Write Dialogue, Forget Real Talk

Home \ How To Write A Screenplay \ Script Tips \ Write Dialogue, Forget Real Talk

Sort By Alphabet

all -

0 -

1 -

2 -

3 -

4 -

5 -

6 -

7 -

8 -

9 -

A -

B -

C -

D -

E -

F -

G -

H -

I -

J -

K -

L -

M -

N -

O -

P -

Q -

R -

S -

T -

U -

V -

W -

X -

Y -

Z -

Write Dialogue, Forget Real Talk

Anyone can write what we call dialogue, but writing good dialogue is no easy task. It takes time and practice to develop a quality ear.

In a screenplay, dialogue is conversation, but conversation in everyday life is definitely not dialogue. Real talk is boring.

If you read a transcription of a real conversation - even if the subject matter is controversial and full of passionate opinions - it’s completely absurd. This real talk is disjointed, long winded, redundant, unfocused, and often just too much information.

So in writing good dialogue, it’s never about capturing truth or reality: how we really talk. Realistic dialogue only gives a flavor of reality. It is artful deception. That isn’t to say that the screenwriter doesn’t write dialogue that reads like real speech. Not at all. It must feel and sound believable, but the irony is that believable dialogue doesn’t exist in real talk.

← The Conversation: Script Discourse		Sequence 3: Raising the Stakes →

Latest Features

Latest Reviews

Popular Screenplay Help

The Screenwriter as Benign Dictator

Screenwriting Script Tips

As a parent of three children, I have learned that it is in the ability to make the hardest decisions - and the ones that often have proven to be the most painful for me - that have helped my children the most, but this knowledge and understanding only comes with experience, objectivity, and if you're lucky, a great teammate (Thank God I have a wife!). Parents should never be best friends with their kids – that's a recipe for disaster. The same goes for your screenplay; it is NOT your friend. And just as the parent-child relationship is not equal, nor is the…

Latest Features

Crime

Screenplay Genre

Crime film is a genre that revolves around the action of a criminal mastermind. A Crime film will often revolve around the criminal himself, chronicling his rise and fall. Some Crime films will have a storyline that follows the criminal's victim, yet others follow the person in pursuit of the criminal. This genre tends to be fast paced with an air of mystery – this mystery can come from the plot or from the characters themselves.