Character Dialogue

One of the all time masters of writing outstanding character dialogue is the unique Quentin Tarantino! There are few that can create scenes where the characters dialogue is completely effortless and seem like a conversation you would hear in your everyday life, take the car scene at the beginning of "Pulp Fiction" between Vince (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) for example. The two are conversating about everyday topics (you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?) without the audience knowing anything about them until they finally reach their destination and pull out their guns. Tarantino has masterd the art of setting up his scenes with rich character driven scenes. This allows us to build a relationship with the characters before he drops the bomb on us with the next scene, whether it be a shoot out or drug overdose!

Jason Platt, a independent film and theatre writer had this to say about writing character dialogue, "Whether you're writing for film or the stage one of the single hardest things is making sure that your dialogue doesn't sound scripted, you want whatever your characters are saying to sound natural." One of the most important keys to remember when writing good character dialogue is to not force anything. If you're writing lines that do not seem to fit with your characters then go back and evalute what you wrote and find what didn't work, then rewrite it! Let the characters be the driving force behind the direction of your dialogue.