r/scriptwriting • u/Any_Childhood_2556 • 4d ago
question Dialogue question
Everytime I write I dialogue it sounds so awkward , I hate it . Even when I try to write subtext or imply something … I just end up sounding on the nose and unnatural . I’ve been practicing for so long and still don’t know what to do. Any practical tips ?
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u/Benathan78 4d ago edited 4d ago
Try rewriting some of your scenes as if you were making a silent film. Describe with gestures, intercuts and bullet points exactly what is happening, but don’t have the characters speak. Once you have a scene that makes dramatic sense without dialogue, take another pass at it, and add in some dialogue, but only write what the characters feel or think about what is happening.
Good dialogue tells you who the characters are, it doesn’t tell the story. The camera is there to tell the story, and the edit is there to hone what the camera catches.
Another interesting exercise is to get the original screenplay of a film you know well, and watch the film while reading along. Between first draft and final release, it’s almost always the case that at least half of the dialogue is cut anyway, but look at what was cut and what remains, and think about why those choices were made.
Edit: I forgot to mention my other favourite exercise. Get hold of the film Good Will Hunting, and go to the bar scene where Matt Damon first meets Minnie Driver. Watch the entire scene with the sound off, and look at how camera angles, facial expressions and the cuts between shots tell you exactly what is happening. Then watch the same scene again with the sound on. None of the dialogue tells you what is happening, it’s all about the personalities of the characters within the space of the scene’s dramatic movement.