THE STORY VAULT BLOG

WRITING MEMORABLE DIALOGUE

I often see posts from writers who are struggling with writing good dialogue. They complain that their dialogue is flat or dull. Other writers are quick to give advice like:

eavesdrop on people in a cafes/restaurants and record conversations and transcribe them later to get a feel for what natural dialogue sounds like
employ subtext because people never say what they really mean
Write a maximum of 10 words per sentence and a maximum of 3 sentences per character per time.
Write a character outline detailing everything from “what your character eats for breakfast” to “their favourite colour and sports team”
Watch “x, y and z” and learn from those writers.

When I first began writing I followed all of this advice and still often found myself feeling blocked — not knowing what my characters should say or how they should say it…but only for some characters. What differentiated characters for whom the dialogue flowed effortlessly and those who were determined to remain mute or at least uncooperative?

It’s just one thing: writing dialogue for characters I knew well was effortless. If I was struggling with dialogue it was almost always because I didn’t have a good grasp of the character or the character was dull.

Good dialogue comes from character. And the more interesting the character, the better the dialogue.

The more advanced advice one hears is that in every scene each character should have in mind something they want. They should have a purpose. However, a writer should not even have to think about this. If you know your character you already know what they want at any given moment in any given situation. This isn’t something you have to plot out, you just instinctively know it.

In “Moorland” there is in particular one scene with Leticia, Caleb and Ethan where the dialogue flowed uninterrupted from my mind to the page, by which I mean it took me about as long to write as it would take you to read it. Why did it come so easily? Again, because I know my characters. Caleb wants revenge against the zombies, Leticia just wants a normal (or more normal) life, and Ethan wants to be a peacemaker between the two. Three characters, three different wants or objectives. The conflict naturally resonates from there. I don’t have to sit down and think “What is the objective/purpose of this scene? What does each character want? How am I going to inject conflict into the scene?”

You can probably predetermine how a family member or close friend would react in a given situation. Would they be calm, aggressive, stoic, hot-tempered, indecisive, confused, happy, avoidant? Would they try to laugh it off? You probably have a pretty good idea. A writer should know his or her characters just as well.

How do you get to know your characters? First, you should inhabit your characters, like an actor does.

Second, you should understand the one thing that drives your character, the one thing that is most important to him or her. It might be loyalty, liberty, wealth, status, family, career, health, honour, belonging, integrity. “You want answers?” “I want the truth!” “You can’t handle the truth!” Memorable dialogue. Where does it come from? It comes from a writer who knows his characters, who knows what’s important to them.

Third, and this relates to the second point, know your characters greatest fear. If you know what your character runs toward and what he or she runs from you will understand their motivation.

Now let’s examine those 5 pieces of advice I mentioned earlier.

Naturalistic dialogue is whatever dialogue is natural for your character.
People mostly say what they mean most of the time. If we all spoke in subtext all the time communication would be impossible. That said, there should be more spoken subtext in a screenplay than there is in real life - because there really isn't that much in real life. The idea that people rarely say what they mean is one of those myths that has been adopted simply because it's been repeated so often - like the idea that you need to drink eight glasses of water each day.
Use as many or as few words as are needed to advance your story. No more, no less.
Your character’s breakfast choice or favourite colour doesn’t reveal anything meaningful about them. The things that motivate their behaviour is what you should focus your attention on.
Find your own voice…and the voices of your characters.

Great dialogue comes from great characters. Rick in “Casablanca,” Sidney Poitier in “The Heat of the Night,” Vincent and Jules in “Pulp Fiction,” Juno in “Juno,” Captain Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The next time you read a script with flat dialogue take a look at the characters. Does anything stand out about them? If not, there’s the source of the problem.

Great characters aren’t only the source of great dialogue, they create tension, conflict and drive the story. They are the heart of memorable films.