Invented Voices: Inspired Dialogue for Writers and Readers

In this final volume of his trilogy about the craft of writing, which includes First Paragraghs and Painted Paragraphs , Newlove presents 75 pieces of dialogue he deems memorable from fiction, theater, movies and television. His selections are drawn from such classics as Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice , Shakespeare's Hamlet and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot as well as from the screenplays for Ironweed , Raging Bull , Howard's End and other films . Newlove argues that the only rule of dialogue is that it must entertain. He accompanies each of his eclectic choices with a trenchant and lively analysis of the way speech is used to engage the audience by illuminating character and structuring plot. He discusses, for example, how the success of TV's Roseanne was dependent on the cumulative effect of dialogue between consistent characters. Newlove's instructive examples should be of assistance to writers working in all media. (June)