Book Review: Write Great Dialogue, Irving Weinman

This is not a road trip book, but many of the Road Trip Writer posse are writers. As a writer myself, a criticism that I frequently receive is that I need to use more dialogue.

This book covers the two sides of dialogue: 1) using it almost exclusively, and 2) using it minimally, interjected into basic story-telling. I appreciate the author’s organization of material. Topics flow well. Another interesting topic that Weinman covered is the misuse of syntax intentionally to create a mood or add an additional dimension.

Some of Weinman’s examples for the use of dialogue seem spot on, easily understood. Other examples, especially quotes from his own novels, drag on and on, out of context from the books they came from.

I recommend this book, and I did go through the whole book, but I also skipped pages and pages of illustrative dialogue.

 

Write Great Dialogue (Teach Yourself)

Amazon US link:

Amazon UK link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

clear formSubmit