Dialogue DOs and DON’TS

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dialogue, Film, novel, storytelling, Television, writers life, Writing, writing dialogue, writing tips

 

Some quick tips on writing dialogue.

I’m traveling this week and next for a writing conference so these are shorter posts.

Please tune into my new YouTube channel HERE because I will be talking about dialogue in several videos I am recording now. As well, I am launching my Who Said That? Dialogue course this fall.

What questions do you have about writing dialogue?

POST here in the comments or email me stephanie@judaniebean.com

find me on social media.

I’d LOVE to hear from you and chat about talking in movies, books, TV, plays!!!

xo Stephanie

 

Writing Goals for the Week?

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dialogue, Film, goals, novel, Story, story concierge, storytelling, Television, TV writing, writers life, Writing, writing community, writing dialogue, writing goals, writing tips

 

Happy first day of the new week—because yesterday was a holiday—I hope you did something fun.

My husband and I went to see the new Ryan Reynolds movie—Detective Pikachu and while we totally enjoyed it, I found myself wondering why I didn’t really care about the characters, especially the main character.

Did you see it? What did you think?

We also watched all of DEAD TO ME—and that was brilliant in every way.

The characters were so well developed. There was no telling-everything we found out we did in the right way-they ever used flashbacks effectively. Every episode ended with what I call a page turner (even in TV shows)—it made us binge instead of waiting for the next day. The dialogue was all perfect.

***THIS IS A SHOW TO WATCH TO LEARN craft of storytelling. I can’t recommend it enough.

***Warning if the F word offends you, then it’s probably not the show for you though.

Have you seen it?

So, I’m a day late in posting my goal post for the week-which usually I put out on Mondays. But, since I took most of the day off to recharge I figured that a lot of you did as well.

Now, it’s time to write down those goals!!!

Happy writing!!!

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XO Stephanie

Tips for Tuesday–DIALOGUE TAGS

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dialogue, fiction, Film, Films, Novels, Story, Television, writers life, Writing, writing dialogue

Dialogue tags continue to stump many writers, new and experienced.

I’m not sure why this is, maybe it’s because we as writers feel the overwhelming need to paint a detailed picture. We want the reader to not miss even for a second what we mean—right?

She said angrily. She yelled with the noise of thunder. He howled like a wolf. –these are not needed.

My rule of thumb is when in doubt use SAID.

***The way a character speaks is so uniquely them that it should be obvious who is speaking but sometimes it’s not, so fine–use he said, she said, they said..

Don’t over think it.

In preparing for this blog, I found this article that does a great job of further explaining what I mean.

I have posted the link below. I hope you like it and I hope that it helps!

https://www.novel-writing-help.com/dialogue-tags.html

An exercise: tell your friend, spouse, neighbor, anyone a story about a conversation you had with someone else, do you ever overly describe the way they said it? HINT–you don’t. People don’t. Go do this and you’ll see what I mean.

If you do. If you are the type who uses adjectives to describe the way someone spoke–well that just might be YOU and the way you as a character speaks, but in books it pulls readers out. In screenplays and teleplays, it confuses the actors–or they will follow exactly instead of doing what comes naturally. I would say in scripts—NEVER qualify ever. Scripts don’t need tags.

Tip for Tuesday–DIALOGUE-Be UNIQUE

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dialogue, fiction, Film, Films, Novels, Story, Television, Writing, writing dialogue

I’m traveling to the Iceland Writers Retreat this week so this will be short but to the point.

Dialogue is so important in showing us who the character is. This is true for all writing. Screenplays and teleplays and stage plays rely so heavily on the way characters speak and what they say that it’s even more important to nail it.

This doesn’t mean being overly clever, it means being UNIQUE.

One example that I LOVE is the show, the GILMORE GIRLS. They have a very unique way of speaking. It’s very specific and so much that other characters in the show comment on the way that Rory and Lorelai speak. Watch it. You’ll love it, or hate it, either way, you will see what I mean.

Other shows that have GREAT & UNIQUE DIALOGUE ARE:

FRIENDS

THE BIG BANG THEORY (especially Sheldon)

FELICITY

GREY’S ANATOMY

Homework this week is to watch tons of TV and write down the names of shows that you love or hate because of the way they speak. Why do you feel that way?

Writing Tip for Tuesday! DIALOGUE

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creative consulting, dialogue, Film, judanie bean, Novels, story concierge, Television, who said that, Writing, writing dialogue, writing tips

 

How people speak is the one thing that I find writers struggle with the most.

I’m not sure why this happens, my guess is that people are focusing on trying to be a good writer instead of focusing on why the characters are saying what they are saying.

I’m here to help with that because I have so much experience reading scripts for the studios for both TV & film, as well as working one on one with writers for the last 12 years.

Maybe it’s because I talk too much—my mom used to sing me that song from the 50s–YOU TALK TOO MUCH—lol It used to hurt my feelings a little but now I embrace it. I’m a talker. I love words so much and I always have something to say—it’s who I am. If I was a character in a show or book or movie—she would talk a lot.

I’m like the real like Lorelai Gilmore and often have wondered if Amy Sherman-Palladino was sitting behind me sometime in Los Angeles and was like “I have a character now” haha I also love SNOW and COFFEE! ….okay, really joking around.. but I am a lot like that character. 

So talking is kind of my thing.

I love dialogue driven scripts, books and films, if they are done well.

Today’s TIP is to resist the urge to write in perfect grammar when your characters are speaking. I know that sounds obvious but you have no idea how many times I see this when going over other writers work. It’s like as a writer people are afraid to not write perfectly. Be careful though we do not speak in perfect grammar ever in real life so in stories your characters won’t either.

HOMEWORK—watch a show you LOVE and write down the dialogue as the characters are speaking–you will see what I mean.

HAPPY WRITING!!! 

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