Deep Dive Intensive: Dialogue, Dialect, and Narrative Voice

Writing the Other
Dialogue and Dialect

When: April 9 – 23, 2022
Where: Online via Zoom or Asynchronous classroom, accessible at your own pace
Price: $200 – $300
Scholarships Available

An essential part of creating a character is understanding how that individual speaks or communicates. For writers who are working to create inclusive fiction with diverse characters from races, cultures, and backgrounds different from their own, crafting appropriate dialogue is more than just idealizing and compressing speech to make it seem natural. It may also mean figuring out how to get across the nuances of language, accent, or dialect without Othering or exoticizing characters or the real cultures and identity groups they represent.

In this craft-focused class we’ll help you sharpen your dialogue skills and show you how to apply those same skills to the narrative voice through lectures, hands-on exercises, selected readings, and feedback. We’ll analyze ways familiar and unfamiliar cultural assumptions are embedded in texts and talk about alternative techniques for conveying difference via voice–yours and your characters’. At the end of class you’ll have a wealth of resources for further study and practice.

Who Should Take This Class?

Prose writers of all genres — Literary, YA, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Children’s Books, Romance — at any point in their career from newbie to professional. This class is designed so that any writer who wants to write inclusive fiction well and create characters who aren’t caricatures will find it beneficial.

Course Format, Schedule, and Time Commitment

Please read carefully as there are two options available for this class and they are different from previous versions of the dialogue and dialect deep dive.

Option 1: Weekend Intensive Plus ($300) — On Saturday and Sunday April 9 & 10 students will gather virtually on Zoom for lectures, Q&A, discussion, and writing exercises with live feedback. Weekend sessions run from 10am to 7pm Pacific (with breaks!) on both days. (Click here to convert to your time zone.)

From Monday April 11 through Saturday April 23 students will then log in to a private WordPress classroom for further discussions based on readings and more writing exercises. This section of the class is asynchronous, meaning you can log in at any time and participate on your schedule.

The Weekend Intensive Plus is limited to 25 students.

Option 2: Asynchronous ($200) — Writers who cannot join us for the live Weekend Intensive can chose this option. Starting April 9 you’ll have access to the private WordPress classroom where we will post lectures in text form and the recordings from the Weekend Intensive. The rest of the course is devoted to readings, discussions, and writing exercises. For this option you can log in at any time and participate on your schedule.

The time commitment for the Asynchronous portion of the class will depend on your level of participation. Discussion threads tend to be wide-ranging, so students should try to check in at least once a day or every other day. You may manage your time as needed based on your own schedule. 

On the second and third weekends of the class there will be a set of live Q&A sessions with the instructors on Zoom open to all students. (Times will be determined by student availability.)

All class work is done on Google Drive, so please ensure you have a Google account before class. 

Required Texts

Please buy the following texts before class begins.

Accessibility

The class takes place in Zoom and in a private WordPress with a theme designed for accessibility. Homework files will be available through Google Drive. We will provide closed captions auto-generated by Rev during the Zoom sessions. Some class material will be in the form of pre-recorded video. Each has closed captions and a text transcript is available. The class mailing list will be through Google Groups. All of these services are accessible to students using screen readers.

If you have questions about potential needs, or if there are any other ways we can make a class accessible for you, please contact us before registering and we’ll answer within 24 hours.

Other than a computer, the only other technical requirement for the class is a Google account. If you don’t have one, you can create a free one just for this class.

Full and Partial Scholarship Opportunities

Scholarships are available for both the Weekend Intensive Plus and Asynchronous class options.

If you do not have the financial means to pay for all or part of the registration cost for the class, we encourage you to apply.  We have a broad definition of financial need that ranges from writers who do not have the money at all to writers who have the funds but can’t afford to use them for a writing class. We especially encourage writers who have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to apply. Wherever you exist on the financial needs spectrum, don’t self reject! (Still not sure whether you should apply? Read this post.)

Additionally, in acknowledgment of the difficulty Palestinian writers may have in accessing resources and the obstacles their voices face in being heard, we have set aside a number of scholarship spots to writers of Palestinian heritage.

IMPORTANT: We set aside scholarship spots ahead of opening registration. Even if this class sells out before the deadline, scholarship spots are still reserved. If you plan to apply for a scholarship you do not need to register for the class below.

If you can afford to pay for part but not all of the registration fee, please apply for a partial scholarship. Under this financial aid plan you can let us know the amount you can afford. If you cannot afford to pay at all, please apply for a full scholarship. 

To apply, please fill out this form. You’ll be asked to provide:

  • A brief (300 or fewer words) statement of financial need.
  • A brief (500 or fewer words) description of a work or works in progress that you hope the class will help you write.
  • A writing sample of no more than 1,000 words (can be a partial or flash fiction).
  • If you customarily identify as POC, BIPOC, or BAME, or are of Palestinian heritage, you may indicate that if you wish.

Deadline: 11:59PM Pacific March 25, 2022. We will notify all applicants of their standing by March 30. If you have any questions, please use our contact form to ask!

Refund Policy

If you find that you need to drop the class, you may do so by requesting a refund via Eventbrite.

If you drop by March 20, you will receive a full refund minus a service fee.

If you drop on March 21 or after you will not have your registration fee refunded. However, you can use the funds as credit towards a future class.

Register Below

If you have a Gift Card, discount, or code to access tickets, please click the “Enter promo code” link in the Registration box below before you begin the process. If the box below gives you trouble, click here to register on our Eventbrite page.