And Now for Something Quite Different

If you've been with me for a bit, you've already met my friend, author and teacher, Matt Posner. Matt's latest venture is a non-fiction manual, written almost textbook style, entitled How to Write Dialogue. It's (obviously) aimed at writers of all levels who wish to sharpen their dialogue-writing skills, but I'll let Matt tell you a bit more about himself and his book.

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Hi Laurie!

Thanks for hosting a sample from How to Write Dialogue, my technical manual for writers at all experience levels. This book offers prescriptions for good dialogue writing with plentiful and, I hope, entertaining examples, both those written by me, and those written by my bullpen of contributors including J.A. Beard, Cynthia Echterling, Marita A. Hansen, Junying Kirk, Stuart Land, Mysti Parker, Roquel Rodgers, Jess C. Scott, Chrystalla Thoma, Ey Wade, and Georgina Young-Ellis.

The book also has essays on dialogue by Tim Ellis and Jess C. Scott and numerous illustrations by fine artist Eric Henty.

Here's a selection from a part of the book called "Dialogue Provides Information."

See what you think of this next example.

Example 36 — Elinor and Marianne

"Mother is coming to visit me," said Elinor. "For a week."

"Really?" asked Marianne. "She hasn't come to stay with me in… what is it? Eight years?"

"Your house is crowded, with your two nephews in the guest room, that you took in when your husband's brother died. And the stray dog you adopted on one of your monthly trips to Perth Amboy."

"Do you really think that's why?" Marianne asked, setting down her coffee cup. "Don't you think there might be another reason?"

Elinor sighed. "Not again, Marianne. Puh-leeze, no more 'Mom loved you best.'"

"She said so."

"When?"

"When we three all went to Newport News to settle Grandma's estate. Three years ago."

"And you still have her emerald brooch," Marianne complained.

"I do not."

"You do. And Mom said she preferred you."

"She was joking," said Elinor. "It was ironic. You two were cuddled up with a bowl of popcorn watching The Way We Were."

"That never happened!" Elinor was shocked.

"Yes it did!"

"No," Marianne sniffed. "We were watching The Bridges of Madison County."

This passage, my imitation of chick lit, seems to be about the two sisters quarreling over their mother's love, and really it is, with lots of conflict and characterization, but there's necessary exposition in the passage also. We learn about who lives in Marianne's house; that Marianne is married; that she travels to Perth Amboy; that Grandma is three years dead; that there is an emerald brooch in dispute. We also are alerted to Dad's apparent absence (he wasn't in Newport News).

Dialogue passages like this are a staple of fiction, and an alert reader recognizes one for what it is, the satisfaction of a technical requirement rather than an attempt at verisimilitude. However, if you add enough positives to dialogue like this, your reader will probably not mind.

The technical action in this case is to have the characters remind each other of what they have done in the past. It can be accomplished in a number of ways.

1) Have the characters narrate their past actions during a conversation, resulting in a short in-character summary rather than a fully developed scene.

2) Have characters who are getting to know each other relate stories of their pasts.

3) Have one character tell a second character information about a third character, who may or may not be present to react.

4) Have characters argue over past action and narrate prior events as components of the argument. (This is what I did in the previous example.)

Note that people's versions of events are not entirely trustworthy, and people may well dispute each other's accounts of the past.

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Matt Posner is a New York City teacher and a writer of fiction and nonfiction. The author of the acclaimed ongoing young adult fantasy series School of the Ages and co-author of the top-selling advice book Teen Guide to Sex and Relationships, Matt lives in New York City with his wife Julie. Matt is also a member of Bernard Schaffer's Kindle All-Stars and maintains a growing series of interviews with writers at his website http://schooloftheages.webs.com. Matt has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.

How to Write Dialogue is Matt's sixth full-length book.

Links: http://schooloftheages.webs.com

http://www.facebook.com/schooloftheages

http://www.twitter.com/schooloftheages

This book: 

http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Dialogue-Tim-Ellis-ebook/dp/B00GM02410/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1384384447&sr=8-20&keywords=matt+posner

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Write-Dialogue-Tim-Ellis-ebook/dp/B00GM02410/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1384384481&sr=8-11&keywords=matt+posner

http://www.amazon.ca/How-Write-Dialogue-Tim-Ellis-ebook/dp/B00GM02410/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1384384527&sr=8-8&keywords=matt+posner

Happy Writing!

The Manifesto of Independent Writing and Publishing

The man himself. NO! I was
not the reason for the Band-aid.

If you follow me on twitter, you've already determined a few things concerning my relationship with author Bernard Schaffer.

