Three anti-social skills to improve your writing.

You need social skills to have a conversation in real life -- but they're quite different from the skills you need to write good dialogue. Educator Nadia Kalman suggests a few "anti-social skills," like eavesdropping and muttering to yourself, that can help you write an effective dialogue for your next story.

Answer the following questions:

1. Why might an author add dialogue to a story?
   

2. A character may speak differently depending on his or her age or geographic region. What are some other factors that may affect the way a character speaks?

3. Why is it usually helpful to keep individual pieces of dialogue short?

Record a 1 minute video recommending this pill.