How to Write Funny Dialogue

Tim O’Brien gives writers a lesson in dialogue during the last quarter of Going After Cacciato, when he writes: “It is humorous?” asked the captain. “You find desertion humorous?” “No,” Oscar said, “but I find it kind of funny.” (223) This brief exchange is excellent because of its realistic use of repetition. The variations make … [Read more…]

Dean Bartoli Smith

THE ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE AS TRIGGERING DEVICE by Dean Bartoli Smith I. “Discovery is the ideal. . . . When not writing a writer may search for a triggering device, and literature is one of several places to find it.” – Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town At a meeting of the Downtown Poets Club in San … [Read more…]

Sean Patrick Hill

CURING by Sean Patrick Hill There are things that could save us, undoubtedly. My mother’s spider plant has lived longer than I have, imagine. A woman I loved once, who taught me to season a cast iron skillet, to seal it from the weathering of water, air, said, with the right care things might last, but … [Read more…]