Book cover of Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen

Book description

The long-awaited follow-up to the perennially bestselling writers' guide Story, from the most sought-after expert in the art of storytelling.
Robert McKee's popular writing workshops have earned him an international reputation. The list of alumni with Oscars runs off the page. The cornerstone of his program is his singular book,…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Dialogue as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I loved the clarity of writing in this book. Mckee is famous for his best-selling Story, and Dialogue lives up to this standard. It is a little prescriptive in places, but it is also sharply analytical.

The chapters on flaws and fixes in particular were really helpful for me, and the 6 varied case studies were each long enough to really take you into exactly how the dialogue works in each script, which I found tremendously useful. 

This author is a renowned Master Teacher of storytelling art whose students have won numerous writing awards across the media spectrum. He covers dialogue writing for live theater, film, and television and offers suggestions on building effective dialogue writing skills, no matter the media, even showing how a dialogue line might change depending upon the writing category. He provides easy-to-follow examples of both good and bad dialogue writing in the various media categories.

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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