WRITING YOUR SCREENPLAY: DIALOGUE
If you’re persistent, you’ll occasionally find yourself in this situation as a writer: You sit down to create a scene between two characters and the dialogue flows swiftly and seamlessly from your pen. It’s like a witty tennis match. You’re having so much fun and you could keep going and going. When the writing day is over, you think, “Dang! I have a really good ear for this! I’m so intuitive!”
Here’s our question for this post:
Does skill with dialogue mean a writer has a natural feel for how people talk (in the way that someone has natural rhythm or an eye for design)? Or, is dialogue a craft that a person can learn?
Perhaps it’s a little bit of both.
Good dialogue comes down to pretty much one thing: FRICTION.
Yes, friction, which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as:
1.) the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving with another
2.) the action of one surface rubbing against another
3.) conflict or animosity caused by a clash of wills, temperaments or opinions
You are writing a motion picture, after all — and the force that creates motion is friction. Dialogue is the vehicle.
There’s a reason Mike Nichols famously stated, “There are only three kinds of scenes: a fight, a seduction and a negotiation.” These three scenarios naturally pit one force of will against another and the result is friction.
The goal is to bring two different elements into the same beaker, then watch the natural chemical reaction. Dialogue sizzles when scene partners express themselves in opposite ways or have contrary belief systems, attitudes or approaches to life.
What happens when hot meets with cold, slow meets with fast, smart meets with dumb, impulsive meets with careful, Democrat meets with Republican?
If you're hoping to improve the dialogue in your screenwriting, ask these questions:
What kind of scene is this — a fight, a seduction, a negotiation?
What is the objective (or philosophy) of each character and how is it at odds with their scene partner?
What is the tone or the genre of the film?
If you have questions about these or other scripts, as always send us an e-mail at library@wgfoundation.org.
Until next time, happy writing!
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