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Mary George

"So how was it?" he asked.

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2014

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"Succinct, concise and a breeze to read," she said.
"Really." He didn't sound convinced.
"Look, where other books on writing fiction drop the ball on dialogue, this guy not only picks it up, he spins it on one finger. . . and he tells us the same thing." She took a sip of beer and leaned into him. "We need to know our characters."
He grimaced. Took another slice of pizza and let the white, oily cheese pull across the plate. "Not that again."
"You know it's a juggling act. All the mincing - or not mincing - of words. Making it tense. Or alluding to something." She pulled a piece of crust apart. "Shutting a character up at the right time. It's all in there."
"Huh. Well, I'm not there yet. I'm still working on the plot."
"You'll get there."
"Can I borrow yours?"
She swallowed the beer. "Buy your own."

Paul Warburg

Helpful, but targeted mostly to specific genres

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2017

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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.

BubblySwirl

Not Impressed

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2018

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I’m not impressed. The author uses old books (Gone with the Wind, Maltese Falcon, etc) to teach dialogue. While these books may be great classics, people don’t talk like that anymore. Even if the lesson is good, the reader becomes distracted by the outdated language and struggles to understand Bell’s messages. I am also displeased with the number of movie scripts used as examples. He does a lot of telling with minimal showing. The grammatical guidance is great but I’m fed up with Maltese Falcon examples. I think the overwhelmingly positive reviews are misleading.

Elise in AZ

One to Add to Your Writer's Bookshelf

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2014

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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.

Dr. Egon Spengler

English Lit RUINED Me..Until Now!

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2017

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The title of this review is facetious, of course, because studying English Literature does add tremendous value to one's appreciation of quality writing and thought. Yet, I don't remember a single one of my professors advocating for a less-is-more approach to the craft of writing. If anything, our deconstructions of the great works were graded on the merits of our ability to be verbose and oft long-winded, which lends little to terse dialogue. Then again, we weren't being taught how to write. At least not well.

I realize now, after reading this book (in one sitting) that much of what I had learned in college may have been a hinderance to my writing. I'm going back to some of my dust-covered tales, that were written years ago, and breathing new vitality into my characters using the clever exercises in this text. I'm writing with a sense of adventure again! And that's worth more than what I paid in tuition fees!

Honest Reviews

The only thing 'dazzling' about this book....

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2019

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Quite honestly, the only thing I found 'dazzling' about this book was the title. I've read other books about writing Dynamic Dialogue and feel that this book pales in comparison. The book is more examples of dialogue from other books, movies, etc., than anything. For $12, I just don't feel like I got anything from the book. It wasn't worth the price for page after page of other people's dialogue scenes.

Kindle Customer

Highly Recommended!

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2014

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This is the book on writing dialogue that I have been searching for! I just purchased it this morning and have already emailed the link to two writing friends.
Bell sums up what makes dialogue dazzling and how to avoid writing dialogue that, while it may get the job done, is flat and boring. He also covers punctuation (a challenging concept for many beginning writers) and my favorite topic: Curving the language.
This one is a keeper and I will be referring to it often.

Top reviews from other countries

diya

For once, someone who respects your time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2019

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I want to first commend the author for not inflating this book into a massive tome, which is the way many instructional books are these days. I was able to get the benefits with minimal time, I really appreciate that, because as any writer would agree, there are still so many books that need reading.

The information was given in a light hearted, humorous and non-judgemental way. I think Mr. Bell would have been the best kind of teacher, supportive, gently prodding, firm and concise.

My one gripe would be the examples used are somewhat dated and perhaps slightly too American White Male. There are so many other diverse and scintillating examples out there. I think that it's important to update the book for what readers are reading nowadays because that is what publishers are looking for as well. The single piece of advice that I get from publishers is read what is being published NOW. e.g. The Hate U Give

All in all a highly effective and efficient book to read for improving your dialogue skills.

Matt Jardine: author of 'The Hardest Path- a journey outside to answer the questions within'

The surest way to make your book more engaging

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2019

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As an author, I am always being asked tips on writing: 'How to make a story more gripping?', 'How to keep the reader on the edge of their seats? 'How to write prose that flows?'

I advise those people, often when I'm taking a coffee break from writing my stuff, to include and improve their story's dialogue.

Jame Scott Bell's book 'How to write dazzling dialogue- the fastest way to improve any manuscript' is an excellent and enjoyable book that will improve ANY writers dialogue skills.

Not only do I recommend it to those people who ask me for advice, but I also dip in and out of the book for some helpful reminders on spicing up the 'chat' in my writing.

I have turned the corners on many of the pages (even though I was taught as a child NEVER TO DO THIS), but one page, in particular, keeps me coming back: page 84, 'Don't Forget about silene,'. Brilliant. I applied this trick immediately in my own novel.

Alex

Really good advice, right from the preview

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2014

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I knew I had to buy this when it gave away it's core piece of advice in the free preview. Even if you don't want to spend £1.60 on the book itself, make sure to glance over the preview.

As I read on from the preview, I found the author had even more good advice to spare. Some of this I already knew from my Creative Writing course, but a lot of valuable information was new to me.

The book was very easy to read, with a fairly informal tone. This helped me to digest the author's advice readily, and I finished the book in a few sittings. This is not a long book, but it is packed with good advice and examples, and well worth the price of a coffee.

On a final note, it is also designed in a way that makes it easy to use as a reference book, especially if you take the time as you read to make highlights of what you find interesting.

John Smith

Very Very Good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2020

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Having read a couple of his other books on writing I was surprised to find that this was a much slimmer tome than the others- however- I discovered that contained within the 132 pages was nugget after nugget of pure gold. JSB really is a good writer is his own right and he knows his stuff.

Beware! Books that are about the craft of writing that are written suspiciously by otherwise unpublished authors. This is a wonderful book I heartily recommend.

Pete Dennett

Great book but...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2020

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This is a great book on the art of writing but one minor comment.
I am an Englishman and the saying, "Don't get your knickers in a twist" is not exactly as Americans think of it. Knickers are not knickers as you know knickers. In England "knickers" refers to ladies underwear but the term is used often to refer to all underwear. So, the saying means, "don't get your underwear in a twist." I believe that most modern humans wear underwear, not the short pants of Americans - and, by the way, "pants" in England also refers to underwear.

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