Writing Excuses 5.38: Dialog with John Scalzi

John Scalzi joins Brandon and Howard at Penguicon for a discussion of writing dialog. John's advice begins thusly: "start reading outside Science Fiction and Fantasy." It's good advice regardless, but John's justification for it is fascinating. Dialog in prose is not very much like real-life dialog. Your goal as a writer is to convince the reader that it is. And that's what we're going to try to teach you how to do. Or at least how to learn how to do.   Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Fuzzy Nation, John Scalzi's reboot of H.Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy, narrated by Wil Wheaton Writing Prompt: Write a dialog between someone ordering at a drive-through and someone taking the order, but the person taking the order is being held up at gunpoint. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please! Audible® Free Trial Details Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® Gold membership plan free, which includes one audiobook credit. After your 14 day trial, your membership will renew each month for just $14.95 per month so you can continue to receive one audiobook credit per month plus members-only discounts on all audio purchases. A very small number of titles are more than one credit. Cancel your membership before your free trial period is up and you will not be charged. Thereafter, cancel anytime, effective the next billing cycle. Any unused audiobook credits will be lost at cancellation.