Script writing?

Question

Whats an easy way to write dialog for a character. Mine seems to lack something and sounds a bit lame

Answer 1

Try taking a tape recorder with you somewhere there are people, bring it home and listen to how they interact. Notice accents, pauses, speed of speech,etc. Then try inventing your own characters. Write out a description of each character who you will have in your play. then think of how each person will speak and record that and remember withour getting their accents etc mixed up. Write a brief story line and begin to brain storm, write down all you ideas. From your draft, work out your plan and write.

Answer 2

This is, alas, almost too vague to answer. I will try to give you some helpful thoughts, but forgive me if they don't address your specific issues.

Many new writers feel that their dialogue is lame for the same reason many of us think anything we write is lame - we are harder on our own work than others are. I recomend you consider doing two things to try and address this.

First, have other read your dialogue out loud and give you feedback. It is worthwhile hearing an outside perspective, even if you don't agree with it in the end.

Second, put it away for a month and look at it again. Sometimes a waiting period allows you to get over the initial emotional attachment. I have written things that I hated at the time and then found them later and wondered, "hey, who wrote this? This is pretty good!"

As far as exciting dialogue v boring dialogue goes, this is sometimes a matter of personal preference. However, in so much as dialogue serves character and character serves plot, you might take a look at how your dialogue is furthering the plot. Sometimes (but not all the time), dialogue that doesn't serve some sort of plot or character purpose can come across as pointless.

Hope this helps and best of luck!