Go On Your Own Quest — Week 5: Dialogue
“The Quest” has entered Week 5! And so did Go On Your Own Quest, an opportunity for anyone to follow the structure of “The Quest” to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write a first draft [Pages — 10 weeks]. It’s a 24-week immersion in the screenwriting process and you can do it here — for free!
This week, we are reflecting on the subject of Dialogue, mirroring the content the Questers are engaged with in Core V: Dialogue. They are working through six lectures I have written building off the 5th Essential Screenwriting Principle: Dialogue = Purpose. The lectures cover Finding Your Character’s Voice (Inward Journey), Finding Your Character’s Voice (Outward Expression), Purpose Through Subtext, Subtext Through Silence, and Realistic Dialogue [Idioms, Slang, Contractions, Declination].
The late playwright August Wilson was once asked how he wrote such great dialogue. He answered, “I don’t. They do.” The ‘they’ in question? His characters. And that in my view is a key to writing dialogue — go into the characters and find their voice. If you can coax them into talking, you tap into authenticity, distinctiveness, and personality. Then you can shape the dialogue so that it serves the purpose of each scene.
For those of you who plan to Go On Your Own Quest, let’s begin this week long conversation about dialogue with this question:
* Do you ‘hear’ your characters ‘talking’ to you?
This week, you can do some serious reflection about the nature and importance of a dialogue. If members of the GITS community really engage in a wide-ranging conversation about the subject, there’s no telling what insight each individual can gain, perhaps even a critical key to unlocking your understanding of the subject.
I strongly encourage you to Go On Your Own Quest. First off, you can’t sell a script unless you write it. Second, you can’t get better as a writer unless you write. Third, if you don’t write that script now, when are you going to write it?
So consider this your very own Call To Adventure. Will you heed the call?
I will be teaching the 1-week online writing course Core V: Dialogue beginning September 24.
For background on “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” go here and here.
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