Writing Realistic Dialogue And Flash Fiction: A Thorough Primer For Writers Of Fiction And Essays

by Harvey Stanbrough

Writing Realistic Dialogue and Flash Fiction explores why and how authentic, realistic dialogue works to engage the emotions of the reader and even catalogs the nuances of the sounds of individual letters and words and the effect of those nuances on the reader.

Genres: Writing

146 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Harvey Stanbrough was born in New Mexico, seasoned in Texas, and baked in Arizona. After having survived a 21-year civilian-appreciation course in the US Marine Corps, Harvey managed to sneak up on a bachelor’s degree at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales in 1996. Harvey has written and published nine nonfiction ebooks on writing, including Punctuation for Writers and Writing Realistic Dialogue & Flash Fiction, which are also available in print, and his very popular The Essentials of Digital Publishing. His comprehensive poetry collection, Beyond the Masks, was nominated for the National Book Award and he’s published three other poetry collections. Finally, he’s published four short story collections (Vignettes from a C-130, Six Years in May, The Well, and Stories from the Cantina), plus numerous other short stories. He most enjoys writing magic realism, and one of his major characters, Juan-Carlos Salazár, actually has his own blog at CantinaTales.com. In all, Harvey's works have been nominated for the Frankfurt Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Pushcart Prize and the National Book Award. Harvey spoke at writers’ conferences around the country for several years, but now he teaches his Writing the World Seminars mostly in southeast Arizona. However, he plans to offer those in webinars soon.

Reviews

[Catrina Barton]

I think all of his books are great for beginning writers. Not much help to one who has been in the business as long as I have. He does offer some great tips for newbies though.

[Gregg Rowe]

Is your flash fiction stifled with hardly any dialogue?

Harvey shows you how to write dialogue that will push your plot forward, and you get to practice a lot too.

Even through dialogue, it will show who your character is, and he guarentees you can write a 99 word flash fiction with just dialogue, providing examples, including a clever little piece titled "At Confession", a brilliant 55-word conversational flash fiction.

[John Lee]

This author writes the most concise books with great examples. I used a highlighter and pen and turned this thing into a tool and 4 years later I'm still jumping back to it occasionally.

Oh, and if you're not into flash fiction, don't worry; it's a small section in the book.

Excellent resource.

[Jennifer Worrell]

Here's the thing: it's not to say that this book doesn't offer good advice; some of it is. It's also fairly 101-type stuff. The thing that bothers me is that he uses mostly his own writing as examples of good dialogue, and stuff he's edited for others as examples of bad.

[Allan Fisher]

Little gem of a book if you are interested in the nuances of dialogue... Some intriguing suggestions littered throughout... I will probably re-read soon...

[Jody Cummings]

A fountain of knowledge

An informative book on improving your writing skills no matter what level of writer you are. Will be my go-to book for examples of great dialogue.