Sol Stein Quotes About Dialogue

• To create tension, dialogue needs to be stretched out. That is, characters should not be immediately responsive.

  Sol Stein

  Writing, Character, Needs

• Dialogue is a lean language in which every word counts.

  Sol Stein

  Writing, Language, Dialogue

  Sol Stein (2014). “Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies”, p.113, St. Martin's Press

• Most of the time, tough, combative, adversarial dialogue is much more exciting than physical action.

  Sol Stein

  Writing, Action, Tough

• Dialogue, contrary to popular view, is not a recording of actual speech; it is a semblance of speech, an invented language of exchanges that build in tempo or content toward climaxes.

  Sol Stein

  Writing, Views, Speech

  Sol Stein (2014). “Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies”, p.110, St. Martin's Press

• Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on.

  Sol Stein

  Mistake, Writing, Beginners

• A reader's emotions can be sparked with few words. That's the power of dialogue.

  Sol Stein

  Writing, Few Words, Emotion

  Sol Stein (2014). “Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies”, p.113, St. Martin's Press

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