Dialogue techniques--Guaranteed to improve your script

kylekmd

kylekmd

Well-known member
An e-mail came in today asking about dialogue: "Are there any good books out there on writing dialogue?"

Over the past few years, I've come across two good resources on dialogue writing/techniques:

1. Karl Iglesias' book and DVD--Writing for Emotional Impact (book, $21.95) and Crafting Fresh Dialogue (DVD, $9.95)

www.writersstore.com/product.php?products_id=2983
www.writersstore.com/product.php?products_id=2870

AND

2. Great Dialogue Software ($19.95)--I'll say it again... I've always hated software programs for writing. But this one is an exception. The techniques section alone is worth the price. Hands down, it's the most extensive collection anywhere, replete with examples from great movies, sitcoms, classic literature, etc. I printed them out, put them in a binder, studied them. The software's very easy to use. You look at the examples, then apply the technique to your specific scenes and voila... Snappy, fresh, dialogue! Or, you can perform searches based on topic to view hundreds of other examples. I have no doubt that your screenwriting will improve using this software.

www.greatdialogue.com
 
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Hi Kyle, I have Karl's DVD on Fresh Dialogue you listed above, & it's pretty good; helps me to see dialogue improvement opportunities and use em.

I was wondering if you could provide a few small samples from the software. I'm curious about what exactly it delivers. Sounds great, I'm just having a hard time imagining what's there.

thanks!
 
Here's a screenshot of the techniques page. Each one has numerous examples.

http://www.greatdialogue.com/See_Demo_4.htm

I would say that the software is better than Karl's DVD. It has way more techniques--101 with many examples of each. Check out the demo. It doesn't do it justice, though. I will say that the techniques section is great. You can review a category and the examples given, then modify one of examples--using your character's own voice and agenda--to freshen up your specific scene. It's kind of hard to describe. Check out the website, do an internet search for a review. (There's one on www.scriptnurse.com).
 
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i'm in disagreement w/ OP.

i believe you can either write dialogue, or you can't. you can get better at it. no book or person can tell you that "x+y=good dialogue", there are no formulas or guidelines that one could follow to achieve this.

don't waste your money or your time. practice instead.

--in my opinion
 
A lot of gurus say the same thing: "You can't teach dialogue."

But you absolutely can learn how to write dialogue better. I recently looked at a screenplay I wrote in 1997; it quickly became clear how much my dialogue has improved. I sucked back then because I didn't know much about it--how it functioned, what it was supposed to accomplish.

Now I write dialogue from agenda (and values). Before I did not. And there's a world of difference between my dialogue writing skill today and that of 1997. If you don't have the tools (and don't know they exist), the chances of creating a solid, effective product are slim to none. Karl teaches tools, so does the software.

They both show EXAMPLES from the Masters (Paddy Chayefsky, Billy Wilder, David Mamet, the Cohen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Towne, Alan Sorkin, Shane Black, James Brooks, Woody Allen, Kevin Smith, etc), not formulas (x+y=good dialogue). And many of us learn best by example.

Just MHO.
 
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I'm going to agree with Kyle, you can 'hone' in your skills, like drawing, not everyone can draw well, but everyone can learn the basics of drawing and take it from there. Think of words no different than art, you can learn to arrange them, and in time, you get better and better.

Practice comes first.
 
Charli said:
I'm going to agree with Kyle, you can 'hone' in your skills, like drawing, not everyone can draw well, but everyone can learn the basics of drawing and take it from there. Think of words no different than art, you can learn to arrange them, and in time, you get better and better. Practice comes first.
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One analogy from the visual arts: Raphael Sanzio is one of the greatest painters ever. I have seen some of his early drawings-- not very good. He said so himself. But he vowed to get better. How? He studied people, went and studied the anatomy of corpses, cadavers, a bit like writers studying dialog and such. And Raphael got better, lots better. Genius has been said to be over rated, some say it is 90% plain hard work and persistence and study.
 
I agree, guys.

The reason I posted these resources is to let people know where they can find a collection of great dialogue examples ALL IN ONE PLACE.

Of course, you can always collect them yourself, but why waste the time when others have done it already and both products are relatively inexpensive. That's all.
 
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Kyle I appreciate your letting us know of that resource. I plan to download that software later today, looks like an inexpensive resource. Dialog is hard. Not sure if this software has it, but one resource pertaining to dialog I would like to see is something with examples and guidance on writing dialog to fit people of different backgrounds, dialects, professions, education, and such. Of course one can pick this up to some extent from observation, but only if exposed to all such speech patterns.

kylekmd said:
I agree, guys. The reason I posted these resources is to let people know where they can find a collection of great dialogue examples ALL IN ONE PLACE.
Click to expand...
 
dialogue

dialogue

Remember dialogue is not real speech. Real speech is boring. Dialogue should be 80% attitude.
 
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