Bernhardt - Dynamic dialogue : letting your story speak

Dynamic Dialogue

Letting Your Story Speak

Dynamic Dialogue: Letting Your Story Speak

First Edition

Copyright 2014 William Bernhardt Writing

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Red Sneaker Press

An imprint of Babylon Books

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Dynamic Dialogue

Letting Your Story Speak

William Bernhardt

The Red Sneaker Writer Series

Other Books by William Bernhardt

Nonfiction:

Story Structure: The Key to Successful Fiction

Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life

Perfecting Plot: Charting the Heros Journey

Dynamic Dialogue: Letting Your Story Speak (February 2014)

The Fundamentals of Fiction (DVD )

The Shine series:

Part 1- Childhoods End

Part 2 Roses in the Ashes

Part 3 Pandoras Daughters

Part 4 Renegades

Part 5 Whos Gonna Stop Me?

The Ben Kincaid Novels:

Primary Justice

Blind Justice

Deadly Justice

Perfect Justice

Cruel Justice

Naked Justice

Extreme Justice

Dark Justice

Silent Justice

Murder One

Criminal Intent

Death Row

Hate Crime

Capitol Murder

Capitol Threat

Capitol Conspiracy

Capitol Offense

Capitol Betrayal

Other novels:

Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness

The Code of Buddyhood

Dark Eye

Strip Search

Double Jeopardy

The Midnight Before Christmas

Final Round

Poetry:

The White Bird

For young readers:

Princess Alice and the Dreadful Dragon

Equal Justice: The Courage of Ada Sipuel

The Black Sentry

Edited by William Bernhardt:

Legal Briefs: Short Stories by Todays Best Thriller Writers

Natural Suspect: A Collaborative Novel of Suspense

Dedicated to all the Red Sneaker Writers:

You cant fail unless you quit.

The world requires me to rewrite its wretched dialogue!

Richard Greenberg

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Red Sneaker Writers series. If youve read other Red Sneaker publications or attended Red Sneaker events, you can skip to Chapter One. If youre new, let me take a moment to explain.

Ive been telling stories for many years, doing almost every kind of writing imaginable. Ive been speaking at workshops and conferences almost as long. Every time I step behind the podium I see the same tableau staring back at me: long rows of talented people, most of whom have attended many of these events but are still frustrated by the fact that they havent sold any books. Yes, the market is tough and agents are hard to find and self-publishing can be frustrating. But when aspiring writers do the work, put it out there, but still dont succeedtheres usually a reason. Too often enormous potential is lost due to a lack of fundamental knowledge. Sometimes a little guidance is all that stands between an unknown writer and a satisfying writing career.

I do my best to help at conferences, but the large auditorium/general information lecture is not terribly conducive to writing instruction. And sometimes the teaching Ive heard offered is dubious at best. Too often speakers seemed more interested in appearing literary than in providing useful information. Sometimes I felt presenters did more to obfuscate the subject than to explain it, that they wanted to make writing as mysterious and incomprehensible as possible, either because that made them sound deeper or because they didnt understand the subject themselves. How is that going to help anyone?

After giving this some thought, I formulated the Red Sneaker Writing Center. Why Red Sneakers? Because I love my red sneakers. Theyre practical, flexible, sturdyand bursting with style and flair. In other words, exactly what I think writing instruction should be. Practical, flexible, resilient, useful, but still designed to unleash the creative spirit, to give the imagination a platform for creating wondrous work.

I held the first Red Sneaker Writers conference in 2005. I invited the best speakers I knew, not only people who had published many books but people who could teach. Then I launched my small-group seminarsfive intensive days with a handful of aspiring writers. This gave me the opportunity to read, edit, and work one-on-one with people so I could target their needs and make sure they got what would help them most. This approach worked extremely well and Im proud to say a substantial number of writers have graduated from my seminars and placed work with major publishers. But I realized not everyone could attend my seminars. How could I help those people?

This book, and the other books in th is series, are designed to provide assistance to writers regardless of their location. The books are short, inexpensive, and targeted to specific areas where a writer might want help.

Let me see if I can anticipate your questions:

Why are these books so short? Because Ive expunged the unnecessary and the unhelpful. Ive pared it down to the essential information, practical and useful ideas that can improve the quality of your writing. Too many instructional books are padded with excerpts and repetition to fill word counts required by book contracts. Thats not the Red Sneaker way.

Why are you writing so many different books instead of one big book? I encourage writers to commit to writing every day and to maintain a consistent writing schedule. You can read the Red Sneaker books without losing much writing time. In fact, each can be read in a single afternoon. Take one day off from your writing. Read and make notes in the margins. See if that doesnt trigger ideas for improving your work.

I bet it will. And the next day, you can get back to your work.

You reference other books as examples, but you rarely quote excerpts from books (other than yours). Why?

Two reasons . First, Im trying to keep these books brief. I will cite a book as an example, and if you want to look up a particular passage, its easy enough to do. You dont need me to cut and paste it for you. Second, if I quote from materials currently under copyright protection, I have to pay a fee, which means Id need to raise the price of the books. I dont want to do that. I think you can grasp my points without reading copyrighted excerpts. Too often, in my opinion, excessive excerpting in writing books is done to pad the page count.

Why does each chapter end with exercises?

The exercises are a completely integrated and essential part of this book , designed to simulate part of what happens in my small-group seminars. Samuel Johnson was correct when he wrote: Scribendo disces scribere . Meaning: You learn to write by writing. I can gab on and on, but these principles wont be concretized in your brain until you put them into practice.

So get the full benefit from this book. Take the time to complete the exercises. If you were in my seminar, this would be your homework. I wont be hovering over your shoulder when you read this bookbut you should do the exercises anyway.

What else does the Red Sneaker Writers Center do?

I send out a free e-newsletter filled with writing advice, market analysis, and other items of interest. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, then please visit: http://www.williambernhardt.com/writing_instruction/index.php . We hold an annual writing conference with a specific focus: providing the information you need to succeed. I lead small-group seminars every summer. The newsletter will provide dates and information about these programs. And there will be future books in this series.