A rich and useful companion for practicing writers.
How to write dialogue that is convincing, effective, and original.
A popular lecturer in the art of story, McKee (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, 1997) brings considerable expertise to this detailed, informative guide to creating dialogue for stage, screen, TV, and prose fiction. The book is organized into four parts addressing the art of dialogue, flaws and fixes, character-specific dialogue, and a sophisticated analysis of dialogue design. Although he usefully explicates specific excerpts of dialogue from many sources, McKee assumes that his readers are knowledgeable practitioners who will fill in references to works as diverse as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Guillermo del Toro’s film Pan’s Labyrinth, Seinfeld, Frasier, and The Godfather. The author distinguishes three levels of communication: the said (what a character expresses to others), the unsaid (a character’s inner thoughts and feelings), and the unsayable (a character’s subconscious urges). A writer “must master the double dimension of dialogue—the outer aspect of what is said versus the inner truth of what is thought and felt.” McKee offers many examples of “true-to-character talk,” contrasting it with generic, predictable dialogue; he cautions against using trauma—sexual abuse, for example—as explanation “for virtually any extreme behavior.” Case studies highlight scenes that are successful and those that “feel lifeless or false.” Although McKee cautions that “no one can teach you how to write,” he succeeds in defining “the shape and function of a scene” and laying out its components and inner workings. “Creativity is choice-making,” the author writes, and choices derive from the writer’s needs and goals. “This book,” he claims, “explores the forms that underlie dialogue but never proposes formulae for writing it.” Nevertheless, exercises and abundant examples provide much guidance in giving voice to characters.
A rich and useful companion for practicing writers.Pub Date: July 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4555-9191-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Twelve
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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