Dialogue

What is dialogue?

Through speeches and silence, what is spoken and deliberately unspoken, dialogue is the
action that characters do, expressing conflict of people working at cross-purposes.

A. Stage dialogue serves two main functions:

1. To reveal character
2. To advance the play’s action

B. Effective dialogue must serve many masters:

1. Express the play’s action and conflict

2. Bring the characters into sharp focus
3. Inform the audience of situation
4. Focus the audience’s imagination to the play’s theme
5. Communicate the play’s tone
6. Contribute to the play’s aesthetic appeal

If dialogue does not reveal character or advance plot, leave it out – it’s fluff.

(For all, show don’t tell.)

B. Theatrical dialogue versus life’s conversation.

1. Theatrical dialogue differs radically from life’s conversations, discussions and

chats.
2. Although you seek to evoke the flavor of the way people talk in real life so your
characters will appear real, you never replicate real-life chats, but construct their
dialogue to achieve dramatic tension and conflicts.

Techniques for Writing Dialogue

1. Ellipsis: The Unfinished Thought . . .

2. Contractions and Incomplete Sentences
3. Interruptions that Enliven Characterization –
4. Physical Action to Eliminate Words (Be alert to the physical contributions the
actors can make to express unspoken dialogue. You can use actor directions to
replace dialogue with physical action. Instead of writing a line that says, “yes, I
agree with you,” you write the actor direction (Nodding) and let the actor
communicate the information. “Do you want a drink from this bottle?” can
become (Holding the bottle up and looking inquiringly at him).
Variety and Contrast
Variety and contrast are important tools in many aspects of playwriting, and certainly in
writing dialogue.
1. Theatrical dialogue is enlivened by variety in length of sentences and speeches,
phrasing, word choice, incomplete phrases, ellipses, etc.

Structural emphasis:

1. A sentence has three areas of strength: the end, which is the strongest; the
beginning, second in strength; and the middle, the weakest part of the sentence.

The premise of structural emphasis is that the most significant concept, word,
phrase, or ideas is placed at the end of the sentence, the secondary concept is
placed a the beginning of the sentence, and the least important materials belong in
the middle.

Not all materials deserve emphasis.

(Go to pp. 140)

2. Placement of proper names in sentences and questions.

Placement of names at the end of sentences tends to weaken the speech. (p. 142)

C. Punctuation:

1. Don’t use semi-colons and colons.

2. Don’t italicize and bold letters