TONIGHT I ATTENDED A VERY INTERESTING MEETING

A writer friend of mine has been bugging me to check out the Las Vegas Writer's Group. Tonight he dragged me there, and was I glad he did. It is a very active group with lots of energy. I was surprised at their huge turnout.

Anyway the program was very interesting. IDorothy Howell presented some very valuable information relative to writing dialogue.

Writing dialogue requires technique. There are so many things to keep in mind:

• What do you want to accomplish?
• How old is the person and are there other considerations like educational level, what they do for a living, etc.
• Using dialogue as a device to set a scene, break up lots of narrative, or make a particular point.
• Remembering that interesting dialogue doesn't necessarily follow strict grammatical rules. Make it sound natural.
• Write tight.
• ...and much, much more.

I was really happy to have attended and will go to more of their meetings.

Tomorrow I'll go back to writing about the creation of A DREAM LOST and THE DEVIL'S DUE. For now, I'm enjoying my cool house.

--Arliss