Natural Speech: The Art of Writing Dialogue

Target Participants:

Open to both new and seasoned playwrights and/or prose writers who are fluent in English.

Duration:

2 sessions, two hours per session

No. of Participants:

Min: 6 people; Max: 12 people


Pre-Workshop Preparation:

Please bring pen/pencil and paper or laptop for the writing exercises.

Notes for Organisers:

Please make available a quiet, fair-sized room that allows participants to move about freely and provide sufficient chairs/writing surfaces for all the participants.

When writing stories or plays, writers are often stuck at how to show their characters interacting and speaking to each other in a way that the plot moves forward and the speech does not sound forced and artificial. In Natural Speech: The Art of Writing Dialogue, you will gain valuable, and practical, tips on how to craft naturalistic sounding dialogue that propels your story forward.

Areas Covered:

Session #1: Crafting
• Exercises on crafting natural dialogue
• Crafting your own text

Session #2: Polishing
• Review of the story that you have crafted
• Tips on how to polish the story

About the Facilitator

Verena Tay has spent more than 25 years acting, directing and writing for Singaporean English-language theatre. She has three published collections of plays and is now working on her debut novel and first volume of short stories. In addition, Verena is an active storyteller-cum-storytelling coach and a co-founder of MoonShadow Stories. Possessing an MA in Voice Studies (Central School of Speech and Drama, 2005) and an MA in English Literature (National University of Singapore, 1993), she has been helping people to improve their communication skills since 2001 and currently teaches voice, speech and presentation skills at various local institutions. For more information about Verena, please visit www.verenatay.com.