Writing Dialogue that Works, Workshop Led by Tiffany Quay Tyson

Dialogue can be a powerful tool for characterization, motivation, plot advancement, and emotion, or it can be a clunky thing that bogs down the action and takes the reader out of the story. How can you be sure your dialogue elevates rather than deflates? We’ll look at examples of effective dialogue, discuss what makes these examples work, and use what we learn to practice writing dialogue on our own. In the process, we’ll explore subtext, rhythm, pacing, attribution, and more. Students should come prepared to write.

This workshop will take place on Zoom Tuesday, October 11, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Limited to 20 participants. $45/person. Register at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com

About our instructor:
Tiffany Quay Tyson is an award-winning novelist, humor writer, and teacher. She is the author of two novels including The Past is Never, winner of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, and the Mississippi Author Award. Her debut novel, Three Rivers, was published in 2015 and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction. Humor writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Rumpus “Funny Women” column, The Belladonna Comedy, The Establishment, Slackjaw, and more. Shorter fiction can be found at SmokeLong Quarterly, The Ilanot Review, The Tulane Review, and elsewhere. Tiffany is a native of Jackson, Mississippi. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado. She is a faculty member at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, where she received the Beacon Award for Teaching Excellence in 2021. www.tiffanyquaytyson.com