The Art of Dialogue with Mary Anne Butler
Multi award-winning playwright Mary Anne Butler is known for her sharp writing, resonating characters and powerful, honest dialogue. Don’t miss this chance to learn from her in our 8-week online masterclass.
Dates: Wednesdays 6 - 8pm AEST, 4 September - 23 October 2024
Fees: $1295 or $1200 for Varuna alumni. Payment terms negotiable if you cannot pay upfront.
Applications close: 5pm, 8 August 2024
Places: Up to 10 participants will be selected.
Who should apply: Emerging or established writers are welcome to apply.
The Art of Dialogue drills down deeply into how to craft dialogue on the page, ensuring that each of your character’s voices is unique, shaping their distinct speech patterns, and working on questions about who speaks, and when.
In an 8-week online small group setting we will analyse examples of excellence in dialogue across a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, memoir, stage plays, biography and historical writing, penned by dialogue masters such as Max Porter, Tara June Winch, Cormac McCarthy, Alice Munro, Tony Birch, Chloe Hooper, Robbie Arnott, Claire Keegan, Tim Winton, Sara Baume and James Kelman.
As a group, we will dissect these examples for their mastery of dialogic craft skills, including: rhythm, syntax, tone, intention, context, subtext, foreshadowing, exposition, repetition and slang. By closely studying these masters of great dialogue, we’ll learn how to craft distinct voices for our own characters, unpacking what makes dialogue ‘click’ in the ears of the reader, and absorbing the strategies used to render each character unique through dialogue alone.
We’ll also ponder how elements such as layout, font, punctuation and the ‘white space’ on the page help to generate our characters’ unique speech patterns – and then we’ll actively apply all these learnings to our own work, refining our dialogue skills as we go.
Award-winning author Robbie Arnott will join the program for one Q and A session.
The program includes:
Two or three specific, practical dialogue craft skills / elements each week
Small-group analysis exercises
Writing exercises, applying the learnings of that week directly to your own work
Exercises in-between sessions, to consolidate your dialogue skills
30 minutes each session for reading of work generated in that session, and/or deeper discussion of the session’s craft skills
Access to a range of dialogue-developing resources and exercises to continue with, post-workshop
Posting work to the online portal for peer feedback, and to help build your longer-term writing community
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4 September Session 1: Story is character, character is dialogue
Character intention: what drives us to speak
Dialogue to reveal character from the start
‘Show, don’t tell’ as applied to dialogue
11 September Session 2: Sometimes an argument about mayonnaise isn’t about the mayonnaise
Dialogue as action, energy, conflict and story force
Action/reaction in dialogue
18 September Session 3: When silence speaks volumes
Rhythm and silence in dialogue
Writing the unspoken as simmering subtext
Maximising punctuation, font, layout and the white space on the page to generate distinct rhythms and cadences
25 September Session 4: Dialogue as organic exposition
Story exposition conveyed seamlessly through dialogue
Backstory and foreshadowing through dialogue
2 October Session 5: Dialogue from the voices of ‘others’
Using slang, syntax, catchphrases, repetition to generate unique character voices
Dialogue for characters of a different class, culture, age or era to your own – including non-human and other-worldly beings
9 October Session 6: When your characters struggle to speak their truth
Mastering deeply emotive dialogue without melodrama or cliché
Writing dialogue for avoidant and oblique characters
The internal character monologue, with exercises to drill down into your characters’ deepest thoughts
16 October Session 7: Editing your dialogue
Cutting dialogue back to your characters’ necessary essence
Getting in late, and getting out early
The difference between a character’s use of cliché, and the author’s use of cliché
23 October Session 8: The practical bits
Dialogue tags / speech marks / layout and formatting
Em-dashes and ellipses as rhythm and meaning
Questions, and further resources
All sessions run on Wednesdays from 6 - 8pm Sydney/Melbourne/Hobart time. Please note that daylight savings commences in NSW, VIC, TAS, SA on 6 October.
ABOUT MARY ANNE BUTLER
Multi-award-winning playwright Mary Anne Butler has spent two decades mastering the art of dialogue. Her plays have won the Victorian Prize for Literature, Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama, Shane and Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting, an AWGIE and two NT Chief Minister’s Book of the Year Awards. Her teaching experience combines a Masters in Arts Education, a Masters in Creative Writing, a Diploma of Acting from VCA and a Dip Ed in English/Drama. She’s currently undertaking a PhD in Literature, writing a novel which investigates how we write hope into the realist fiction of the Anthropocene.
ABOUT ROBBIE ARNOTT
Robbie Arnott is the author of Dusk, Limberlost, The Rain Heron and Flames, which have been translated into eight languages. He has twice won The Age Book of the Year and twice been shortlisted for The Miles Franklin Literary Award. He lives in Hobart with his wife and daughter.
HOW TO APPLY
Entry to this course is by application. Writers will be selected based on the creative potential of their work, commitment to craft, openness to collaborating with peers and the balance in the group.
Applications close 5pm on 6 August 2024 .
All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their submission by 8 August.
Feel free to call 02 4782 5674 or email amy@varuna.com.au to discuss your application.
TESTIMONIALS
“Mary Anne’s workshops are like being let loose to explore a master story-teller’s secret tool-shed with the best guide imaginable.”
“With a unique blend of teaching, dramaturgy and writing experience, Mary Anne Butler’s deep sense of story structure; and vibrant understanding of character and dialogue spur the writer on with new insights and clarity. ”
“Mary Anne Butler’s experience, depth of knowledge and respect for the writing process is brilliant. The practical exercises made me look at my work in a new light, extending my skills in new directions. ”