# Dialogue Writing

## Overview

Great dialogue serves multiple purposes: reveals character, advances plot, creates conflict, provides information, and establishes tone. It should sound natural while being more focused and purposeful than real speech.

## Core Principles

### Natural Speech Patterns
**Characteristics of Natural Dialogue**:
- Contractions and informal language
- Incomplete sentences and interruptions
- Pauses and hesitations
- Regional/cultural speech patterns
- Age-appropriate vocabulary

**Avoid**:
- Overly formal or literary language (unless character-specific)
- Perfect grammar in casual conversation
- Speeches or monologues (unless justified)
- Characters speaking in paragraphs

### Subtext
**Definition**: What's meant vs. what's said

**Techniques**:
- Indirect responses to questions
- Changing the subject
- Saying opposite of what's felt
- Avoiding the real issue
- Using metaphor or analogy

**Example**:
```
SARAH
How was your day?

JOHN
Fine.
(beat)
Yours?

SARAH
Great. Just great.
```
*Subtext: Both had terrible days but won't admit it*

### Character Voice
Each character should have distinctive speech patterns:

**Vocabulary**:
- Education level
- Profession/expertise
- Cultural background
- Generation

**Syntax**:
- Sentence length and complexity
- Formal vs. casual structure
- Use of slang or jargon

**Rhythm**:
- Fast-talking vs. deliberate
- Verbose vs. terse
- Poetic vs. blunt

## Dialogue Functions

### Reveal Character
- Personality traits
- Emotional state
- Background and history
- Relationships with others
- Internal conflicts

### Advance Plot
- Provide necessary information
- Create or resolve conflict
- Make decisions
- Reveal secrets
- Establish stakes

### Create Conflict
- Disagreements and arguments
- Hidden agendas
- Misunderstandings
- Power struggles
- Competing goals

### Establish Tone
- Comedy through wit and timing
- Drama through intensity
- Tension through what's unsaid
- Romance through intimacy

## Dialogue Techniques

### Show, Don't Tell
**Bad** (On-the-nose):
```
MARY
I'm so angry at you for lying to me!
```

**Good** (Subtext):
```
MARY
(cold)
I'm sure you had your reasons.
```

### Conflict and Tension
**Techniques**:
- Characters want different things
- Interruptions and talking over each other
- Avoiding direct answers
- Escalating stakes
- Time pressure

### Exposition
**Best Practices**:
- Disguise information in conflict
- Reveal through character's need to know
- Use dramatic irony (audience knows more than character)
- Spread information across multiple scenes
- Make exposition emotional, not just factual

**Bad Exposition**:
```
DETECTIVE
As you know, the victim was found at 3 AM
in the warehouse on Fifth Street with a
gunshot wound to the chest.
```

**Good Exposition**:
```
DETECTIVE
Fifth Street warehouse. 3 AM.

PARTNER
Same MO as the Johnson case?

DETECTIVE
(nods grimly)
Same gun. Same message.
```

### Rhythm and Pacing
**Fast Pace**:
- Short sentences
- Quick exchanges
- Interruptions
- Overlapping dialogue

**Slow Pace**:
- Longer speeches
- Pauses and silences
- Measured responses
- Descriptive language

### Silence and Pauses
**Uses**:
- Build tension
- Show emotional weight
- Allow reaction
- Create awkwardness
- Emphasize what follows

**Notation**:
- `(beat)` - brief pause
- `(long pause)` - extended silence
- `(silence)` - significant quiet moment

## Dialect and Accent

### Guidelines
**DO**:
- Suggest dialect through word choice and rhythm
- Use occasional distinctive phrases
- Maintain readability
- Research authentic speech patterns

**DON'T**:
- Write phonetic spellings extensively
- Use stereotypical or offensive patterns
- Make dialogue hard to read
- Overdo regional markers

**Example**:
```
GOOD:
BOBBY
Y'all want some sweet tea?

BAD:
BOBBY
Y'awl wawnt sum sweet tay?
```

## Common Dialogue Mistakes

### On-the-Nose Dialogue
Characters saying exactly what they feel/think without subtext.

### Exposition Dumps
Long speeches that exist only to inform audience.

### All Characters Sound the Same
Lack of distinctive voice for each character.

### Unnecessary Dialogue
Greetings, small talk, or information already shown visually.

### Overwriting
Too many words when fewer would be more powerful.

### Unnatural Formality
Characters speaking like they're reading from a book.

## Best Practices

### DO
✅ Read dialogue aloud to test naturalness
✅ Use contractions in casual speech
✅ Let characters interrupt and overlap
✅ Include subtext and hidden meanings
✅ Give each character distinctive voice
✅ Cut unnecessary words
✅ Use silence strategically
✅ Make every line serve multiple purposes

### DON'T
❌ Have characters explain things they both know
❌ Use dialogue for stage directions
❌ Write speeches when conversation works better
❌ Forget that people lie and hide feelings
❌ Make every character eloquent
❌ Include real-life filler ("um," "uh") excessively
❌ Use dialogue to describe what we can see

## Category-Specific Considerations

### Film
- Economy of words
- Visual storytelling reduces dialogue need
- Subtext over exposition

### Television
- Character voice consistency across episodes
- Catchphrases and recurring patterns
- Balance between episodic and serialized dialogue

### Web Content
- Punchy, quotable lines
- Faster pace
- Modern vernacular

### Commercials
- Every word counts
- Clear call-to-action
- Memorable phrases

