The session was essentially about creating dialog for drama use (stage and media) but it was stressed that the skills required were transportable to ANY type of Creative Writing.
First instruction was to describe what bad dialog and good dialog looks like.
“Hello Mary.”
“Hi Sylvia.”
“My, that’s a wonderful outfit you’re wearing.”
“Outfit? You mean this old thing?”
“Old thing! It looks practically new.”
“It’s not new, but thank you for saying so.”
Introducing… The Sidestep!
“Hello Mary.”
“Sylvia I didn’t see you.”
“My, that’s a wonderful outfit you’re wearing.”
“I need a drink.”
Or… The Question!
“Hello, Mary.”
“Hello, Sylvia.”
“My, that’s a wonderful outfit you’re wearing.”
“Where is he Sylvia?”
Silence is (cliché alert!) golden…
“Should we have another drink?”
“All right”
The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.
“The beer’s nice and cool,” the man said.
“It’s lovely,” the girl said.
“It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said. “It’s not really an operation at all.”
The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.
“I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.”
The girl did not say anything.
You can lose words. Compare these:
“Your dog was killed?” “Your dog was killed?”
“Yes, run over by a car.” “Got run over by a car.”
“What did you call it?” “What did you call it?”
“It was a she. I called her Tuffy.” “Was a she, name Tuffy.”
And finally… Never forget your literary toolkit! Remember – it’s not REALISTIC TALK!
Characters talk for a reason, just like us…
Every character has wants and needs, which usually come into conflict with the needs of others. In dialog there is no such thing as “just talk”.
Think of overheard conversations in coffee shops, at work, in the pub, kitchen or at the dinner table. Each of us has hidden ‘wants’ – we seek approval, congratulations,my sympathy, laughs, compassion, encouragement, status, a friendly smile, a free drink. And what about the wants of the person we’re speaking to, which bring into play another level of subtle complexity to the conversation? These tensions can be exploited in dialogue to achieve these purposes:
• To reveal character – each has distinctive mannerisms, attitudes, wants and needs. (Has an agenda)
• To advance the plot- moves story forward – something happens
• Express subplot
• Entertain the audience – engage, move, involve,frighten, inform them
Wants are not necessarily fulfilled. A character may want to be pretty. You could subject them to plastic surgery or take them on a journey which teaches them that being pretty isn’t everything. Establishing the need/want early on makes sense of that journey.
Don’t express the need outright. ‘Can’t you catch a later train?” Could easily translate to “I need you”.
How dialog can advance the plot
* A decision is made
* A question asked
* Information revealed (subtly) – info is necessary but so very boring, so distract the audience by having something unexpected going on (Pope / President having a meeting whilst swimming in a pool)
* Momentum / tension is built, however subtly
* Conflict instilled in character interactions
* Like in real life, conflict can get dumped onto friends/family/strangers (but do it with subtlety)
* But don’t give everything away – people in opposition have emotions that often bubble away under the surface for a long time. This can provide more intensity than full blown outbursts. DELAY IS DRAMATIC!
Do and don’t: Tips from scriptwriters, screenplay writers and playwrights!
(All of these points are equally applicable to prose writing)
All good writers have an audience in mind. How will you connect with yours? To make then care, you must involve them so that they become active participants and not just observers. (Imagine if the writers of Shrek, Toy Story or Harty Potter hadn’t considered both the children and the adult audiences? Results? Completely different films).
YOUR VOICE – your own style, word choices, rhythms, the way you connect – develops with practice and time… And is not the same as DIALOGUE, which belongs to your characters!
Scripted dialog must not be robotic, stiff or unnecessary. The best dialogue is usually quite spare – less is more. So write your dialog, then cut, cut, cut! Trust the reader / audience to be able to read between the lines. Avoid spoon feeding so they cannot be passive. Don’t use closed questions, inviting monotonous pointless answers. And remember, real conversation is messy, so interruptions and overlaps occur in script to!
Dialogue for performance is written to be spoken – SO READ IT OUT LOUD IN ORDER TO FEEL IT PHYSICALLY, TO FIND THE RHYTHM, TONE, PITCH AND BREATH. One screenwriter compared writing a screenplay with composing a symphony!
Someone said ‘conversation is boring. Even when it’s interesting. Dialogue represents conversation – it is edited speech with none of the ums and ers.
Give your character a secondary activity, to make it visually interesting and so that meaning can be conveyed through action is performed (eg pushing a plate away). Put people in ‘active’ situations eg sitting room = static: kitchen = more chance of dynamic action.
Avoid long speeches – less need for long monologues, which are used sparingly. Don’t let them tell us how they feel, reveal it through dialogue and behaviour.
Don’t write ‘on the nose’. There’s nothing worse than one character telling another character how she’s really feeling. A: Are you okay? B: Yeah, I’m fine thanks. This exchange only works when B is lying!
Not every question needs an answer. Silence can be golden! (BTW, in scriptwriting, a BEAT is a positively charged – pause / moment). What are they trying to hide within their words? Or get from others? Do they talk but don’t listen?
Your characters may come from all over the place, or from one specific setting or region. Avoid writing phonetically in an attempt to reproduce accent or dialect – write mostly in Standard English for a smooth read, throwing in the odd regional word or phrase.
