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| Author: Gloria Kempton
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $11.55
You Save: $5.44 (32%)
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 13243
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1582972893
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3
UPC: 035313109362
EAN: 9781582972893
Publication Date: October 26, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not As Good As It Looks August 25, 2007
16 out of 23 found this review helpful
This book attempts to be comprehensive. It breaks down dialogue based on genre type. It offers these categories to sort and understand dialogue: magical, cryptic, descriptive, shadowy, breathless, provocative, and uncensored.
While I think the attempt is admirable, and perhaps the exercises could be useful for some, it falls flat, and I'm going to try and show you why I feel this is so. It's the magical/fantasy dialogue section that is particularly worthless and the biggest reason I gave this book one star.
In her example of "magical" dialogue she uses a brief excerpt from Lord of the Rings, part of which goes like this: ""No, Sam!" said Frodo. "Do not kill him even now. For he has not hurt me."
Almost everyone has heard of Tolkien, and, wonderful as he was, *no one* cites Tolkien for his snappy, award-winning dialogue. It simply was not his strong point.
She claims the dialogue from that example is "eloquent" because it does not use contractions, and also "direct" which she supports by this further example from the same text, "But do not expect me to wish you health and long life. You will have neither."
Direct, according to thefreedictionary, "Straightforward and candid; frank"
Let me show you direct: "Die." Or, "I hate you." Or, possibly, "Death comes quickly." And so on. If there is one thing such 'magical' dialogue is not, it would be direct. (Or advisable. It's usually just plain bad writing.)
Despite her claim that she does not read much Romance because romance authors often write dialogue which does not 'transcend' our modern culture which leaves their 'magical' dialogue sounding "hokey" (her word), she claims that if you want to be a successful fantasy or science fiction author, you must master the art of 'magical' dialogue which is all about this attempt at transcendence. So, romance and fantasy should have similar cheesy dialogue. The more cheese, the closer it is to real romance, or fantasy, or science fiction.
That is utter dreck. If you want to go back in time and become a writer then by all means follow her advice. If you'd like to become a successful author today you'd have an easier time of it if you never got this book - unless you buy it only to know What Not To Do. Instead, read widely both in and outside your usual preferences/genre to get a better understanding of what's being published today.
Dialogue is about the character's voice - Gloria Kempton gets this confused with style assumptions based on genre. And it's not just fantasy. Her opinions and examples in general were lacking. I'm not saying that an inventive person would find nothing of use - especially if writing is completely new - but I believe the damage to a new writer could be astonishing if they took everything she said to heart.
The magical dialogue is just a nice name for hokey dialogue, if that's something you aim for then follow her advice advice. If it isn't, you would be far happier, and receive far better advice, if you stick with the other books in the series and ignore this one. Nancy Kress's "Beginnings, Middles & Ends" is a great pick, so is Orson Scott Card's "Characters & Viewpoints". Stephen King's "On Writing" is another good pick.
All in all, I highly recommend you do not buy this book. It is a flat out waste of time and money and could even make your writing journey more difficult.
 Not a "Lazy Writer" Book November 16, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I think I understand why some ratings here are low and I also have feeling some folks were expecting someone to magically plop all the rules of dialogue in their laps. Sad news, darlings, you must WORK at learning dialogue and practice as the author delineates in this book. Before, I was very stiff in my dialogue and overworked it to death, and after this book? I'm no longer afraid of it. I have a better grasp on how character personalities work in combination with how they speak. I'm know now that every dialogue needs three crucial components to have balance. The author uses concise examples and literary excerpts from top notch authors to get her points across, and she does a great job.
Don't worry about the lazy naysayers, they wanted a quick list of how to's and don't understand how patience and practice DO pay off in the end.
(And to Thriller lover in particular, you don't have a clue do you? A character's personality has everything to do with dialogue, it's what makes their voice unique. Why do you think she included an entire chapter on it? Gah! *shakes head* )
Okay September 4, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
It's hard for me to express how this book disapointed me in concrete, rational terms. The best I can put it is: Gloria Kempton gives you an idea of what great dialogue should be, but doesn't teach you how to get there. What would have improved this book would have been examples of bad dialogue, dialogue that didn't serve its purpose, corrected into good dialogue. There is a snippet of that, but just a snippet.
This book is about 100 pages longer than it needed to be. Those last 100 pages or so draaaged. It's excessively repetative, to the point where I had to really force myself to get through even the last 10 pages. I couldn't imagine having to read even. one. more. word. of the repetative drivel.
I give Dialogue 4 stars because, despite the flaws-- and the typos, because there's a bunch of them-- the book departs valuable advice. You learn how easy dialogue can be if you just get inside your character's head and ask one question: what would this person say. You learn that dialogue is means to an end, not the end itself, and I think that's a mistake I've been making. There are exercises at the end of the chapter to help hone my skills. I liked the blocked out text on how to fix my work and the checklists-- both easy to reference when I need advice in a pinch, but don't have time to go through the many points I post-it-flagged in the book.
Not the earth-shattering manual I expected it to be, but with great qualities of its own. I'm sure it'll keep a place on my bookshelf.
Very good October 2, 2006
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
This book was very helpful. I didn't find this book "Amaturish" as another person noted. An amateur couldn't have taught the amount of substance that I gained from this book. I liked the breeziness of the author. She made what could be a difficult subject seem fun and easy. The same subject matter could have been taught in a more stuffy manner, and personally, I would have put the book down after a few chapters if that had been the case. I cannot wait to apply the numerous lessons that I learned about dialogue to my own writing. And I had considered myself good at writing dialogue. I now hope that Ms. Kempton's lessons will make my dialogue GREAT.
A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF DIALOGUE December 6, 2006
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
DIALOGUE, by Gloria Kempton, is a comprehensive study of the dialogue mode of fiction-writing. It's filled with insightful looks at the potential uses of dialogue and practical tips on how to incorporate better dialogue into fiction. If there's a better book devoted to the subject of dialogue, I'm not aware of it.
This is one of four in the Write Great Fiction series by Writer's Digest Books: Plot & Structure; Character, Emotion & Viewpoint; Description & Setting; and Dialogue. Each volume provides an in-depth, thought-provoking look at its subject matter. All four belong in a novelist's reference library.
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