The Final Rewrite

11 Aspects of Dialogue

DOI: 10.4324/9781003161578-12

The chapter explores extraneous artifacts of the original script, the need for clarity in selling a script, how too much exposition can dull the audience’s involvement, the redesign of dialogue to incorporate subtext, and dialogue strategies that writers can use from the beginning.

Dialogue and Subtext

Films are not novels. Long and flowery dialogue or highly expository dialogue generally doesn’t work well in movies. The dialogue in well-written scripts has a natural flow and simplicity throughout. A character’s dialogue generally does not go on for more than a couple of sentences before switching to a response from the other character.

Dialogue is the essence of screenwriting and supersedes ...