How to Write Great Dialogue with Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin | SWN

In this video, learn How to Write Great Dialogue like Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin!

Aaron Sorkin is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright, television writer, actor, television producer, and film director.

Aaron Sorkin’s screenwriting credits include The Social Network, A Few Good Men, The West Wing, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and Molly’s Game.
Sorkin started acting before discovering his passion for screenwriting, this passion started when his parents took him to watch plays as a child and Sorkin loved listening to the dialogue. Hence why his screenplays are now known for being dialogue intense, The Social Network is an example of this.

In 1992 A Few Good Men was released to the big screen, making Aaron Sorkin a major Hollywood player in the film industry.

If you are a screenwriter or filmmaker looking for tips on how to tell a story, then you've come to the right place!

Which screenwriter or filmmaker would you like us to cover next? Let us know in the comments!

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This video was curated and edited by Roman Weston.

#screenwriting #screenplaytips #AaronSorkin #thesocialnetwork #westwing #stevejobs #davidfincher #afewgoodmen #writingtips #SWN
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[ScreenwritersNetwork]

Screenwriting tips from the master of dialogue! What screenwriter/filmmaker would you like us to cover?👇

[JustSomeCanadianGuy]

The key to Sorkin dialog is to have a dumb character say something and have the other character have the absolute most perfect retort a human being could possibly come up with.

[SSJK]

The 1st 40 secs of this video explains why there's less talented artists nowadays. No one is ever bored enough to stumble across their true talents.

[hinduismwithpremananddasbhagat]

I've heard this bit of advice from others - to act the dialogue while writing it. I started doing that years ago. It changed how I wrote. If you're writing a monologue and out of breathe and bored in your living room, than no reason to think your audience isn't going to be bored. LOL I haven't written many plays, and am more focused on fiction. I do this with fiction now. I go through a character's lines and read them like a play, ignoring the rest of the writing. I recommend doing this. I have a friend who wrote a novel I read a draft of last summer. I swear he didn't read the dialogue out loud. Everyone spoke the same, nothing was realistic, things were horrible. Everything sounds good in your head. Read it out loud and see how it really sounds.

[laluenbaires]

After watching "The trial of the Chicago 7" I thought "THIS is storytelling!" What a genius.

[ObnoxiouslyFrench]

Ducking the soundtrack under the dialogue would have been a great idea.
Even more so on a video about dialogue and Sorkin's emphasis over the actual sound of dialogue.

[adamtheblondie]

this is a treasure trove of screenwriting

[CarSaidWesley]

Sorkin & Sheridan should do Writers on Writers (Actors on Actors), that would be priceless. i'd love to watch those two...and he is write about dialog being Music. my youngest son & i had this conversation yesterday about him taking up Hebrew, he could hear me smiling as I said non-English languages were like Music to my ears as a lil kid and it still was. He knew i spoke some Spanish/Italian as a child not how much. Growing up i spent just as much if not more time in the homes of Jewish, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Middle Eastern, et al family/friends/neighbors as my own, got to live with the World because 1-by-1 bordered w/families like my grandparents to attend/work at/visit Howard Unv/Freedmans Hosp because back then they couldn't stay in hotels

[baylee]

Hey this was delightful, thank you very much for making this.

[MBzombieBait]

Thanks for the upload. I really needed the inspiration. Wrote my first feature length film and after a couple of drafts the dialogue is still trash. This gives me some new ways of attacking each scene. Thank you!

[johnphares]

This was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you. Amazing channel.

[paulschrum]

Here is some sample dialog:

Wife: Do you want to see such and such a movie?
Me: Did Aaron Sorkin write it?
Wife: Yes.
Me: Yes.

[jq]

I'm in my 50's, just a little younger than Aaron, and studied acting and directing (theatre & film) in the 90's. Everyone was enamored with Mamet in the 80's with his direct, terse, tough talking characters constantly interrupting one another. It was ALL dialogue. Knowing S's background after this compilation, I can certainly hear him in Sorkin. Too funny - it all makes so much sense now! But Sorkin's female characters (I'm a woman) are superior. Much more humour and depth in his stuff, too. But Mamet definitely was an influence in Aaron's combative, interruptive, dialogue rhythm. 😉♥

[NIKONGUY]

Duffer Brothers. That Monster high on crack. So beautifully done.

[Hedyeh]

This is great. I'd love to see one with Susannah Grant and/or Steven Knight. Thank you!

[RattledPan]

Gosh, I LOVE a YT that gets me pumped up! I'm not the jump up and dance kinda guy. No, serious. Jumping up and down because I was excited was thirty years ago. That doesn't mean the passion isn't there, it's redirected. Sometimes screaming "I love you" as I whiz by someone going fast the wrong way on a one way street. Shut up! I've never hit anyone yet and the reactions from people are worth writing down. It's not that easy to get people to react fast, blurt out what their first thought is and will share with you what they look like in a fetal position, which few dare to show. That's the type of dialogue and character action that is hard for me to write myself. I'm a Stone Pacifist. My Scandinavian side of the family considers raising their eyebrows as harsh words. I need dialogue for people's reaction after the subway just came down on the back end of their car, what would be the reaction? Probably like a car barreling at them, donchathink?
I'd write more, but I feel a trip to the mall and stir up a group of shoppers. Macys is good for that.
Thank you for this wonderful step into the thinking of Sorkin! Great stuff!!💋

[ryanweaver]

Arts and beyond. The scope and values… process and real life intersections with arts.

[jfrancis]

Not sure if this will help you or not, but it certainly helped me. Remember that everyone is living under a shadow.

[mxjokereh]

This video is so great man, keep it up !

[ShutUpWesley]

Here I came, and I was so sure this would be another short useless Youtube video about writing, with no substance at all...

Man I was wrong.

Thank you, finally a video that was useful.❤❤❤