Description
They push the story forward, they show but don’t tell, they make us laugh and sometimes cry. At best, they feel effortless but as all writers know, that effortlessness takes skill (and often many drafts).
The key to writing great dialogues is more often than not a clear understanding of who is speaking and why. Questions writers must themselves ask again and again are: What do my characters want? Why do they want it now? What are their needs? The obstacles? Stakes? What are they forgetting? Omitting? Lying about! And why?
This workshop aims to hone your dialogue writing skills through a combination of in-class exercises, the workshopping of pre-existing scenes and a series of short lectures. Writers will have the opportunity to hear their words performed in class, while getting practical suggestions on how to make their lines sing.
Teacher Bio
Wiebke von Carolsfeld is an award-winning writer, editor and filmmaker, who has directed the critically acclaimed feature films Marion Bridge (2002), Stay (2013) and The Saver (2015). Her films were screened at festivals around the world, winning numerous awards, including Best Canadian First Feature at TIFF 2002. The German edition of Claremont, her well received first novel, was recently published in Germany by Kiepenheuer & Witsch. She has taught internationally classes on screenwriting, filmmaking as well as the creative process.
Equipment
Students are expected to submit properly formatted scripts – see primer here.
Here are some suggestions of free and paid tools you can use to write your script with screenplay formatting. Some of the free versions have limitations, but will still work well enough for this workshop. It’s up to you if you want to upgrade to a paid version.
Highland, for Mac OSX – LINK
Trelby, for Windows or LInux – LINK
Writer Duet, web-based – LINK
Celtx, web-based – LINK
Final Draft is the industry standard, free for 30 days, then costs 250$ ! – LINK
(note: this info was compiled in 2019.)
Testimonials
“Loved it. Have taken several writing workshops and the information [Wiebke] provided was thought provoking and really was essential to creating great scenes.”
“The class had a great balance between lectures and hands on work. The lectures were never boring to me.”
Event Details
Session 1: March 30, 2021
Session 2: April 06, 2021
Session 3: April 13, 2021
Session 4: April 20, 2021
Start time: 18:00 EDT
End time: 20:00 EDT
Venue: Google Meets conference
