The Art of Dialogue (Eurofurence 2011) - terrible audio!

[khakidoggy]

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Guys, I'm so, so sorry for the quality of the audio in this one. The secondary recorder failed, and the camera itself was perched on top of the projector so there's truly horrible noise throughout. Some parts are almost impossible to make out, even to me and even after careful filtering. I hesitated to put it up, but I figure something's better than nothing...

The first of the panels I gave at Eurofurence was on the topic of Dialogue. In a dimly-lit room with a horse-shoe arrangement (as is typical for my panels: standing room only) I discussed the philosophy and purpose of dialogue in fiction.

It took a little while for the group to warm up, partly due to the less-than-comfortable circumstances, but once they opened up I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent questions being asked. I was likewise surprised by the fact that people seemed more interested in the slides about correct punctuation in dialogue than the sections about motivation -- I underestimated how practically-minded the attendees were!

This year I decided that, rather than showing examples of *great* dialogue, I'd plumb the depths of terrible fiction to find really awful dialogue which we, as a group, could then dissect and critique. The choice was obvious: The Eye of Argon.

As always, thanks so much to everyone who attended.

- Alex