Let's Talk About It: Dialogue in Fiction
Lauren B. Davis
Dialogue is about what you say, what you mean, what you don’t say, and how you say it. It reveals character, moves the action along and provides a pace change in the text. And it can easily go wrong, sounding stilted and inauthentic. Join us to learn how to write summary, direct, and indirect dialogue; discuss subtext, the dialogue of ‘no’, dialogue as action, how to reveal character through dialogue and more. A combination of lecture and writing exercises.
Lauren B. Davis’s most recent novel is EVEN SO published by Dundurn Press in Fall 2021. Her other novels are THE GRIMOIRE OF KENSINGTON MARKET, called “timely and important” by the Toronto Star, “enchanting” by the Temz Review, and named “One of the Best Books of the Year” by the Globe & Mail; AGAINST A DARKENING SKY, a novel set in 7th c. Northumbria, which Pulitzer-prize winning author Robert Olen Butler called, “the ideal for a historical novel,” and the bestselling novel, THE EMPTY ROOM, a searing, raw and powerful a portrayal of the chaos and pain of alcoholism. THE EMPTY ROOM was named one of the “Best Books of the Year” by The National Post, and the Winnipeg Free Press, “Editors’ Pick” by Amazon and a “Critics’ Pick” by The Coast. Her previous novel, OUR DAILY BREAD, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and named as one of the “Best Books of the Year” by The Globe & Mail and The Boston Globe.
She is also the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed novels, THE RADIANT CITY, a finalist for the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize; and THE STUBBORN SEASON, a named as one of the Top 15 Bestselling First Novels by Amazon.ca and Books in Canada. As well, Davis has published two short story collections, AN UNREHEARSED DESIRE and RAT MEDICINE & OTHER UNLIKELY CURATIVES. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards, the ReLit Award and she is the recipient of two Mid-Career Writer Sustaining grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts.
Lauren B. Davis was born in Montreal, lived in France for ten years and now lives with her husband, Ron, and their dog, Bailey-the-Rescuepoo, in Princeton, New Jersey. For more information, please visit her website at: www.laurenbdavis.com
