Unit 3 of 6
People and what they say
Make characters distinguishable on the page and stop the dialogue explaining itself.
0/4 lessons complete 92 min
What you walk out with
Cover the names and a reader can still tell who is speaking. The scenes carry meaning under the lines instead of on top of them.
THE LESSONS
Lesson 1 · 7 min · 2 exercises
Killing the on-the-nose line
Characters announce their feelings, or everyone sounds the same.
Lesson 2 · 15 min · 2 exercises
The name-cover test: making voices separate
Every character sounds like the writer, or dialogue is interchangeable between roles.
Lesson 3 · 50 min · 2 exercises
Studying a dialogue master, usefully
Dialogue is functional but flat, and study time produces admiration instead of technique.
Lesson 4 · 20 min · 2 exercises
Opposition that is a person
The antagonist is absent, passive, or evil for no stated reason.
The assignment
Rewrite your three most on-the-nose scenes so nobody states the emotion, then run the name-cover test on all three.