How do I write screenplay dialogue?
- Screen dialogue is shorter than novel dialogue: most speeches run under three lines.
- Enter late, leave early is the standard rule for scene construction.
- Parentheticals should be rare and only when the line reads wrong without one.
- On-the-nose dialogue, where characters say exactly what they mean, is the most common weakness.
- Actors supply subtext; the script supplies the conflict underneath the words.
Screen dialogue works when every character wants something and none of them say it directly. Cut greetings and exposition, enter each scene as late as possible, and keep speeches short. Actors and directors supply half of what a novel's prose has to state, so leave them room rather than filling it.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Novelists writing their first script overwrite dialogue because prose taught them to carry the whole meaning in words. Screen dialogue is the visible tip of a scene whose real content is the conflict beneath it. A line that reads flat on the page can play devastatingly when an actor delivers it with something to hide.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A want for each character in the scene, including the silent one.
- Entry as late as possible: no hellos, no settling in.
- Speeches trimmed to three lines or fewer, with rare exceptions.
- Subtext: characters pursuing wants without naming them.
- Distinct rhythms, so names could be stripped and voices still identified.
- A read-aloud pass, ideally with other people speaking the parts.
Chapter iii·Example
A writer's confrontation scene opened with two pages of characters arriving and sitting down. Cutting to the moment one of them says the wrong name lost 90 seconds of screen time and gained the whole scene.
Chapter iv·Related questions
In WriteLoom
Three editors, in the order professionals use them
WriteLoom's Write studio keeps character voice notes beside the scene, so a distinct rhythm survives a long draft.
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