How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript (Bell on Writing)

If you judge a book by how much it teaches you that you really needed to know, then this is a great book. 5 Stars plus! The author just flat out shows you how to punctuate all types of dialogue. I’m sure there are grammar books that might different on a point or two but everything Bell did made perfect sense to me. It all was simple to understand and it convinced me to adopt his suggestions. The rest of the book is about all aspects of dialogue and it is exactly like I most want a 'how to' book to be written. The text reads like an experienced trail lawyer zeroing in on a cross examination. Short, to the point, and powerful. A typical academic author could easily have made this book three times longer while saying less. Bell is one of the best live teachers I've ever had and he writes as well as he teaches. If you can go to one of James Scott Bell's seminars, do it. If you seek help on writing better dialogue, it would be hard to find a better book.

I have two bookshelves of writing craft books. This doesn't include the shelf with my dictionaries, style manuals, thesauri, and grammar books. I've also taken many writing classes. I've made a conscious effort in the past couple of years to not take any more classes, not buy any more books because most of them don't have anything new to teach me. This book is different. It's really a booklet or pamphlet, not a whole book, but it focuses specifically on writing dialogue and goes deeper than most general books. James Scott Bell provides specific techniques for adding tension to dialogue, for avoiding the boring chit-chat while still keeping the essentials of what you want your characters to say. There are several suggestions for exercises you can try to improve the way you write dialogue, some of which were new-to-me. With the number of writing books I've read, I'd assume they would be new to others as well. It does include most of the standard advice for writing dialogue as well, but Bell was smart enough to put this at the back rather than the beginning where it might make the reader assume you were just getting tips you already knew. Most of all, I like the tone of this book. It doesn't present the information as rules you must follow. Instead, it says these are things I've learned about dialogue, things you might want to incorporate in what you do when you write it, but if you want to do something different, that's okay, too. That's very refreshing to see in a writing craft book.

I am writing this from the perspective of a fairly new author. This book had some very useful tips. In particular, I found many good pointers in the chapter talking about how to actually structure dialogue as far as punctuation and attribution goes. Other chapters were not incredibly useful for me. It seemed that the book was aimed towards a certain genre, which is fine, but it was not the genre that I enjoy. That is, the dialogue proposed by the author seemed to fit best in literature and general fiction, and not the science fiction and fantasy that I enjoy reading and writing. I found myself disagreeing with the author at several points about what sounded good and what did not. As with any sort of writing tips, you will need to take the writer's tips with a grain of salt and apply them as they fit your own style rather than seeing them as hard-set rules. With that in mind, this book helped me to iron out many flaws in my dialogue that I noticed but could not quite put my finger on. I give this book four stars because I found much of its content useful while at the same time finding much of the content unimportant or unhelpful. It is a short read, and I would recommend it, especially if you write in the same genre as the author. For science fiction and fantasy writers, I feel that it will be less useful, but I cannot recommend an alternative that is any better.

Concise and straight to the point, this book doesn't waste time with fluffed up analogies or boring tangents, like some other books on writing tend to do. This was short enough that I was able to finish in just a few hours, while still taking away a lot of useful information.

This Is a great book on writing dialogue, and it helped me out a lot. So far, actually, this is the best dialogue book that I have come across thus far. Bell explains the structure of good, dialogue that doesn't slow the reader down but keeps him or her interested. He teaches the proper way to write dialect, thoughts, how not to write dialogue and more. I must say that I am a satisfied customer and would surely recommend this book to anyone. If you want to learn how to improve your manuscript fast and effectively, this is the book to get, for good dialogue is the essential for good writing. The only problem is that is not a very extensive book, only 136 pages long. It was fun to read though, and I finished it up in a single morning. Altogether, this book is well worth the price, and will help you improve your book.

Good advice and a quick read - you are unlikely to regret reading the book. However, since the most useful parts seem to be excerpts showing great dialogue from famous literature and film scripts, one cannot escape the feeling that he'd do equally well skipping the book altogether and reading great literature instead, paying attention to how the authors crafted their dialogues and how these helped shape their characters and advance the narrative.

All the books I've written to this point have been nonfiction. Having completed my first draft of my first novel, a very helpful; editor/publisher told me one thing I really need to work on is my dialog. It's true, and having read this book by James Scott Bell, I learned a ton. This book is a quick read, but in its pages, Bell lays out a ton of information with many great examples from classic books and some of his own titles to boot. Bell is creative and innovative and this book even contains some well placed humor. This makes for a very informative book that is a pleasure to read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to refer to it often as I proceed to work up my second draft. If you're thinking about writing fiction, you need to check this book out.

I got this book to strengthen my dialogue writing skills, and it did help. There was a lot of stuff that I already knew - and I mean, a lot - but it was still a useful refresher. The stuff that I hadn't heard really opened up my horizons, particularly the notion that dialogue is an extension of action. If you are a seasoned writer looking to take things up a notch, this might or might not be right for you. As I said, there was a lot of stuff that I already knew. I still found it useful. If you are looking to really dial things up, you might want to look elsewhere. However, if you are new to writing, then BUY THIS BOOK. It pretty much has, condensed into one place, what I had to read several other books and articles to learn. You will not regret this purchase, and it will seriously improve your writing. Overall, I recommend this product. I will probably continue to use it for reference from time to time.

Really good advice, down and dirty without the frills. Nice use of examples as well.

The book itself might be very good and helpful, I can’t really tell because it’s hard to read when printing is missing on every left page throughout almost the whole book.

Great book on mastering dialogue for fiction writing! Has to be one of the best sources out there!

Loved some his advise. Hard to put down. Hope I remember it when I need it most. Will come back to this book often.

This is probably the quickest I've ever read a book from start to finish, a few hours! It makes perfect sense, so many simple yet overwhelming effective tips and techniques. James has split the book into easy to digest sections. My book has almost every page turned over with the inside cover full of notes. I will be using this book as reference for every stage of my writing process from now on. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to write a novel worth reading.