Dialogue is a vital part of storytelling. Whether you're writing fiction, a screenplay, a stage play, or nonfiction, dialogue serves as a principal tool for developing characters, and moving the action forward. Characters are never "just talking." Everything they say should advance the plot, reveal who they are, and engage the imagination of the reader or the audience. Good dialogue can bring a story fully to life, while dull or awkward dialogue will flatten it.

In this two-day workshop, we'll look at methods for creating natural-sounding dialogue that resonates truthfully, and that it is carefully constructed so that each line serves the story.

Paul Zimmerman is a writer and teacher who works across genres. As a screenwriter, he wrote the film A Modern Affair, and has developed feature length screenplays and corporate scripts for Tribe Pictures and many other production companies. His latest feature screenplay, Fleeing, is being produced by Magic Hour Productions and starts shooting soon with Rachael Holder directing. Among his stage plays, Pigs and Bugs was originally presented at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Festival, and has been produced in Los Angeles and Vermont. His one-person play, Reno, debuted in New York City, and was subsequently produced at performance spaces nationwide. He has published fiction in Confrontation Magazine, and authored the chapter on Character in Gotham Writers' Workshop's book Writing Movies (Bloomsbury USA). Paul is a grant recipient from the New York Public Theater, and holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. He currently teaches writing classes in New York City at Hofstra University, St. John's University, and the Gotham Writers' Workshop, and works as an independent script consultant.