Dialogue §
- Dialogue is not conversation. There is a hidden layer of subtext.
- Dialogue should have direction — it moves in line with the scene’s beats.
- Dialogue should have a purpose. Speak as common people do, but think as wise men do.
- Dialogue should be spoken in a natural tone — talk in the same manner the other characters talk. Dialogue should not call attention to itself being dialogue.
- Choose an appropriate length of dialogue — short for something like a film depicting a more naturalistic view, long for more poetic.
- However, avoid monologues. Monologues feel static since the characters not speaking are not doing anything.
- Note: characters typically do not have a long speech prepared. Dialogue in life is improvised.
- Good dialogue involves an action / reaction between two characters.
- Trim speeches — in practice, people cut each other off in dialogue.
- The suspenseful sentence - the character speaks a sentence that is cut-off so that it introduces suspense as to what the characters mean.
- Remember: Dialogue alone does not carry a story. This is especially applicable in visual story telling since dialogue does not appeal to the sense of sight.
Writing Good Dialogue §
- Write good dialogue by emulating real life, but also other stories with good dialogue (or inversely, know what not to do through poorly written dialogue in stories).
- Characters should have their own voice. Good characters presupposes good dialogue. Employ some method acting to try and say things in the same way the character would have said them.
- Dialogue enhances how a character is seen. (see here).
- If you cannot tell who is talking just from the lines alone, the characters do not have a unique voice.
- Pay attention to subtext. What is not said and implied is just as important.
Writing Bad Dialogue §
- Forced Comedy - disrupting a serious / sincere scene with an unnecessary joke kills the Emotion of the scene. It is bad if the humor comes at the cost of making the characters look weak (i.e., they can be made fun of by other characters)
- Infodumps - characters spilling info about everything. It often sounds long-winded and unnatural, especially if both characters should know the information anyway so the infodump is done for the viewer. Also, especially bad if it’s not really a dialogue, but more a monologue.
- Infodumps can be broken up into a conversation between two characters.
- Cartoonishly Evil Dialogue - the villain describes their evilness in such a cheesy unnatural way that they come off as silly. Not necessarily bad as long as it is intended for them to be conveyed that way. But note that characters tend to not see themselves as evil.
- Jarring Change of Subject - noticeable shift in a conversation. It is a clunky transition from one subject to the next, which is made bad if the situation was not meant to be humorous. Regardless, there should probably be build up from mundane to more tense subject.
- Rushed Emotional Reactions - unrealistic jumps to emotions for the characters. Emotions build gradually (unless the characters are mentally unstable) and fit with the immediate context. Emotional transitions make sense in context of story beats.
Links §