Format: Paperback
Published: January 1st, 2012
Age: Adult
Genre: Nonfiction – Reference – Writing
Rating: 3/5 Stars
This is a writing guide designed to teach you how to write dialogue – it’s not as simple as merely mimicking the way people speak, and it’s a very tricky area of writing. I think Weinman does a good job of explaining the variety of different dialogue you can encounter in fiction and how to use different techniques to bring dialogue to life, but I would largely suggest this mainly for people at the start of their writing journeys.
There is some use to be gained from it if you’re ‘down the line’ a bit, but a lot of what Weinman explores will come naturally to a writer who pays attention when reading, and has been through the cycles of writing-feedback-editing. However, it might be handy for those experiencing writer’s block too, as he gives some good prompts (under ‘Try it now’) linked to the area of dialogue being explored, and often these can serve as good ways to ‘get to know’ the characters you’re writing.
The extracts used as examples do a good job of illustrating the different techniques. There’s some good, fresh ways of looking at dialogue and the various ways it can be used, but as mentioned above, this is more useful for people who are looking to improve early on. I’d suggest that if you are struggling with dialogue, this might help unblock something. Other than that, it’s a decent book for beginners.
Unwrapping Words 