Writing Compelling Dialogue for Film and TV: The Art & Craft of Raising Your Voice on Screen

Description

Writing Compelling Dialogue for Film and TV is a practical guide that provides you, the screenwriter, with a clear set of exercises, tools, and methods to raise your ability to hear and discern conversation at a more complex level, in turn allowing you to create better, more nuanced, complex and compelling dialogue. The process of understanding dialogue writing begins with increasing writers’ awareness of what they hear. This book provides writers with an assortment of dialogue and language tools, techniques, and exercises and teaches them how to perceive and understand the function, intent and thematic/psychological elements that dialogue can convey about character, tone, and story. Text, subtext, voice, conflict, exposition, rhythm and style are among the many aspects covered. This book reminds us of the sheer joy of great dialogue and will change and enhance the way writers hear, listen to, and write dialogue, and along the way aid the writers’ confidence in their own voice allowing them to become more proficient writers of dialogue. Written by veteran screenwriter, playwright, and screenwriting professor Loren-Paul Caplin, Writing Compelling Dialogue is an invaluable writing tool for any aspiring screenwriter who wants to improve their ability to write dialogue for film and television, as well as students, professionals, and educators. Contents Acknowledgments Fade in: Introduction Part One: On dialogue 1 Understanding dialogue 2 Illuminating character through dialogue 3 Types of dialogue 4 Voice-overs and narrations 5 Platforms Part Two: Tool kits for improving your dialogue 6 Tool kit – Writing dialogue 7 Tool kit – Specificity 8 Tool kit – Writing singular characters 9 Tool kit – Naturalistic dialogue, themes, and exposition problems Part Three: Exercises for better hearing and voicing your characters 10 Accessing character and application 11 Better hearing 12 Voice exercises Index