Why does some dialogue feel electric while other conversations fall flat?
How much should characters say? How much should they leave unsaid?
How does dialogue connect to voice?
How do you write dialogue for memoirs if you can't remember exactly what was said?
In this Craft Deep Dive, we’ll look closely at how dialogue works and then experiment with new ways to make the voices in your writing more vivid and alive.
This workshop is part of the Wild Craft Series Summer Season. Information on buying a Season Pass is below!
About "Craft Deep Dive: Dialogue"
Part of The Wild Craft Series
Dialogue is more than people talking on the page. It is where power shifts, truths slip out sideways, and what cannot be said becomes as important as what is spoken.
In this one-hour Craft Deep Dive, we’ll explore dialogue not as a set of rigid rules but as a living part of the creative process. We’ll look at why dialogue matters—both philosophically and practically—and how it can create tension, reveal character, and carry emotional weight in a piece of writing.
After a short craft talk, I’ll guide you through a series of generative writing exercises designed to help you experiment with dialogue in new ways. These prompts will invite you to loosen up, take risks, and discover fresh possibilities for how voices can enliven your work.
This workshop is part of The Wild Craft Series, where we study powerful writing and then practice the techniques ourselves—so they become tools you can return to again and again.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
DATE: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 from 7-8:00 pm PT/ Thursday, July 2, 2026 from 12-1:00 pm AEST
WHERE: Everywhere! On Zoom!
WHAT TO BRING: Something to write with and on; a few pages of your own work that contains dialogue
Please Note: If you can't attend the live session, it will be recorded!
WHAT YOU'LL GET IN THIS WORKSHOP:
Investigate How Dialogue Works
We'll explore what difference dialogue can make and why it matters, emotionally, philosophically, and practically.
Explore Silence & Subtext
In dialogue, what is unsaid and what cannot be said are as important as what is said. We'll consider the various ways people communicate, reveal, keep secrets, and hide.
Practice Writing Dialogue
You'll get to experiment with 3-5 generative writing exercises designed to help you unlock stronger dialogue. You will gain insights and ideas that you can bring directly into your own writing.
What You Get with the Season Pass
The Wild Craft Season Pass gives you access to all three Summer workshops—How the Fuck Did They Do That, Craft Deep Dive, and Revision Lab—at 20% off.
Each workshop stands on its own, but together they create a powerful series: you’ll read like a writer, sharpen your craft, and then transform your own work through revision. It’s a deeper, richer experience that builds momentum and carries your writing forward.
Take one workshop, and you'll learn something. Take all three, and you'll feel a shift in your creative life and on the page.
MEET SARAH SENTILLES
After more than a decade of teaching writing workshops, I’ve heard a request again and again from writers: more craft. Writers want chances to slow down and look closely at how writing works on the page—and to practice those techniques in focused, one-off workshops they can immediately bring into their own work.
I created this Craft Deep Dive series in response to those requests. As someone who has spent nearly thirty years writing, I love exploring the small decisions that make a piece come alive.
I’m the author of five books, including Draw Your Weapons, which won the 2018 PEN Award for Creative Nonfiction. My most recent book, Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn’t Ours, was published by Random House and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Idaho Book of the Year. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other publications. I’ve had residencies at Hedgebrook and Yaddo and earned degrees at Yale and Harvard.
I’m also the co-founder of the Alliance of Idaho, which works to protect the human rights of immigrants. I live in Idaho’s Wood River Valley with my family.
