Writers who worry about dialogue usually try to fix it at the line level, hunting for sharper
phrasing. That almost never works, because flat dialogue is a symptom. The cause is underneath
it.
Dialogue is flat when the scene has no conflict
If two characters want the same thing and are cooperating, no amount of craft will make the
exchange interesting. The line level is not where this is fixable.
Before rewriting a single line, ask what each character wants in this specific scene, and how
those wants are incompatible. Even mild incompatibility transforms an exchange. Two people
agreeing about lunch is dead. Two people agreeing about lunch while one is trying to leave and
the other is trying to keep them there is a scene.
People rarely say what they mean
Real conversation is mostly indirect. We hint, deflect, change the subject, and answer
questions that were not asked. On the page, characters who state their feelings plainly read as
false even though the sentences are clear.
The exercise: take your flattest scene and forbid every character from naming
what they actually want. Force them to pursue it sideways. Most writers find the scene gets
better immediately, and that the original was explaining rather than dramatising.
Cut the first and last line of every speech
Mechanical, unreasonable, and effective. First lines are usually throat clearing. Last lines
usually explain what the speech already conveyed. Cut both, read it back, restore only what you
genuinely miss.
You will restore less than you expect.
Characters should not sound alike
The test: delete every character name from a page and hand it to someone. If
they cannot tell who is speaking, you have one character wearing several names.
Difference comes from how people think, not from verbal tics. Sentence length, whether someone
answers directly or circles, whether they ask questions, their level of formality, what they
notice. A dialect or catchphrase is decoration on top of a character who still sounds like
everyone else.
Let silence do work
A character who does not answer is doing something. Refusal, deflection, and the pause before
a lie all carry more weight than a written line, and film handles them better than any other
medium. Writers new to screenwriting tend to over write speech because they are thinking in prose,
where silence is harder to convey.
Read it aloud, and badly
Read at normal speed without performing. Skilled reading disguises bad dialogue by supplying
the intention that should be on the page. Flat reading exposes lines nobody would say, rhythms
that do not scan, and speeches that go on after their point has landed.
The distinction that matters most
There is a difference between dialogue that is well written and dialogue that is doing work.
Well written dialogue is enjoyable to read. Dialogue that works advances the scene, reveals
character, and changes the relationship between the people speaking.
Plenty of scripts are full of clever lines that accomplish nothing. The question to ask of
every exchange is not whether it is good, but what is different by the end of it. If nothing has
changed, the scene has not happened yet.
Originally published at https://www.moviementors.ai/answers/how-to-write-better-dialogue.html.
Written by the team behind Movie Mentors.
Top comments (0)