A Thorough Primer for Writers
Writing Realistic Dialogue & Flash Fiction
Harvey Stanbrough is a poet, essayist, and fictionist. He discusses dialogue, the narrative, emotion, and defines flash fiction.
Writing Realistic Dialogue and Flash Fiction
Harvey Stanbrough
Central Ave. Press, 2004
ISBN: 0-9715344-5-4
$11.01
Harvey Stanbrough writes a reference book for all fiction writers entitled Writing Realistic Dialogue and Flash Fiction. He takes his time to introduce his audience to the art of writing, essaying, flash fiction, and offers straightforward examples, both personal and professional so that writers may improve their abilities as fictionists. As writers, their work is always in progress. Having strong resources is essential. Stanbrough offers a colorful primer without lecture or dry text.
Dialogue and Narrative
In fiction, Stanbrough emphasizes the importance of balancing dialogue and narrative. Under or over utilizing dialogue may result losing readers-which is the optimal loss. He gives various examples of sentences which bring the point home. He also discusses punctuation and its proper use in dialogue. Blending dialogue with narration creates an engaging fictional story which emotionally involves readers.
Using action versus passive verbs also changes the tone and flow of ‘reader speed.’ Stanbrough discusses verb usage, sounds, and misplaced modifiers to illustrate the many pitfalls writers find themselves in and how to avoid them as well. He also challenges readers to find the mistakes in some humorous exercises he came across as a professional.
Emotion
A subliminal part of any writing is emotion. Stanbrough provides many examples of how to layer emotion into a writer’s work through dialogue. Since words often fall flat on paper, emotion is essential to any story and all writers need to learn this skill, this part of the book is quite useful. Stanbrough not only focuses on verbal language, but also body language-what the story is meant to imply. The strength of emotion comes from many angles. He challenges his readers to put the right amount in their work. His advice is well founded and interesting to read through.
Flash Fiction
In the last section, he covers the flash fiction genre. As expected, he defines flash fiction as a story that must contain four elements: setting, character(s), conflict, and resolution. He provides short-shorts (55 words), some longer, and analyzes the pieces. Instead of a summary, he gives readers inventive exercises to do at the end.
His conversational style makes his book entertaining, easy to read and comprehend. For both beginning and seasoned writers, his book is a valuable resource to refer to when writing fiction. His tips on dialogue, conveying emotion, and the narrative are essential for all genres. In particular, flash fiction writers, will enjoy the book because of its precision. Stanbrough’s book is not rudimentary in nature. Rather, it is detailed and filled with suggestions, advice, examples, and ways to write tight.
