Writing Great Dialogue

My novel Empty Vessels can be purchased here:

In my experience, there are three components that must be mastered in order to write great dialogue. Check them out in my video, which details each of these components so you can apply them to your writing.

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Background music is from Kevin Macleod. His website is here:

[nickslessonsonstory]

Is there a story topic you'd like me to cover? Let me know in the comments!

[NaveenChater]

"We also learn that Carl's a little shit." That cracked me up. A very informative video. Thanks!

[irreverencetheartist]

Thank you Nick for a great lesson on the breakdown of writing. As a newbie aiming at cartoons, it was a great 1st step into my writing library. I feel your teachings will be a cornerstone group of gems to be polished daily. You are my writing 101 class at Self University.

Well, i just took care of the next 10 years of my life.

[ClintLoweTube]

Casablanca has perhaps the greatest ever dialogue.

[albertmailyan]

one of the best essay on dialogue! Great work

[acalvillo]

For my first draft, I wrote everything I wanted to say and then later rewrote it with subtext and added flavor, but first I had get my ideas on paper. It's hard to just write diaologe with subtext and in cinematic quality when you're just starting out.

[AnnoyingMoose]

I found that one of the best exercises for a writer to understand how good dialogue has conflict and subtext, that people don't always say exactly what is on their minds, was to get married and have a few fights with my wife.

[dennou]

Superb video. These are so helpful! Appreciate all the time and effort you put in to this vid and the other great ones :) all the best and looking forward for the novel!

[lilgrasshoppah]

why does jeff have a three piece suit and a top hat? why does he never say, "I do declahr!"...? It's kind of a rule for persons who wear suits of more than two and half pieces. There are so many questions!

[nivyan]

The boring version of the Casablanca dialogue physically hurt to watch.
Good work, keep it up :)

[NatesFilmTutorials]

Nice! Are there any tricks to make dialogue that’s already on the nose and introduce subtext? Or is it something you have to dive into when writing?

[tiko]

cool stuff!! can you please explain how to maintain conflict while keeping subtext at the same time? when I improve my dialogue should I ask "how can he/she say this in another way"?

[stevenbosch]

How about using two of my favorite Billy Wilder films as examples of Satire? "The Apartment" and "The Fortune Cookie." There are laughs in both but they are important parts of real life feelings of the characters. Also, Walter Matthau brillantly plays the shyster lawyer "Whiplash Willy" Gingrich, the nightmare of the Ohio Bar Association. Jack Lemmon plays an Everyman character who mostly wants to have his cake and eat it too. in "The Apartment" his character C.C. Baxter is positive he can be a top flight executive if he could only get the chance. To get the chance he loans out his bachelor apartment to a small ring of top flight executives who are looking for an out of the way spot for "recreation" with no desk clerks or other busy bodies. Baxter rationalizes that it's not his responsibility to instruct these men in fidelity. He also finds himself courting pneumonia as these gentlemen chase him out of his apartment for hours at a time in all weather.

[bonzaisubber]

Belt to your point where dialogue shouldn’t be like real talking, there are many times when it should simply for aesthetic purposes and not to drive the plot forward. There’s a really good short film on HBO right now called “Verde”, where two men are discussing a date with a girl and an encounter with her father and it’s a very nowhere-going conversation, completely irrelevant to the story, but it serves to contrast with the inner turmoil of the main character, who remains silent. Sometimes dialogue should be validated and lead to nowhere if only to serve as a backdrop for the actions are going on.

[jajangteu]

nice video, perhaps you could make video of curb your enthusiasm :) or seinfeld