How to do dialogue. Look at all this accomplishes that four pages of declarative speeches could never do. Seriously. Look how much we know about who these people are and what they think of each other. Four very short little lines. I think this is from the Halloween episodes, written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk,…
Read moreBLAH BLAH BLAH
Writers are verbal people. We make everything into words. EVERYTHING. When you write your script, you have to turn that off and think in images. How can you communicate a character trait? Put them in a situation they have to react to, then we see who they are. End blaaaaaaah blaaaah now. Conversations are for…
Read moreOVER-WRITTEN DIALOGUE
THE FIRST LINE OF DIALOGUE MAKES ME LAUGH
PHONETIC DIALECT IS A PAIN IN THE ASS TO READ
Great dialect adds a lot to your script, unless you spell it the way it sounds, in which case it’s very annoying because it stops being reading and turns into breaking code. Go easy on the apostrophes, darlin’. I’s fixin’ ta gin y’all a whuppin’ iff’n ya don’t.
Read moreWHAT THE HELL IS SUBTEXT?
Writers of spec screenplays often make the mistake of explaining things to readers, as if there is no other way of being understood. Subtext is the opposite of that. Since the easiest way to demonstrate this is to write two scenes, one with subtext and one without, that is what I did. See if you…
Read moreREALLY QUIPPY DIALOGUE
“URBAN” DIALOGUE
Everybody Mansplains
Mansplaining goes on in spec scripts. A lot. So as not to offend, I will call it the gender-neutral “screenplaining” instead. It is a structural problem that happens when the writer believes that readers need certain information up front to be able to properly interpret the story. However unintentionally, screenplaining condescends by assuming that the…
Read moreDialogue, Contest Readers and You
Unlike a reader who can pass on a script after the first awkwardly constructed page, a competition reader must read on, deeply, in order to provide feedback to the writer. You want this reader on your side immediately. Dialogue can help. Even how it looks on the page helps. BALANCED WHITE SPACE IS YOUR BEST…
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