How to Write Dialogue

welcome to the eighth video in this series covering the fundamentals of screenwriting and storytelling if you'd like to watch the rest of the playlist you can find it linked below or on the end screen of this video when you think about dialogue you probably think about iconic one-liners show me the money were writers with great dialogue style what country are you from what ain't no country i ever heard of they speak english and what on the flip side everyone knows bad dialogue when they hear it it can stunt a scene and pull you out of a movie from on the nose lines this is katana she's got my back to long expositional monologues so how do you write good dialogue is it just a talent you're born with or can it actually be taught let's start by figuring out what dialogue actually is dialogue is not a conversation the conversations you have in your day-to-day life are not comparable to dialogue good dialogue looks like a conversation but in reality it's a tool for continuing to develop the conflict of a story first let's talk about the mechanical side of dialogue so that we can get a basic understanding of its function again dialog is not a conversation it has a specific function and a story so viewing dialogue in this way can help you create stronger scenes there are three functions of dialogue exposition characterization and action in my previous two videos i covered exposition and its use inside of film dialogue can be used to pass on important information to other characters and to the audience next is characterization what a character says can help us understand who they are what they believe and what they want and finally we have action characters move towards what they want by talking to other characters and using dialogue to make decisions work problems and reveal secrets now that you have your basic academic definitions let's get practical many writers struggle to write dialogue well they think the problem comes from not being able to write dialogue naturally or failing to make characters sound like people but these are not the core problems that writers face when writing dialogue the most important thing you should be thinking about when writing dialogue is context dialogue is first and foremost about context you should be focusing on why this scene is here in the first place before you're even worried about dialogue what do the characters want in this scene what do they believe how does this scene's existence move the story forward we know the answers to these questions not from writing dialogue but from building our characters building what they believe and building what they want dialogue in and of itself will never create a good scene not even the wittiest quickest most fun dialogue will make a great scene on its own writing good dialogue happens after you have a working definition of the context of a scene david mamet one of the best writers of stylistic dialogue said that when you're writing dialogue in a scene you should focus on three questions who wants what from who what happens if they don't get it and why now notice how these questions have nothing to do with the exact word choice or flow of dialogue they are about the context in which the dialogue exists let's take a look at a scene from glengarry glenn ross written by david mamet and apply his questions to the scene who wants what from who i need those leads and i need them now or i'm out shelley is a salesman at a real estate company shelly is about to lose his job and needs the new sales leads from john the office manager immediately we get an understanding of what the character wants and what is driving the dialogue of this scene what happens if they don't get it if shelley doesn't get his sales numbers up this month he'll be fired he needs these new leads so that he can make sales me you give me one premium lead you know what the premium leads to i know what the pre-premium leads cost yeah i know what they cost i generated the sufficient dollar revenue to buy them but i cannot sell [ __ ] why now the other salesmen are doing what they can to make sales and beat shelley he has to get these new leads or he will be too far behind how does this scene turn the story i need your help i can't do it john doesn't give shelly the leads shelly is stuck in a really bad position now if he doesn't sell he's fired so now he must figure out how to get his sales numbers up this sets shelly in a new direction jon won't give him the new leads so he will have to figure something else out the dialogue works because the scene works the scene moves the story forward the scene shows characters working towards getting what they want the dialogue only exists to serve that end so the specific style that the writer writes in is simply a choice not a core function of the narrative many film lovers enjoy fast-paced woody dialogue and i do too but stylistic dialogue is not the foundation of a story and good writers know this it is the context and meaning behind the dialogue that makes that scene work the beautiful part about knowing what your characters want and knowing the context of the scene is that your dialogue will flow much better once you have a grasp on why the scene exists now you know why your characters are talking and what they are talking about when you're focused on making your dialogue witty slick and cool before you're worried about building the correct context for a scene you're going to write yourself into a corner i want you to pause and think about some of your favorite movies of all time do they all have amazing stylistic dialogue how much of the dialogue do you remember from most great films let's take a look at a scene that doesn't have flashy dialogue but still works very well for the story this is a scene from prisoners written by aaron guzikowski mr dover's daughter along with another girl have been kidnapped and detective loki is trying to find them loki suspects that mr dover has been working outside of the law to find his daughter so loki is following him let's return to mammoth's questions who wants what from who why are you following me get in the car detective loki believes mr dover took alex one of the suspects in the disappearance of dover's