Writing Excuses 5.17: Dialog Exercises

This week's episode, a day later than usual because of extended eggnogging*, features the submissions of a few brave souls who participated in Brandon's tagless, unnarrated dialog exercise. The rules were simple: Write a scene featuring nothing but dialog between two characters. The characters should have distinct voices, and the scene should communicate both setting and conflict. A great example of this is "They're Made Out of Meat," by Terry Bisson, which was a Nebula award nominee in 1992 (not a Hugo winner, though Brandon thought it was.) If you haven't read it before, it's a right treat and you should click on the story title and go read it right now. Well... in 20 minutes or so (we ran long.) Listen to the podcast first, and pay attention as Brandon, Dan, and Howard gently dissect and critique the submissions of tagless, unnarrated dialog. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Dune, by Frank Herbert, narrated by Scott Brick , Orlagh Cassidy , Euan Morton , and Simon Vance Writing Prompt: You are walking down a back alley, and you meet Jason from DragonMount. He's getting all uppity about how good his submission was. What do you do to him? Word That In This Context Is A Euphemism For "Howard Got Sick": Eggnogging: [egg-nah-ging] 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.