How to Write Dialogue

Welcome to the eighth video in this series covering the fundamentals of screenwriting and storytelling. If you want to see the rest of the playlist, you can find it linked below or on the final screen of this video when you think of the

dialogue

you're probably thinking of. Iconic phrases show me that money were

write

rs with a great

dialogue

style of what country are you. From which country do you come from? There is no country I have ever heard of. They speak English and, on the other hand, everyone knows that bad dialogue when they hear it can stunt a scene and take you out of a movie from the lines of the nose, this is katana, she turns my back on long expository monologues, so How do you

write

good dialogues?

Is it just a talent you are born with or can it really be taught? Let's start by discovering what dialogue really is dialogue is not a conversation the conversations you have in your daily life are not comparable to dialogue a good dialogue seems like a conversation but in reality it is a tool to continue developing the conflict of a story first let's talk about the mechanical side of the dialogue so we can get a basic understanding of its function again. Dialogue is not a conversation, it has a specific function and a story, so viewing dialogue this way can help you create stronger scenes.

There are three Exposition functions of dialogue, characterization and action in my previous two videos I covered exposition and its use within the film. Dialogue can be used to convey important information to other characters and the audience. Next is the characterization. What a character says can help us understand who they are and what. they believe and what they want and finally we have action characters moving towards what they want by talking to other characters and using dialogue to make decisions, solve problems and reveal secrets now that you have your basic academic definitions, let's be practical, many writers struggle to write dialogues.

Well, they think the problem comes from not being able to write dialogue naturally or from not making characters sound like people, but these are not the core problems writers face when writing dialogue. The most important thing to think about when writing dialogue is context. First and foremost is context, you should focus on why this scene is here in the first place, before even worrying about the dialogue, what the characters want in this scene, what they believe, how the existence of this scene advances the story. history. knowing the answers to these questions not by writing dialogues but by building our characters, building what they believe and building what they want.

Dialogue by itself will never create a good scene, not even the wittiest, quickest, funniest dialogue will create a great scene by itself. Proper writing, good dialogue happens after having a working definition of the context of a scene. David Mamet, one of the best stylistic dialogue writers, said that when you write dialogue in a scene you should focus on three questions: who wants what, whose what. What happens if they don't understand it and why now notice how these questions have nothing to do with the exact choice of word or the flow of the dialogue, but rather the context in which the dialogue exists.

Let's take a look at a scripted Glengarry Glenn Ross scene. by david mamet and apply your questions to the scene who wants what from whom do i need those leads and i need them now or i'm leaving shelley is a salesperson at a real estate company shelly is about to lose her job and needs new sales the clues of John, the office manager, immediately understands what the character wants and what drives the dialogue in this scene. What if they don't understand it? If Shelley doesn't increase her sales numbers this month, he will be fired, she needs these new leads to be able to make sales.

You give me a premium lead. You know what the premium leads to. I know what pre-premium leads cost. Yes, I know what they cost. I generated enough dollar income to purchase them. but I can't sell why now the other sellers are doing what they can to make sales and beat Shelley. He has to get these new leads or he will be left far behind. How does this scene change the story? I need your help. I can not do it. If John doesn't give Shelly the clues, Shelly is stuck in a really bad position now, if she doesn't sell, he gets fired, so she now has to figure out how to increase her sales numbers.

This sets Shelly in a new direction that Jon won't take. Give him the new clues so he has to discover something else. The dialogue works because the scene works. The scene moves the story forward. The scene shows the characters working to get what they want. The dialogue only exists to serve that purpose, so the specific style the writer writes is simply a choice, not a central function of the narrative, many film lovers enjoy fast-paced woodsy dialogue and I do too, but Stylistic dialogue is not the basis of a story and good writers know this, it is the context and meaning behind it.

The dialogue that makes that scene work. The beautiful part about knowing what your characters want and knowing the context of the scene is that your dialogue will flow much better once you understand why the scene exists, now you know why your characters are talking and what they are talking about when you focus on making your dialogue witty and cool before you worry about creating the right context for a scene you're about to corner yourself in. I want you to pause and think about some of your favorite movies of all time, do they all have incredible stylistic dialogue? ?

