How to Write Dialogue

How do you write great dialogue? Can you even teach someone how to write great dialogue? I answer these questions and more in today's video.

Films and Television Shows Used:

Steve Jobs
Zodiac
The Social Network
Inglourious Basterds
Glengarry Glen Ross
Alien
Drive
Get Out
Pulp Fiction
Adaptation
Jaws
London Has Fallen
The West Wing (Television Show)

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#Screenwriting #HowToWriteDialogue

[thereccher]

I think talent is a myth. People like to bring up Tarantino like he's a prodigy, but the man studied movies his whole life. He lived in movies. He worked at movie stories and saw films from all around the world. He even admitted to practicing dialogue since he was young. He wasn't born with the ability to write like many people think. You have to work at it and study the craft. It's a skill that takes time to hone.

[gabrielidusogie]

This vid simultaneously encouraged me and scared me at the same time.

[notyourdad]

My best advice when it comes to writing natural dialogue is to realize that people don't necessarily speak in full, complete, grammatically correct sentences but often in clipped and shorted ways.

[homer_thompson]

Here's my 20 second dialogue master class for anyone interested: "Hi, can I help you? Can I have a dozen red roses, please. Oh hey, Johnny, I didn't know it was you! Here you go. That's me! How much is it? That'll be $18. Here you go, keep the change - hi doggie! You're my favorite customer. Thanks a lot, bye. Bye-bye!"

[Miatpi]

“Simplicity is a necessity”
This is literally among the best advices I’ve heard, as I’m a person who tend to overthink and get stuck in theoretical mumbo jumbo’s. So thanks.

[Thedevon]

Dialogue is just like cinematography, or editing, or CGI, or any part of filmmaking really. Sure, you'll get outliers - films that pride themselves on blatantly showing off their craft. But the best implementation is the invisible one. It's the Spielberg oner; it's Fincher's CGI. If you're able to trick the audience, to the point where all they see is the story, well... then you've done it.

[petelee]

"leave the rest in the classroom" is one of the advice I've seen on this site. too many videos named "how to write the perfect dialogue/ how writes the PERFECT scene" contain no practical advice and mostly feature videomakers showing you their favor clips and describing what they see on screen.

[smartsolutionz]

I believe the general mistake people are making, is that they're trying to apply all of this while they're writing.
That's not what the writing part is for. For me the writing part is all about having made a lot of research and knowing your characters and worlds well, not in the way of knowing every little shit about them, but knowing them in a way like you'd be knowing a good friend and knowing about a city like you're living in it. Then you just basically let your emotions and instincts flow and you write all of this down as if the situation is happening in front of your eyes and you're just witnessing and descriping it.
The whole big subtext and emotional verbs and semantics and information-transimitting part is for editing.
In editing your script, you find out for the really first time what you've written is all about. Then you go all over the dialogue and structure and make it fit in with this idea (that you've found in the script) and make it shine.
Like Oscar Wilde said: "Write drunk and edit sober."
With this he (Probably) didn't mean you should become an alcoholic, but to go crazy and emotional when you write and apply logic and techniques, etc. to it when you're editing it.

[fullframevisuals]

9:22 One of the best examples to me in terms of "write dialogue how it's supposed to be written for that movie" is in the Hannibal series. Personally, I was hooked on every word that left the protagonists' mouthes, although the dialogue ist far from what you would consider "natural". But it totally works, because the entire aesthetic of the series including editing, vfx, etc. is supposed to be this disorienting, fever-dream-like trial of strength between two psychological masterminds. Any dialogue that is even close to banal would fall completely flat and un-engaging.

[futurestoryteller]

This makes me laugh. - there's *one* piece of advice in this I don't think you should follow. It's probably the most important one. He's got it backwards, if you're not great at dialogue, instead of trying to put across something you _think_ sounds good, you should *_listen_* to people talk instead.

I'm in basic agreement with the rest of this, by the way, but this is one of my strengths, and I don't write that much at all. I'm sure that's nothing to be too proud of, and that I'm lacking somewhere else because of it, but I have never, never, never had a problem writing dialogue. I hear two people talking in my head: I transcribe what they're saying, that's it. Think about it: if you're having trouble with this, you don't have to work on your penmanship or something, you have to have a good ear. You don't pass a test by writing down what you _think_ the answer is until it seems right to you - you do *research.*

I can listen to people talk about things I have no interest in for hours, as long as _they_ are interested.

[jauxro]

Oh, my god, thank you. I... _knew_ all of this stuff, but I hadn't been able to untangle it into something actionable. I'm definitely one to overthink every single line. I knew each scene should have a purpose, and I should know what my characters want... And then I'd get caught up on correctly writing a regional accent, exposition, wit, and just not get much of anything done at all.

No one has ever said to me "good dialogue can be like good editing - you don't notice it's there". I hope this becomes one piece of advice that gets repeated more often, because that is exactly what I needed to hear.

[ventrillo]

Omg thank you for making this the next video, dialogue is such a tough thing for me now because I think, I think about it too hard and much

[lloydrobert]

I'm preparing to make a short film with children in the interiors of India. Your presentation clarified so many thoughts I had concerning this assignment, especially about being natural and spontaneous. Thanks a ton.

[Chandler_Goodrich]

Interesting, what you said about what a character wants, and what stands in their way. I’d also add, “what is the character willing to do to get it?” That provides you opportunity to ratchet up the tension in places, depending on who the character is.

I also believe that writing is acting with a pen. And acting is reacting. The actor writes new dialogue when they “improv” a scene. Acting, writing, and directing are much more connected than people care to admit. The writer’s performance lives on the page.

All of that takes knowing your characters. Fantastic stuff, man!

[coolyou]

Tylers 4:45 - 4:50 sudden pause and sudden pluck of guitar tells us its almost obvious in a way. or atleast i felt the simply powerful drop of noise at this moment. lovely

[iddositbon]

This is the first actually useful guide to writing dialogue I've encountered, genuinely thank you

[alikhalil]

Did nobody notice that narrator's (Tyler Mowery) meaning of words matched the character gestions in the 9:30 minute

[DoyThinksThis]

this is the most practical thing i've heard about this whole writing process thing.. YOU give me hope man..thanks

[princessthyemis]

OH MY GOSH THANK YOU SO I CONSTANTLY am bogged down with attempting to write subtext and include other technical aspects in my dialogue!! Your rules are simple, easy to remember, and This is SO I'm still going to record some of this in my notebook!!!! THIS IS TREMENDOUSLY INSPIRING AND HELPFUL, THANK YOU SO

[nothinmulch]

I agree with you up until the end of the video. Even if you have a great story, your dialogue is going to suck if you don't worry about syntax, subtext, ect. at some point. Storytelling is only half the equation.

My advice? Work in stages that each focus on one aspect at a time. First, just get the scene down, brainstorm a couple different lines, while keeping in mind the direction of the scene. This is assuming you already have the story beats written out, however loosely or tightly described. Second, go through and fix the story. Scenes have beats, just like the greater narrative of your story. Hit them. Third, get detailed. Get your grammar lined up, then decide if that grammatical rule should be broken to better fit the character/situational context. This will then lead to editing based on flow, rhythm, and other poetic terms, which will help determine style. At each stage, read the dialogue out loud. If you catch yourself changing wording while you're talking, change it. Also have others read it. Repeat each step until its solid.

Don't just throw away the academics, but also don't think about them first. Each stage has a purpose.