making dialogue flow

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Phileas

Member
i am happy with the characters i think up, but i often get stuck when it comes to dialogue. i also find that a lot of what i write initially sounds corny when i look back over it later. i'm not well practiced so that is certainly an issue. but i'm wondering, what should i do to get dialogue flowing between characters?
 
any old ideas are welcomed! do you just go for it off the cuff? do you think about their character traits in advance and drive the dialogue accordingly, or do you discover as you write? i'm looking for hints, tricks, etc that can help me break out the rut!

cheers,
 
I'm not the best at this stuff, but maybe have traits, and a descriptions for your characters. Give them personality. Maybe your lead is really nice, and out going. If she is, then her dialog could be something like, "Hey! Your hair looks so nice today Suzie! How's your mom doing?" Or you could have a grumpy character, or a shy character. If you have a shy character, then there not going to have a lot of dialog. Look at any movie and look at the character. Jim Carry is hilarious, so he talks a lot, speaks loud, quick, cracks thousands of jokes, and that's why is character is brilliant in literally every movie he has made (except for the number 23)
Like I said, I don't know much about this stuff, for I like to Direct/Film/Edit. I'm not a fan of writing, but thats my two cents.
 
I don't worry about the dialogue at first. My first draft is usually just a straightforward expansion of what I have written in the scene outline or treatment. The dialogue exists, but only in that it helps tell the story.

All of the real character comes through revision. The flow comes through revising the dialogue until it sounds the best I can possibly make it sound.
 
I'm no expert, but here's my 2 cents:

Normally, when a story comes to me, I just write like I think the character would talk. I don't formally write up a mini bio of each character or anything.

Now, granted the dialogue doesn't come out perfect the first time...but what I like to do is have the actors during rehearsals kinda get into character and adjust the dialog to be more natural and flowing for them, as long it retains the meaning, tone and intent originally conceived.

I know what you mean about some stuff sounding corny initially...and having the actors go through this process with me helps to get rid of that, and come up with more natural, flowing dialogue.

I think. :-)
 
I swore off posting here, but I can't ignore this...

There is alot of debate about dialogue; how to do it, what sounds good, what is bad, what is crisp, what is hackneyed... Everyone is full of crap. Needs and wants makes dialogue "good". Don't write or revise or anything like that... go to a restaurant, or subway, or school, or even a place like Starsucks or something like that and listen. I don't care about what others might say, but there is no such thing as good dialogue, how can you judge a persons conversation with another person? I mean, "that was a real good retort, Francis, and your joke about the Priest and the cleaning lady was terrific-"
Come on.
Is there need in your conversations, huh?
Are there subtle little advances and retreats in order to fulfill a want?
Are people giving instructions, or telling stories like they are authorities, masters of whatever, or does it sound like they are reading a technical manual on computer networking?
Is there truly a feeling of superiority and a need to control and conquer filling every word of your drill instructor?
Is there an asinine overconfidence in your nobody director/forum member's comments even though their work is insipid and a neolithic exercise in banality

Character drives dialogue, reactions drive dialogue, no reactions drive dialogue, pretending to know what everyone is talking about drives it, not caring what anyone is talking about drives it... and the realism comes with the realization that most conversations are between two boring *ssholes who spend way too much time talking about good times, or complaining about bad times rather than doing something else.

Natural Dialogue.
That's where you want to go.
 
pharpsied said:
go to a restaurant, or subway, or school, or even a place like Starsucks or something like that and listen. Natural Dialogue.
That's where you want to go.
Click to expand...

well, that's merely a matter of taste. you've just presented your own particular favourite style as 'where you want to go.' it's basically like saying 'all handheld shots is the way you want to go.'

i think perhaps the real question phileas needs to be asking himself is what style does he want to work in? naturalist? stylised?

what format? film? television?

consider the variety of different styles in your typical popular sitcoms. scrubs, malcolm in the middle: highly stylised, finessed to the nth degree. no one talks that way in real life. but it gives the show its pacy, hyper-real feel.
curb your enthusiasm: improvised, naturalistic. apart from some melodramatic flourishes, it pretty much sounds like how normal people converse.
arrested development: kind of a hybrid. michael bluth for example tends to a naturalistic style whereas characters like gob, buster, lucille etc. have their own unique idioms.

i used to think the naturalist style was somehow superior, probably because traditionally cinema has favoured a heavily stylised form (which reflects its roots in theatre) that nowadays comes across as fake and cheesy.

but since discovering masterpieces like withnail & i i've come to appreciate the heavily cultivated script, no matter how unnatural it might be. when done well its up there with shakespeare. of course it's co-dependent on the actors' performances. (read the script here).

so i guess phileas my advice is find your 'voice' ie. style first, then work from there.
 
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"Heavily cultivated..." I LOVE that description. Specifically because performance dialogue is not natural. It is there to serve a purpose (drive the story forward); otherwise you have a documentary. And if someone wants a sample of 'heavily cultivated', watch a Mamet play or film.
 
Right or wrong, I base my characters on people, or even even characters in other movies. You know this guy is basically decent at heart, but a little sleazy , and I think about so and so from another movie, how he would act and talk. I'm not talking about stealing another character, just borrowing character traits, maybe his flaws too. Or I picture this friend, and what he would do in the unlikely event that naked women should arrive from Mars. Work with what you know, instead of trying to fake what you don't.
 
Capt Quirk said:
Right or wrong, I base my characters on people, or even even characters in other movies. You know this guy is basically decent at heart, but a little sleazy , and I think about so and so from another movie, how he would act and talk. I'm not talking about stealing another character, just borrowing character traits, maybe his flaws too. Or I picture this friend, and what he would do in the unlikely event that naked women should arrive from Mars. Work with what you know, instead of trying to fake what you don't.
Click to expand...

Definitely. After a while I find the character develops their own voice.
 
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