How much dialogue do you remember from most great movies? Let's take a look at a scene that doesn't have flashy dialogue but still works very well for the story that is this. a prisoner scene written by aaron guzikowski mr dover's daughter along with another girl have been kidnapped and detective loki is trying to find them loki suspects that mr dover has been working outside the law to find his daughter, so loki is following him, let's go back to mammoth's questions who wants what from whom why are you following me get in the car detective loki believes that mr dover took alex one of the suspects in the disappearance of dover's daughter so loki is following dover but dover wants detective loki to concentrate on finding his daughter what happens if they don't find it the children go for more than a week they have half the chance of being found and after a month almost none of them are alive these men they are on the clock every hour that passes makes it less and less likely that they will find Dover's daughter they are both looking for the girls while both men want to find them they have radically different ideas about how to do it why now and every day she wonders Why am I not there to rescue her, do you understand that?

I, not you, not you, but me, every moment counts, they have to find the girl soon or they may never see them alive again. What happens at the end of this scene that moves the story forward? Loki thinks Dover may not have taken Alex and is simply distraught. about his missing daughter, so Loki lets him go and focuses on finding the young girls. Notice how the dialogue isn't witty or stylistic, but it's still powerful and used to move the scene and the story forward. This should be your goal. Don't worry about creating the most perfect-sounding dialogue, worry about creating dialogue that moves your story forward, and worry about creating the right context to build a solid scene.

Let's take a look at a simpler scene. This is a scene from Gone Girl written by Amy, Jillian Flynn's wife Nick has gone missing. Detective Boney is questioning Nick about her disappearance. Who wants what? Whose? Detective Boney wants to get more information on Nick so he hasn't ruled him out as a suspect yet so you arrived at the bar around 11 today where were you before that just to cross that out of the house what if they don't understand If Boney doesn't get more information the case could go cold Amy could disappear forever Talking about Amy's blood type God don't I know?

I know I have to look for it around the house You don't know if she has friends You don't know what she does all day and you don't know your wife's blood type I'm sure they're all married Why now how much longer is Amy? losing the slightest chance of her being found, which happens at the end of this scene that moves the story forward, Boney becomes more and more suspicious of Nick, he doesn't seem to know anything about Amy, this is alarming to her and she decides to push further. nick in the future, will they be able to make it in time for tomorrow's press conference?

Wow, I have no idea, I haven't talked to him, you haven't called your wife's parents, I mean you can't get a signal in this building, I was here talking to you, call them please nick. Now I chose this quick, unshowy scene for a reason: the dialogue isn't crazy, this isn't even a major turning point in the story, but it still follows the core narrative mechanics. Characters use dialogue to move toward what they want, dialogue isn't supposed to stand out or be flashy, it's just supposed to work and serve the story, and in many ways maybe that's the best form of dialogue because dialogue stylistic can run away from you and take you away. from the most important thing, which is telling the story, just like good editing can be invisible, maybe dialogue can work the same way, the reality is that you don't have to write like tarantino or mammoth or any of those writers understand What you are doing.

Well there are so many great movies that you never thought much about the dialogue but you loved the story anyway, it's not that the dialogue was bad, it just wasn't stylistic, it was just good dialogue, a lot of what is taught . Writing dialogue just isn't practical, everyone talks about constantly keeping subtext at the forefront of your mind, or they talk about knowing exactly how each line of dialogue has a particular emotional verb behind it, like attack, punish, or chase, or they give all sorts of advice. . in avoiding exposition and dialogue and honestly I think most of this is worse than useless because it interrupts the flow of writing and makes you overthink each line as you go through the scene, so what should you concentrate when you go to write?

Ultimately, dialogue comes down to two things, number one focuses on the purpose of the scene, why are your characters here, what each character wants, what will happen here, what will change the story, and what or who gets in the way of the character, and number two, it focuses on making your characters sound fluid and natural, this happens by writing and writing a lot, the more you get used to writing and the more you build the context of your scene before writing the dialogue, the smoother your dialogue will sound, whatever style of dialogue you have. As you write, you have to write to see what you like and what you don't like.

Great writers don't try to sound a certain way, they just write the way that comes naturally to them in this video I didn't give you. a detailed analysis of subtext or specific word choices or all the other phrases and advice people like to use to make non-writers feel smart and writers feel stuck and confused. I discovered that when I write dialogue, simplicity is a necessity. I can't keep five thoughts in my head about exposition subtext, verbally charged lines, and diction while also trying to remember what this scene is about. It's silly and it's confusing who wants what from whom, what happens if they don't understand it and why now. leave the rest in the classroom now you have a much stronger understanding of dialogue and how it fits into your story and in the next video we'll look at the middle ground and how you can use one middle ground to strengthen the second.

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