Speak to Me: Dialogue

All stories are character-driven. I challenge you to find a single story that doesn't have a subject. There can be no game without players, no war without soldiers, and no Bible without Jesus, and in every story containing characters, somebody's gotta talk.

The trick to writing successful, not-flat characters is to make sure they're real to you, their creator. If you can't imagine a flesh-and-blood representation of your character, your readers won't be able to either. Find your muse and let them guide your hand. When writing a character, even if you can't foresee your text being performed in Hollywood, you have to envision a person who is actually speaking to you. Reject "writing what you know"; base your protagonist on Tom Cruise if that's what your muse tells you to do.

Write all dialogue as if it was a part of a script. Even if you don't intend on publishing your piece, it doesn't hurt to have a dream cast planned. Many scenes and songs for the character of Glinda from the musical Wicked were written with her actress Kristin Chenoweth in mind. Such was also the case with the character Mo from Inkheart; Brendan Fraser was who the author pictured for the part long before the book was adapted to film, and he even ended up recording the audiobook version of the novel. Allow yourself to have dreams for your own work. Thinking in terms of "that'll never happen, who are we kidding," suppresses your creative flow and keeps your piece from discovering its full potential.

Most authors will be tempted to only write characters who are parts of themselves, so be very careful when writing dialogue for a character you cannot completely relate to. The only times it is acceptable for a seven-year-old to speak with a seventy-year-old's vocabulary would be for horrific or comedic effect. Listen to how real people talk to one another. Look up the script to your favourite movie and read along the next time you watch it. Most importantly, pay attention to how you yourself interact with the people around you. How would the reader of your life interpret you as a character?

A Writer's Process: Tips in Scriptwriting from Quentin Tarantino

           

Quentin Tarantino

If you haven’t seen Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Django Unchained, you better get yourself on the next bus to the theatre and cough up the admission price because it is certainly worth every penny. It is a fantastic modern Western movie with a great mixture of action and humour. Quentin Tarantino has been writing movies for over twenty years now and every single one has been a grand slam. A hole in one. Whatever the hell you want to call them, they’re great films, all right? Go see them. Go see them all.

            In his earlier films like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino used a non-linear storyline to tell his stories and intrigue viewers. But, what he is best known for is his interesting use of dialogue among his diverse and fascinating characters. However, he almost feels like he is taking credit for something that isn’t even his.

            Tarantino has stated that when he writes dialogue, it isn’t him that’s talking and writing, it is his characters that are doing the talking and he is simply jotting their own ideas down. That is a very introspective thought. To write great dialogue, one must completely immerse one’s self into the characters that they are writing. That isn’t to say that you can’t include your own thoughts; Tarantino has said that his characters sometimes go off on tangents about random things like Madonna or Amsterdam, similar to his conversations in real life with his friends.

            Another important aspect of writing great scripts for Tarantino is to write it with pen and paper first. Every time he starts writing a new film, he goes out and buys a notebook and pens and knows that "this is the notebook I'm going to write Kill Bill on" or "this is the notebook that I'm going to write Inglourious Basterds on". I don’t know about anyone else, but I also find it personally rewarding to write on paper. It’s easier to get a flow going between characters when you are actually making it with something in your hand, not pressing buttons.

          At times, Tarantino is worried that his dialogue will become old hat, but to keep things fresh, he sometimes co-writes scripts with other writers and adapts novels, such as his collaboration with Robert Rodriguez on Grindhouse (Death Proof and Planet Terror) and his adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch, Jackie Brown.

              As a last little glimpse of his genius, here are two clips of the man himself sharing his views on writing a great script. He explains that when writing scripts, perhaps it is better to have an overabundance of ideas or scenes and dialogue and to simply cut some when actually piecing together the film (or play or any other sort of production).