I reply, "Dialogue: that which separates the great authors from all the rest. Richard Cohen writes in Writer's Mind © 1995, that dialogue allows the author to create characters, inform the reader about things and events, foreshadow future plot twists, provide description, and test philosophical ideas about humanity and life in general."
"Wow," she responds, "Dialogue is intense. It does everything."
"And it's central to the novel experience. This chapter I'll quote the three best selections of dialogue of each of the books on the writer's bookshelf. I'll look at what aspects of great writing they contribute to the novel and also point out some of the mechanics of writing dialogue, such as whether the author uses tics or tags and whether the dialogue sounds real."
"This dialogue doesn't sound real."
"No, it doesn't… The books for this chapter on dialogue are:
- JR, by William Gaddis
- Chilly Scenes of Winter, by Ann Beattie
- Clockers, by Richard Price
- Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
- Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
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