WRITER'S WORKSHOP:  "YOU TALKING TO ME?" Text and SUB-text -- How Less Really Can Mean More When Writing Dialogue

Fiction can get bogged down in an excess of description and exposition  -- 'telling' rather than 'showing.' In filmed and staged texts, no description is possible, and dialogue must do the heavy lifting: providing exposition, character and plot development, and showing conflict. Dialogue can function just as effectively in fiction, while engaging the reader more fully, if it works on multiple levels to define relationships and objectives and is authentic to the character's time, setting and situation.  Rivers will share techniques with writers for pinpointing the goals of individual speakers in a scene and maximizing the power of subtext, helping participants to turn up the dramatic power in their dialogues.

FACULTY READINGS: 4:30 p.m. Sat. Nov. 3;  Rivers joins other featured authors to read from their works and sign books.

Read a piece on the NCWN website about what kind of publisher I’d create if given tons of money.