Writing Dialogue

Author: Tom Chiarella
Publisher: Story Press
Classification: Writing
Reviewed by: Carolyn Howard-Johnson

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Writing Dialogue has convinced me that even experienced writers should massage their technique by reading a good book by an expert, preferably someone who teaches at a credible university like author Tom Chiarella at least once a quarter. Like a good rubdown refreshes cranky old bones, such a habit will rejuvenate perspective and technique. For beginners it will work like essential balm, teach what even careful reading sometimes fails to disclose.

The reason that I am so sure of this is that I had occasion to spruce up an excerpt from my first novel This is the Place. Connie Gotsch, host of a literary program on KSJE, a radio station that caters to classical music lovers in the four corners area, asked me to read from both my books. It reminded me of the days when the whole world tuned into drama a la The Haunting Hour and Fibber McGee and Molly. I decided the chapter should be trimmed so it would entertain in the same way that these programs had in the Golden Age of Radio.

I had just read Writing Dialogue and was surprised at how many changes I made in my already published dialogue as I was trimming the except. Before reading it, I was convinced that it wouldn’t teach me much. I’ve studied long and hard, done my homework. That turned out to be hubris. The changes I made were subtle to be sure, a kind of tweaking that would not have been possible without Chiarella’s insight.

Chiarella covers everything from grammar and the punctuation of dialogue to listening. He is most valuable, however, when he dissects dialogue and paints pictures of whole new ways to hear it, then to write it. He even includes tips like having characters interrupt themselves, back up and repeat and suggests ways this can be used to better characterization.

Writers should not borrow this book from the library. It will be better read, dog tagged, underlined and sitting on their desks where they can reach for a kind of writing-massage on a moments notice

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