Creating natural and interesting dialogue can make even the most confident writer start to sweat. If quotation marks give you heart palpitations, this three-week class is for you. Good dialogue is one of a writer’s most useful multitools. It can advance the plot, create immediacy, provide characterization, add interest, and provide information. In this class, we will examine its mechanics, function, boundaries, and—most importantly—techniques to move dialogue from wooden to interesting.  There are no required texts for this class. It will comprise of in-class exercises and craft lessons with accompanying examples excerpted from novels, short stories, and scripts.  

Instructor: Elyse Rudemiller

Dates: Begins Sunday, July 5, 2026, and runs every Wednesday for three weeks total

Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Level: Beginner and above

8 seats max

Location: Redbud HQ, located inside VAE Raleigh, 909 W. Morgan St.

Cost:

$430: true price

$260: base price

$285, $310, $360: donate an extra $25, $50, or $100 to our scholarship fund

(Returning students receive 10 percent off).

A note on pricing:  the “true price” reflects the true cost of the class, which includes paying a fair wage to our staff and instructors, rental fees for the Redbud headquarters and for the community spaces where we host our classes, website and administrative/commerce fees, outreach and advertising to spread the word about our offerings, and the coordination and administration for our community classes, which serve people who could not otherwise access creative writing. We’re not a university or a large corporation and that means we don’t have an operating budget we can rely on; we’re proud to be a small, local, women- and minority-run business that is passionate about bringing the transformative power of the arts to our community. Your tuition helps Redbud with the critical work of keeping the arts accessible to the public. 

We also offer students a chance to donate to our scholarship fund. At check-out, you will be given the option of choosing a donor price. If you choose one of these prices, the extra $25, $50, or $100 will go towards scholarships for students who would not be able to afford our classes otherwise.  Thank you in advance for considering making a contribution to inclusivity and access!

Read the fine print, including our refund policy, here.