One of the secrets that all great screenwriters understand is how to direct through punctuation. Direct without directing. Instead of camera angles and the royal “We,” force your reader to see the movie you want them to see by using the tools at your disposal: punctuation and grammar. Write your movie the way it should … More Directing through Punctuation, Part 1.
Dialogue: No Words… When writing a screenplay, dialogue is the most fun to write. It’s also the most difficult thing to get right. If you’re struggling to improve your dialogue skills, here are a few potholes you should be sure to avoid. Make your audience work. The entire point of a screenplay is to cause … More 7 Tips for Writing Dialogue
Don’t spoon-feed the audience. Don’t give your readers the answers, make them work for it. Rather than your characters stating their reasons and conclusions, let your readers figure out the subtext on their own. Don’t pad the work. Avoid meaningless words. There’s no need for “throat clearers” like: “Well…,” “Um,” “Er;” or questions like “What?” … More 7 Mistakes To Avoid When Writing Dialogue
We’ve spent a lot of time this month talking about narrative. Let’s take a moment to review the other half of the writing in your script: Dialogue. Here are some simple tips on how to create good dialogue and some common pitfalls to avoid while trying to give a believable and distinct voice to your … More Dialogue: Tips and Techniques
Only tell the reader what is being seen. When describing people, places and situations never tell the reader something that can’t be seen by a person sitting in the theater watching the movie unfold. Resist the urge to explain or provide exposition. Do not give us backstory or the inner monologue of any character. Do … More On Language in Scripts – Scenes and Narrative (Part 3)
Dialogue and description. Dialogue and description are the two functions the words in your script serve. How you choose to describe a scene and what you have your characters say are where your reader lives. They are the two elements that define the experience of your screenplay for the reader. Writing dialogue and description … More On Language in Scripts – Scenes and Narrative
What makes a Scene a Scene…? In my last blog, I defined a scene as a unit of story in which a character has a clear want that s/he either does or doesn’t get because of a conflict with another character, and the result of that conflict in some way advances the plot of your … More How to Write a Scene (Part 2)
There are lots of ways for dialogue to be less effective than it should be. Let’s examine a few: Show, Don’t Tell Characters in a scene are trying to resolve a problem. If you’ve done your job well, the audience is right there trying to solve the problem with the characters. Rather than spoon-feed your … More Dialogue: The Do, the Don’t and the Out Loud
A person cannot speak unless he or she has had a thought. A person does not have a thought unless he or she has a need. That is never more true than in all dramatic writing. Characters in a script speak because they want something. Another way to think of it: the average person speaks … More Dialogue: Subtext
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