Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 31: Line Editing Dialogue

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:48:00 GMT

Posted by: mbarker.livejournal.com

Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 31: Line Editing Dialogue

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/08/08/writing-excuses-4-31-line-editing-dialog/

Key Points: Look at various ways to rewrite, and consider which works best for your purposes. Dialogue is an imitation of speech that feels realistic, not a transcript. Consider the voice of the character. Watch out for said-bookisms, adverbs (aka Tom Swifties), and "seem to"s. Make sure snappy retorts snap.
( Lots and lots of line editing... )
[Brandon] All right. Writing prompt this week was given to us by Producer Jordo who really, really, really wants you to write some stories called, "The Importance of Being Earnest Goes to Jail." Or, no, "Earnest goes to Camp?"
[Dan] Or to jail. I'm sure you could take any Earnest movie and mash it up with Oscar Wilde and come up with an abomination that we would all love to hear.
[Brandon] We want a mashup of an earnest movie with Oscar Wilde. So there's your writing prompt. You might have an excuse this time to not write.
[Howard] You've got a couple of good excuses, but please write anyway. Because you're writers. Right?
[Brandon, Dan] Right.
[Brandon] Bye-bye.
[Howard] That was awful.

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Writing Excuses Transcripts

Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 31: Line Editing Dialogue