This document discusses how skills used in novel writing, such as considering multiple points of view and understanding the motivations and desires of different characters, can improve negotiation skills. While conflict drives dialogue in fiction, sustained conflict in negotiations is bad for business. The document recommends that negotiators take the perspective of being the "writer" of the negotiation dialogue in order to understand each side's perspective and resolve conflicts in a mutually agreeable way.

1. Negotiation
By the Book
Learn Negotiation Skills from Novel Writing
Kathy Bell
White Blaze Creative Services
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2. The Perils of Negotiating
¡ Negotiations sometimes go wrong. It’s an
unfortunate fact of business life.
¡ This presentation outlines one simple idea you
can use immediately to improve your negotiation
skills and outcomes.
¡ Let’s begin.
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3. Conflict in Dialogue
¡ In a novel, good dialogue is quick and snappy, it
moves right along.
¡ There is one rule to writing good dialogue:
Conflict.
¡ Dialogue without conflict is boring; regular day-
to-day conversation between characters is
mundane.
¡ The conflict arises from the thwarted wants and
needs of each character speaking.
¡ How does this apply to negotiation, you ask…
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4. Good Dialogue is a
Bad Negotiation
¡ To write conflict into a dialogue, a writer must first
consider both points of view in a conversation.
¡ The writer asks: What does each party involved
want from the other? In good dialogue, the
characters are denied what they want by the
other.
¡ Resolution only arrives at the end of a scene. This
makes for good reading.
¡ In a real life negotiation, each party wants
something from the other. As the parties struggle
to attain their goals, the resulting conflict can be
palpable.
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5. Is This a Problem? Yes
¡ Unlike a novel’s dialogue with fictional
characters, conflict in a negotiation can have
real and negative business impacts.
¡ Especially if parties in a negotiation act like
characters in a novel, oblivious to the other side’s
point of view, thereby sustaining the conflict.
¡ Sustained conflict is good in fictional dialogue,
but bad in business.
¡ So what can you do?
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6. Be the Writer
¡ When two sides fail to comprehend the other’s
point of view, conflict continues. As any good
writer knows.
¡ A good rule in negotiation is to pretend YOU are
the writer of the dialogue.
¡ Ask yourself:
¡ What is the source of the conflict between parties?
¡ How can you sustain the conflict?
¡ How can you acting as the writer resolve it?
¡ What dialogue would resolve the conflict and satisfy
each party?
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7. Writers Possess the
Power of Omniscience
¡ Put yourself into the writer’s shoes, possessing the
power to sustain or resolve the conflict in which you
are embroiled. Because…
¡ With the omniscience of the writer, you see both
sides.
¡ Unlike in fiction, in real life it is most effective and
powerful to wield skills to resolve the conflict and
create positive outcomes for all.
¡ While the resulting win-win outcome yields snooze-
worthy dialogue, it makes for good business.
¡ After all, real life isn’t fiction…
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8. ¡ Contact the author Kathy Bell at
info@whiteblazecreativeservices
¡ www.whiteblazecreativeservices.com
¡ Find her debut novel The Brittle Limit on Amazon
under the pseudonym Kae Bell
Copyright 2014 White Blaze Creative Services