SCREENWRITING HOW TO:

WRITING CONVINCING CHARACTERS AND DIALOGUE (PART ONE)

Screenwriting is lets face it incredibly competitive. The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting received over 7000 entries last year. The BBC received over 2000 in its short opening window this year and I can't even guess at how many unsolicited scripts from over eager but raw writers a studio like Warner Bro's received. Most of the time screenplays aren't even read especially if they're sent unsolicited. If one of your screenplays even gets looked at there's a sure fire way to tell how experienced and credible a writer you are:

Dialogue and Character

Yes of course the plot and theme are important, a bunch of very well crafted characters sat around talking is not going to make for a blockbuster movie (in most cases.) but I think it's safe to say that it would be easier to place those characters into a plot and story with the audience able to believe their behaviors and actions.

If you haven't thought your characters through properly then they will appear to behave without reason, lacking continuity and will talk with 'on-the-nose' dialogue. On-the-nose dialogue is when a character says exactly what they are thinking and feeling. It almost always looks and sounds amateur and doesn't reveal character in an interesting way, in fact it tends to be very boring and flat.

An example of on-the-nose dialogue:

DAKARAI and EMEKA stand on a ridge beneath the shade of a tree. They both stare out over the valley they can see the thick heavy smoke rising from what was once their home village.
DAKARAI: Are we going to stay here and do nothing?
EMEKA: We can't go, it would be too dangerous, something might happen to you.
DAKARAI: But people are dieing.
Dakarai tightens his fist.
DAKARAI: I feel so frustrated and angry we can't do anything.

So as you can tell its not too interesting, it really leaves nothing to be discovered or interpreted by the viewer. We know from this dialogue everything about Dakarai's feelings and his motivation but how dull. Here's a version that uses subtext, it doesn't explain everything but I hope it is more dynamic and interesting. The character's show they're feelings and they don't explain them, it's up to us as a reader or an audience to interpret them.

DAKARAI and EMEKA stand on a ridge beneath the shade of a tree. A small herd of goats feed behind them. They both stare out over the valley they can see the thick heavy smoke rising from what was once their home village.
DAKARAI: When do we leave?
EMEKA: They didn't want us there Dakarai.
DAKARAI: They're dieing.
Dakarai tightens his fist. Emeka places a calming hand on Dakarai's shoulder, he looks around to him.
EMEKA: Come, we have much to do.
DAKARAI: It can wait.
Emeka walks away to tend to the goats. Dakarai looks back out over the valley. Another fire elsewhere in the valley has begun it too floods the horizon with thick black smoke.

Being able to write dialogue that uses subtext and shows character requires planning, you need to know your characters, what motivates them and how they would react to most situations. There are many books and websites out there that encourage you to create full biographies with information about a characters childhood, their school experience, their first date, favorite music and colour etc. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be worth knowing but I'm not certain it's all necessary especially if you never intend for music to be an important plot point.

I've found several ways that make a lot more sense and are far more accessible than trawling through pages of biography. The method I'm going to explain was one I found in the book 'Creating emotion in games' by David Freeman. So yes its a book about game design and writing for interactive media but Freeman really knows his stuff and a lot of his techniques can be adapted to screenwriting. He talks a lot about an approach he created called 'Emotioneering'. This book is well worth reading and I can't recommend it enough. Also check out Freeman's website here: http://www.freemangames.com/idea/.

So how do you improve your dialogue and characterization? Using two new tools a free PDF character diamond form and a PDF character dynamics layer chart. Jump over to part two to download the templates for free and an explanation of how to use them properly.