Dialogue-Writing Exercises [2015]

Here are prompts for the 1st annual GITS Dialogue-Writing Challenge. Use these to improve your dialogue writing chops.

A character learns s/he has a terminal illness

A character tries to communicate something important to someone who speaks very little English

A character uses their smartphone voice memo.

A character uses voice-over narration in a scene

A conversation involving texting

A ‘conversation’ one character has with someone buried in a grave

A drunken tirade

A new member of a support group reluctantly introduces him/herself… and their addictions

A one-sided telephone conversation in which a character has an argument with a person on the other end of the phone

A prayer

A scene built around the line “You need to get out”

A scene in which characters can say no more than five words per side

A scene with a psychiatrist and a client

After receiving disturbing personal news, a character has to deal with a demanding customer

An argument where no one actually gets to finish a sentence

An argument with an inanimate object

Someone applying for a job

Two characters flirt at a drive-thru window

Two characters say goodbye to each other for good

Two children, one of whom just found out her father is leaving her mother