First: You've seen that we're very close friends in spite of the fact that we've never been in the same room together. 

Second: I'm not just his editor; I'm his biggest fan and his second harshest critic. (He's tougher on himself than I could ever be.)

Third: We're a hell of a team. Think, Maddie and David, Laura Holt and Mr. Steele, Beckett and Castle, Turner and Hooch . . . Wait, what?

Fourth, and most important: I read nearly everything he writes whether it requires editing or not.

Welp, today I decided to share with you a blog series Bernard has been working on to help new independent authors avoid some of the mistakes he made when he was first starting out.

If you're thinking of publishing your own work, it's a must-read. Follow this link and you'll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

Teens, Sex, and Relationships

You've all heard me talk about the terrific writers of the Kindle All-Stars and I'd like you to meet another of them today. I first introduced you to my buddy Matt Posner (aka Cat's Pajamas) back in April via his poems "Vampire Poet" and "Famous Fathers." His work goes far beyond poetry and he's here again today as my guest. Teen Guide to Sex and Relationships is co-authored by Matt along with his writing Partner, Jess C. Scott. Matt was gracious enough to answer a few questions for me about the book and about Jess.

Teen Guide to Sex & Relationships
is now available on Amazon

LAURIE:   All of my readers know I love being a Bostonian, but I fraternize regularly with New Yorkers. Please assure me you're NOT a Jets fan and all will be just fine. (Feel free to lie if you must.)

MATT:  I don't care about the Jets at all. No one from Miami likes the Jets. I've been to Boston twice so far and consider it a great place to vacation. The whale-watching tours are cool. Julie and I also like to go over to Cambridge and shop at the Harvard Coop. There is no Boston/New York rivalry that I'm involved in. I'm from Miami originally.

LAURIE:  So what's in this book? Who's the target audience and what should they expect?

MATT:  This book is written for teenagers of both genders and all sexual preferences. They will find separate sections for questions and answers about sexuality and about relationship issues. Jess and I write separate answers to every question from our own distinct points of view. Jess is a cool young woman with a nonconformist view, and I'm an older teacher of conservative personal habits. Jess and I agree on all matters to do with young people's safety and happiness, but our advice isn't always the same, as we are from different generations. We explain topics about love, lust, and anatomy, and we talk about how to begin, maintain, and end relationships and how to recognize feelings for what they are. We also explain unfamiliar or partially understood terms and we shatter a lot of myths.

LAURIE:  Many advice books are written by only one author. Why two in this case?

MATT:  When I envisioned this book, I thought I should have a female to counterbalance my very male point of view. I know some things about the female heart and female anatomy, but a female should mentor a female just as a male should mentor a male. Also, readers would, I think, want to know what the other gender is thinking!  

LAURIE:  Why is your book different from other books on this subject?

MATT:  Our book is designed to read like a conversation with an older friend. We aren't therapists or doctors or social workers or theoreticians:  we're just people who've been around whom you can trust to be on your side and do their best to advise you. Like your older sister who just came back from college with fresh ideas, or your uncle who tells you what he thinks and doesn't judge you like your dad does. That kind of people.

LAURIE:  How was it to work with Jess C. Scott?

MATT:  We've turned out to be a good team. We rarely disagree, and if we ever have disagreed, we've settled it so cordially that neither of us could even be sure there was a disagreement at all! Jess is super prolific and works on many projects at a time; I also work on many projects at a time, and I write fast, too, when I'm actually writing; however, I don't write every day, so to keep up with her, I had to go on vacation! So I wrote about a third of my share of this book during a couple of days holed up in my house in North Carolina.

LAURIE:  How did you guys come together as a team?

MATT:  When I was new in the business, in November 2010, I saw her request for reviewers of Other Side of Life and answered on a whim. What a good decision! She proved to be very business-savvy and gave me some good advice to get me started. We kept in touch sort of in the background of having separate careers, but although I thought it would be nice to team up for a project, I didn't have one in mind, because she was working on Elven Trilogy (and still is) and I was and still am committed to School of the Ages. About a year and a half later, it finally occurred to me that my dormant Teen Guide project was the right collaboration. I suggested as much, and here we are now. We are talking about co-authoring several more projects.

LAURIE:  Thanks for appearing on my blog.

MATT:  No, Consigliera. THANK YOU.

Samples available online:

http://www.jessink.com/teenguide.htm

http://schooloftheages.webs.com/apps/blog/show/14770008-from-teen-guide-how-do-you-tell-the-difference-between-love-and-lust-

Your comments are welcome and I'm happy to forward any questions my readers may have to Jess or Matt.

Happy Reading!