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6 Tips On How to Write Compelling Dialogue

How to Write Compelling Dialogue Writing compelling dialogue seems to be one of the hardest nuts to crack in the writing world. Many writers struggle with how to make the conversations not only feel real, but also propel the story forward. The good news is, you can learn how to write compelling dialogue in the following steps … 1) Determine the mood of your story What would you like your readers to feel overall when they read your novel or watch your screenplay? This plays an important part in how you write your dialogue. Is it a funny, heartwarming story?… Read More »6 Tips On How to Write Compelling Dialogue

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Death By Dialogue: How To Bring Your Writing Back To Life

Dialogue Death Dialogue is overrated. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, but you’ve heard the sayings … Actions speak louder than words … A picture tells a thousand words … What you see is what you get! Yet many writers still get hung up on dialogue. Either a script or novel is too dialogue-heavy or the dialogue isn’t authentic, or feels ‘in the nose’. Here are some tips to help you nail it! 1) DANGER: Why Dialogue Is Killing Your Screenplay Has your screenplay suffered death by dialogue? Don’t know how to bring it back to life? We got ya covered!… Read More »Death By Dialogue: How To Bring Your Writing Back To Life

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Top 5 Dialogue Mistakes Writers Make

Dialogue Problems Dialogue for movie and TV screenplays. Writers obsess over it, laypeople quote it on their social media profiles. It’s important. But it’s also one of things holding spec screenplays back! Supersadface. But you’re here to learn how to deal with dialogue problems in your script. Are you dropping any of these clangers?? Better check and see: 1)  Expositional Dialogue Lots of writers get confused about expositional dialogue. After all, exposition is just the background information needed to understand the story … So it is a good thing, right? Nope. If you get the note, ‘too much expositional dialogue’, this… Read More »Top 5 Dialogue Mistakes Writers Make

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No, Your Female Characters Don’t Just Need More Dialogue

Wanted: More Dialogue More dialogue is something screenwriters always seem to want – chains and chains of it, in fact. I’ve written many, many times that too much dialogue is a HUGE problem in the spec pile. Yet it would appear film researchers and commentators ALSO want more dialogue … especially when it comes to female characters. So, you don’t have to go far online to discover studies and articles galore about how male characters talk more than female characters generally. You may have seen this pic (below) doing the rounds of Facebook recently, which backs this assertion up: Male as… Read More »No, Your Female Characters Don’t Just Need More Dialogue

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8 Great Dialogue Tips That Will Rock Your Screenplay

Great dialogue is about one-fifth of a powerful screenplay, but it will probably be one of the most influential parts in catching the attention of the reader (and thus your potential audience!). So whilst you don’t want your dialogue to take over, it’s still VERY important to your script’s success … So check out these tips for ensuring you make the most of yours! 1) Eavesdrop! Do this subtly, of course. But listen in on conversations that people are having in a variety of environments and on a variety of topics. You’ll get a much better “feel” for what natural… Read More »8 Great Dialogue Tips That Will Rock Your Screenplay

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DANGER: Why Dialogue Is Killing Your Screenplay

The Bad Stuff Look, we ALL know that characters are what they DO (not what they say). So why the hell are so many spec screenplays dialogue-led??? You know the ones, you’ve probably written them yourself (I know I have). In these pesky dialogue-laden specs, we: … Have extended introduction sequences to the characters, especially via chit-chat (‘How are you?’/ ‘I remember when you …’/ ‘What do you plan on doing next?’ etc). … End up reading pages and pages of talk (‘chains of dialogue’) … Read a never-ending flow of moving body parts and false movement, so the scenes… Read More »DANGER: Why Dialogue Is Killing Your Screenplay

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INFOGRAPHIC: All About Dialogue – A Periodic Table

So, I’ve written A LOT on this blog about how writers obsess over their dialogue and why they shouldn’t. This is because too often, writers fall in love with their dialogue and end up telling the story via talk alone. Nooooooooooo! However, if you writers *are* going to obsess on dialogue, then you could do a lot worse than finding out exactly what dialogue really IS. Shockingly, many writers don’t differentiate their characters’ speech patterns enough, so what they *think* is cool and interesting, is actually samey and boring to read. If we consider a book like The Maze Runner… Read More »INFOGRAPHIC: All About Dialogue – A Periodic Table

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How Do I Format An Interruption In My Screenplay Dialogue?

All About Interruption If you want to signify an interruption in your spec screenplay’s dialogue, you have come to the right place. Many thanks to Bang2writer Mohammed, who’s been in contact this week with this writing-related query … Can I ask how to format this correctly? Someone is reading a letter out loud, and the voice of the letter writer cuts in to finish the letter. I’ve done plenty of hunting around but I haven’t found anything on it. Like many screenplay formatting questions beyond the non-negotiable ones (such as font, size, margins, etc)  there’s NO fancy or specific way to… Read More »How Do I Format An Interruption In My Screenplay Dialogue?

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Q: “Is GOOD Screenwriting About GREAT Dialogue?” >> NO!!

So, in yesterday’s post, writer and filmmaker Glyn Carter aka @StoriesIn2Light argued the case for YES, good screenwriting IS about GREAT dialogue. Catch up with Glyn’s post if you missed it, HERE. Now, as everyone knows, I’m a script editor and one of the main issues I see in just about everyone’s spec screenplay is DIALOGUE. The reasons for this are plentiful, but needless to say, I think Glyn is totes wrong and should probably be put out of his misery for the sake of all screenwriting humanity. But hey Bang2writers, don’t just take MY word for it: I’ll paint… Read More »Q: “Is GOOD Screenwriting About GREAT Dialogue?” >> NO!!

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Q: Is GOOD Screenwriting About GREAT dialogue? >> YES!

When Glyn Carter got in touch with this blog, my first response to him was, “Are you on drugs? You KNOW my thoughts on dialogue!” Then I got thinking: what if I were to run a two-post weekend, based around a question? In this case it would be, “Is Good Screenwriting About GREAT Dialogue?” Glyn could then argue the case for YES. So here’s Glyn with his case FOR dialogue … Tomorrow, I’ll be writing MY take on this emotive issue for screenwriters with NO, so watch out for it! YES, says Glyn Carter (@StoriesIn2light) I’ve been getting feedback on… Read More »Q: Is GOOD Screenwriting About GREAT dialogue? >> YES!

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