Dialogue

[Chuck58]

The most difficult thing, and the easiest thing, is dialogue. Difficult because if you've got several characters you, or maybe I, don't want them all sounding the same. I try to vary my dialogue slightly for each person. Women speak slightly different than men. Man 1 might be better educated than Man2, etc.

One of them is going to talk like me, given that words transcribed to a page can't be the same as the spoken word. I don't speak this way in real life. I'm ungrammatical (due to being lazy), hesitate, often get halfway through a sentence and let the remainder go unsaid, things like that.

My script dialogue is usually grammatically as correct as I can make it while still being in the realm of dialogue, which isn't and I don't think is supposed to be prose. Neither is it human speech as humans normally speak.

And, again, I'm beginning to ramble so will shut up. Suffice to say, I love writing dialogue just for the challenge of trying to make each of my characters sound a bit different.

[ScriptNurse]

Remember ... if you write it right ... they'll say it right. Believe me, that's not quite as easy as it sounds. Make sure you're writing "reel" dialogue, not "real" dialogue.

[Jenafer]

Thank you.. this info has made me feel more confident.  I think in my quest to make 'neat' words upon the page that I lost the ease of good dialogue. I will forget perfection and settle for progress from now on..

Cheers, Jenny

[ScriptNurse]

This is especially the case in episodic television where getting the gist of what needs to be said is often all that's necessary. Often, it's because what an actor actually says is easier or more natural for him to say and sometimes actors just think they know better.

[Chuck58]

I've read a number of scripts, and actually have the tapes or CDs of some of them. I've also had extra roles in three or four movies. Being an extra and in the scene is amazing. In one movie, Silverado, a particular scene was reshot four times. All four times, the dialogue changed slightly. The action didn't but the dialogue was slightly modified from shot to shot.

I read the Silverado script later. What appeared on screen keeps the intent of the written dialogue but is quite a bit different.

[Jenafer]

I would appreciate a little more advice again. 

I feel the dialogue in the script we are writing is a bit wobbly in places.  Would the actors work with the dialogue for a better outcome here and there.. that is if the script gets accepted.

Just wondering how these things work..  thanking you for this time, Jenny