That's a video of thriller novelist Jason Pinter reading from his new book, The Stolen. Pinter has three suspenseful novels under his belt, following the hardboiled adventures his fictional journalist, Henry Parker.
Today, for the conclusion of his exclusive visit to The Publishing Spot, he explains how to write crackling dialogue--one of the toughest tasks facing any thriller writer.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing. Jason Boog:
Jason Pinter:
When I'm revising my novels, I actually read the dialogue out loud to myself. Continue reading...
It's a good technique to see if the dialogue feels real or forced. If you feel silly saying it, the reader will think it's silly while reading it.
You should never use dialogue for exposition either. I can't stand it when a character says something like, "Hey Jim, how was your honeymoon with Martha, the woman you met a few years ago at Church who has blue eyes and doesn't get along with her parents?"
Dialogue is about conversation, and furthering the story and establishing or developing a relationship between characters. It shouldn't be used for anything other than that.
Want to read more, follow these links for more Jason Pinter Wisdom:
He explained How To Find An Agent
then How To Write Conspiracies
then How To Write with a Day-Job
and then How To Write Suspense Without Punching Your Reader in the Nose.
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