. More specifically, the execution of that dialogue. How the characters react to each other, what they do, how they move - all during conversation. I guess what I would like are the more visual images stuck between the lines of dialogue.

Any writings in mind? I've torn apart my bookshelves...
 

maestrowork

John Grisham's "A Painted House" has some of the best dialogues in mainstream fiction.
 

Euan Harvey

Elmore Leonard is good for dialogue. He's got an excellent book of short stories (really, really good). The stories have some great characterization in them. If you're looking for execution of dialogue -- he's your man.

So the book is "When the women come out to dance" by Elmore Leonard, published by Perennial Dark Alley.


www.amazon.com/exec/obido...ce&s=books
 

alcarty

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Dialogue can get old, fast, without the refreshing touches of descriptive narration. Just enough to remind the reader that he's not witnessing a stage play, in the dark. We need to see the characters while listening to them. It might be old hat, but I still like the scene in the diner in The Killers. You know exactly where you are and what everybody is doing while Hemingway's people are talking.
 

Danthia

This is an unconventional suggestion, but the best dialog I've ever seen done is by Aaron Sorkin. He writes for TV/movies, not books, but his dialog is amazing and there's a wonderful rhythm to it you can really hear. It's great to listen to and hear how information can be conveyed in a fun and interesting manner, and how great banter can develop between characters.

He's written: West Wing, Sports Night, The American President, A Few Good Men, to name a few. The first episodes of West Wing and Sports Night are sheer genius. Sorkin completely captures the essence of a character in how he writes them. And since it's a visual media, it's all dialog.
 
Stunted

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Oscar Wilde, in Dorian Gray, manages use dialogue to accomplish the same things as in-the-middle narration would. It's pretty cool.
 
Devil Ledbetter

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The dialogue in Maria Semple's This One's Mine was sparkling. She's a top TV writer turned novelist.
 
Cyia

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Danthia said:
This is an unconventional suggestion, but the best dialog I've ever seen done is by Aaron Sorkin. He writes for TV/movies, not books, but his dialog is amazing and there's a wonderful rhythm to it you can really hear. It's great to listen to and hear how information can be conveyed in a fun and interesting manner, and how great banter can develop between characters.
Click to expand...


Unconventional, but awesome.

Get yourself a screenwriting "how-to" and try and get some of the ideas down. Screenwriting is almost solid dialogue, and that method is one my favorites for 1st draft writing.

Ignore the set dressing and just let the characters TALK. Download CeltX for free and you can draft a story as a screenplay. For me, at least, it helps.
 
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