Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Voice-Over Narration

The Daily Dialogue theme next week: Voice-Over Narration.

“That was all there was to it.
Nothing had slipped, nothing had been overlooked.
There was nothing to give us away.
And yet, Keyes, as I was walking down the street to the drugstore,
suddenly, it came over me that everything would go wrong.
It sounds crazy Keyes, but it’s true, so help me,
I couldn’t hear my own footsteps.
It was the walk of a dead man.”

You have probably heard there is a rule about voice-over narration. Don’t use it! It’s a sign of weak writing! Script readers will immediately think you’re an amateur!

One thing is for sure: They will if you don’t use it well! The simple fact is: There is no rule against using this narrative device. In fact, some of the greatest movies of all time use voice-over narration including The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, Goodfellas, Forrest Gump, It’s a Wonderful Life, and on and on and on.

In fact, I blogged about precisely this subject here.

So let’s see if we can come up with some great examples of voice-over narration next week.

The usual drill:

* Copy/paste dialogue from IMDB Quotes or some other transcript source.

* Copy/paste the URL of an accompanying video from YouTube or some other video source.

I’d also ask you to think about why the dialogue is notable. Is there anything about the dialogue which provides some takeaway re screenwriting?

Here is our lineup for upcoming Daily Dialogue themes:

August 18-August 24: Smack Talk

August 25-August 31: Delivering Bad News

Check this out: The GITS Daily Dialogue Topic Index! You can read about Liz and Allie, two sisters who are big fans of the blog, and were inspired to create the index. A great resource for writers looking for inspiration for their own dialogue writing. You can be a part of this proud tradition with your ideas for weekly themes and Daily Dialogue suggestions.

Please post your ideas for this week’s theme — Voice-Over Narration — in comments. Thanks!

If you have any ideas for Daily Dialogue themes, feel free to post as well.

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