How to write good dialogue

[yanapuma]

This is about film but ....

 

[Katie-Ellen]

You see really naff dialogue in adverts. Esp life insurance adverts. It doesn't work. You can practically see the balloons coming out of their mouths going

features
benefits
call to action

 

[Eva Ulian]

This is about film but ....

So... people only speak if they want something. Good to know.

 

[yanapuma]

So... people only speak if they want something. Good to know.

as I said this is about film dialogue ... but there are good pointers here for all writers ... film/TV (the good stuff) has some of the best dialogue writing you will ever come across ...

 

[yanapuma]

as I said this is about film dialogue ... but there are good pointers here for all writers ... film/TV (the good stuff) has some of the best dialogue writing you will ever come across ...

and I think the film courage stuff on writing on youtube is mostly brilliant ...

 

[Haze O'Hagan]

I find myself acting out the dialog scenes either out loud, or in my head. My wife thinks I'm crazy. :S

 

[Eva Ulian]

as I said this is about film dialogue ... but there are good pointers here for all writers ... film/TV (the good stuff) has some of the best dialogue writing you will ever come across ...

My remark was not intended as criticism but as something I wasn't previously aware of. There's also quite a bit about misunderstanding. i.e. the speaker says something but the listener may interpret it with different intentions as to those of the speaker. That too is good to know because when writers write dialogue, everyone seem to understand each other perfectly and of course that is because the writer is the speaker and the listener, so the writer knows exactly what he/she is saying to him/herself, right? You know what that means, don't you? I have to go through all my dialogue to see if I have goofed up somewhere.

 

[yanapuma]

yes misunderstanding ...talking at cross purposes ... not doing Q&A dialogue ... talking about really mundane stuff which has a subtext ... holding back information ...

 

[Eva Ulian]

Another thing this video has made me aware of and that is; in real life we seldom say what we really want or mean to say, we often shy away from face to face, up-front conflict, whereas in fictional dialogue, everyone comes out point blank with what they mean? Perhaps it's wishful thinking, and wish we could do that in real life. Also in real life, we hardly ever have the punch line ready, whereas in fiction, as the guy said, we can go away, think about it and come back with the punch line ready! In fiction we have to make dialogue look genuine, but if we write the dialogue we use in real life, that would never seem real at all.