If you have sometimes struggled with writing dialogue, you're not alone. Vladimir Nabokov and Gabriel Garcia Marquez both famously railed against it, and they found ways to avoid writing talk-heavy scenes. That's a perfectly legitimate work-around. However, in this talk we'll discuss four easy ways to make dialogue work — to move scenes forward and to reveal complicated character dynamics, all while keeping your reader interested in what happens next.
Juan Martinez is the author of the novel Extended Stay (2023) and the story collection Best Worst American (2017). He lives near Chicago and is an associate professor at Northwestern University. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Huizache, Ecotone, The Sunday Morning Transport, NIGHTMARE, NPR's Selected Shorts, Mississippi Review and elsewhere.
