CREATIVE WRITING INSIDE INFO: Your goal with character dialogue is not to try to reproduce real speech; it is to give the illusion of real speech. The biggest reason for that? Character dialogue needs to accomplish something (hopefully many things).

Want to learn more about that? Join local novelist Katrina Kittle for a two-hour, in-person Craft a la Carte: DIALOGUE class on Thursday, November 19 from 6-8 pm. Class takes place at Star City Booksellers in Miamisburg, Ohio. All class participants get 20% off any purchase in the store the night of class (not a bad bonus, with holiday gift-giving coming up). Get full description and register at: https://www.wordsworthdayton.com/classes/craft-a-la-carte-dialogue

Writing dialogue is one of those tricky "make or break" elements of fiction—bad dialogue can sink an otherwise promising story, and good dialogue can make a mediocre story fly. This overview of dialogue will briefly touch on the nuts and bolts of dialogue punctuation, and offer tips and traps to avoid in writing good dialogue. (Note: this class is applicable to any kind of writing that contains dialogue, including memoir and nonfiction).