daughter so loki is following dover but dover wants detective loki to focus on finding his daughter what happens if they don't get it kids go for more than a week have half as good a chance of being found and after a month almost none are not alive these men are on the clock every hour that passes makes it less and less likely that they will find dover's daughter both of them are looking for the girls while both men want to find them they have radically different ideas on how to do it why now and every day she's wondering why i'm not there to [ __ ] rescue her do you understand that me not you not you but me every moment counts they have to find the girl soon or they may never see them alive again what happens at the end of this scene that moves the story forward loki believes dover may not have taken alex and is simply distraught about his missing daughter so loki lets him go and focus his back on finding the young girls notice how the dialogue isn't snappy witty or stylistic but it's still powerful and is used to move the scene and the story forward this should be your goal don't worry about crafting the most perfect sounding dialogue worry about creating dialogue that moves your story forward and worry about creating the correct context to actually build a strong scene let's take a look at one more simple scene this is a scene from gone girl written by jillian flynn nick's wife amy has gone missing detective boney is questioning nick about her disappearance who wants what from who detective boney wants to get more information about nick so she hasn't yet ruled him out as a suspect so you got to the bar around 11 today where were you before that just to cross that off home what happens if they don't get it if boney doesn't get more information the case could turn cold amy could go missing forever speaking of which amy's blood type god i don't know i have to look it up at the house you don't know if she has friends you don't know what she does all day and you don't know your wife's blood type sure you all are married why now the longer amy is missing the smaller the likelihood that they find her what happens at the end of this scene that moves the story forward boney is becoming more suspicious of nick he doesn't seem to know anything about amy this is alarming to her she decides to press harder on nick going forward can they get here in time for this press conference tomorrow wow i have no idea i haven't talked to him you haven't called your wife's parents i mean you can't get a signal on this building i'd been in here talking to you well call them please nick now i picked this quick unflashy scene for a reason the dialogue isn't crazy this isn't even a major turning point in the story but it's still following core narrative mechanics characters are using dialogue to move towards what they want the dialogue isn't supposed to stand out and be flashy it's just supposed to work and serve the story and in a lot of ways maybe that's the best form of dialogue because stylistic dialogue can run away from you and take away from the most important thing which is the telling of the story just like great editing can be invisible maybe dialogue can work the same way the reality is you don't have to write like tarantino or mammoth or any of those writers understand what you're good at there are so many great films out there where you never really thought much about the dialogue yet you loved the story anyways it's not that the dialogue was bad it just wasn't stylistic it was just good dialogue a lot of what is taught about writing dialogue simply isn't practical everyone talks about constantly keeping subtext at the forefront of your mind or they talk about knowing exactly how each line of dialogue has a particular emotional verb behind it like attack or punish or pursue or they give all kinds of tips on avoiding exposition and dialogue and honestly i think that most of this is worse than useless because it interrupts your flow of writing and it makes you overthink every single line as you push through the scene so what should you be focusing on when you go to write ultimately dialogue comes down to two things number one focus on the purpose of the scene why are your characters here what does each character want what will happen here that turns the story and what or who is standing in the character's way and number two focus on making your characters sound fluid and natural this happens by writing and writing a lot the more you get used to writing and the more you build the context of your scene before writing dialogue the more fluid your dialogue will sound whatever style of dialogue you may have will come as you write you have to write to see what you like and see what you don't like great writers don't try to sound a certain way they simply write in the way that is natural to them in this video i didn't give a detailed analysis of subtext or specific word choice or all the other phrases and tips people like to throw around to make non-writers feel intelligent and writers feel stuck and confused i've found that when i'm writing dialogue simplicity is a necessity i can't hold five ideas in my head about exposition subtext verbally charged lines and diction while i also try to remember what this scene is about it's nonsense and it's confusing who wants what from who what happens if they don't get it and why now leave the rest in the classroom now you have a much stronger understanding of dialogue and how it fits in your story and in the next video we're going to be taking a look at the midpoint and how you can use a midpoint to strengthen the second act of your screenplay so if you like this video leave a like and subscribe for more videos just like this one

Channel: Tyler Mowery

Views: 21,019

Rating: 4.9724817 out of 5

Keywords: film analysis, movie review, tyler mowery, nerdwriter, lessons from the screenplay, every frame a painting, screenwriting, script breakdown, writing, workshop, writing course, teach screenwriting, oscar best screenplay, film school

Id: lfTRuq9_X_M

Length: 12min 33sec (753 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Rozo1209]

Terrific video! Much appreciated!! 🙏👍

[u/savvy_knee]

Anybody got the bullet points?