Creative Writing Week 6: 3/5-3/9/12: Dialogue & Revision

Part 1: Learning about Dialogue.

Watch the video: "Punctuating Dialogue."
If you still are confused about the conventions of writing dialogue, visit the website, Be a Better Writer with Pearl Luke.
Write a dialogue between two characters (real or fictional) in which each character says at least five different things.  It doesn't necessarily need to have a beginning, middle and end--so you can start the conversation at any point or you can end it abrubtly (after ten total quotations).  The point is for you to practice writing dialogue correctly.  Remember, each time a new character speaks, you need a new paragraph.  Also, challenge yourself to use different types of dialogue tags (don't overuse "said" and "asked").  You may also want to experiment with omitting dialogue tags from time to time, like in this example:

                     My mom asked me, "How was your day, dear?"

                     So, I turned and answered, "Well, English class was awesome.  We learned all about dialogue."

                     "That's great!"

Part 2: Revising your earlier stories.

Go back to your fable, your fractured fairy tale, and your tall tale.  Look at any suggestions I sent back to you about any or all of these stories, and make the appropriate revisions.  Also, if you have not yet included correctly punctuated dialogue in each of these stories, be sure to do so in this next draft.  At the end of the week, you should have completed meaningful revisions on all three stories.  If you notice any errors in your writing as you begin to make changes, please edit these, but we will focus more on editing next week.