3 Ways to Dramatically Improve Your Script’s Dialogue (pt. 1)
Writing a screenplay is not about dialogue.
Dialogue should be the last thing added to a script—layered on top of a solid foundation of structure and character.
In a scene what’s important is what both characters want and how they go about achieving it, regardless of dialogue.
So, with that in mind, below are three great tips to make your screenplay’s dialogue that much more professional:
1. Look at Your Page Shapes
Novice writers tend to write T-shaped pages—a few lines of description and then fill the rest of the page with dialogue. Professional writers break up their dialogue with action lines.
Two characters will exchange some words and then someone does something or reacts a certain way—the dialogue is broken by an action line, often revealing an emotion.
Film is all about constant visual activity. The viewer soon becomes restless with line after line of dialogue and no action.
2. Stick to Three Lines or Less
Try to never write more than two or three lines of dialogue per character.
Read professional scripts and watch films, paying particular attention to how much each character says at once. It’s really not much at all.
Then, ruthlessly edit your own script’s dialogue. There is no time for small talk unless there is also subtext. Every line should advance the plot, characters and hopefully the theme.
(The exception to the rule is during a showdown scene if one character needs to give a mini speech.)
3. Remove All Parentheticals
That’s right, get rid of ‘em. There’s nothing an actor hates more when reading a script than being told how to act—when to pause, when to turn, where to look etc.
Maybe a handful of parentheticals are okay per script, but that’s all. Only use when absolutely necessary, (say when the dialogue completely contradicts an action) as too many makes a script look amateurish.
Go through your script right now and remove all instances of “beats” “looks” “turns” etc. in parentheticals. Give the actor a chance to breathe with the material and put their own spin on events.
The same goes for underlining and capitalizing in order to put emphasis on certain words. Take them out. Leave it to the actor.
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We’ll be back soon in another post with more ways to improve your screenplay’s dialogue!
For a full diagnosis of the dialogue in your script, why not check out our screenplay coverage services?
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