Dialogue...

[uncle_al]

My personal rule of thumb ... take out every unnecessary word possible and when it feels too terse ... it's probably about right.

I absolutely agree with Don... even if one of your characters is a Ph.D. professor of quantum physics, s/he would still probably have a few verbal "tics" which you can use, sparingly, as a character tool.

Cheers!
Al B.

[ScriptNurse]

My personal rule of thumb ... take out every unnecessary word possible and when it feels too terse ... it's probably about right.

[rnbrewer]

That makes a lot more sense the stuff I was reading about. It seems like all the books ever tell us is to just NOT do something without explaining the why and the how. Thanks a bunch, Don!

Ryan

[ScriptNurse]

First, script dialogue is more terse than the way we speak to our friends. This directness also gives the words said more impact.  The first rule is to remove all of the unnecessary clutter from the dialogue ... oh, well, I see.

Second, characters have a way of taking on a life of their own somewhere along the way in your story. Some use contractions and others simply don't.  Certain kinds of people speak with a certain stiffness or formality.

[rnbrewer]

I'm having a little bit of trouble with dialogue. I was doing a little bit of reading on the subject and the book said that all dialogue should sound natural, but no two characters should ever sound the same. The problem is that the book never cites any clear examples and when I read other scripts it's not quite clear to me what makes the dialogue different for each character.

So how does one accomplish this mystical feat? Are their any good examples out there?