Ask the Expert ... Karl Iglesias - Writing Dialogue

Question:
I just got feedback from a script contest. Though it was mostly positive, I still got a PASS. One area I was told needed work was in my characters’ dialogue, specifically that they should have their “own voice.” The reader said all my characters sounded the same. I thought my dialogue was good enough to carry the story. Why should my characters sound different from each other, and how can accomplish this?

Answer:
Dialogue should do more than just reveal information and advance the plot. It should also reveal a character’s essence, their emotional states, beliefs, and attitudes about other characters and the world around them. Because every character is unique, their dialogue should sound unique as well, not like the writer’s voice, as is often the case in amateur scripts.

The area the reader focused on is a common dialogue feedback when all the characters sound alike—same speech pattern, same vocabulary, even the same cadence in their dialogue. In real life, and especially in screenplays, people speak differently from each other, not just in terms of dialect, but also in their rhythms, sophistication, verbal expressions, and word choice.

Individual dialogue also makes the characters stand out on the page when they have their own voice. This attracts actors who’ll eventually play your characters on screen. Remember, actors are the ones you want to impress in order to get a green light on your script, and actors look for unique characters to play. Dialogue is one of the main ways to impress them, other than the actions and choices they make in the story.

So how to you create individual dialogue for each of your characters? Try the following tricks of the trade:

Reveal a character’s attitudes and traits
Since no two people have exact experiences or physical attributes, no two characters in a script should view the world in the same way. What they say to others, and how they say it, defines their attitudes and values and shows the reader who they are. In fact, every line of dialogue is an opportunity to reveal personality and attitude. So you must know who your characters are. Once you know a character’s feelings on issues, his fears, hopes, and values, his dialogue will become more distinctive.

The trick is simple, though the execution must be creative:

Pick a trait or attitude, and “translate” it into dialogue, reflecting it through word choice or manner of speaking, under different contexts. For example, let’s say you have a character who is frugal and values saving money. You may reveal this trait when he says to his wife, “Hope you didn’t throw away the coupons,” or to the waiter at a restaurant, “Separate checks, please.” Not the best dialogue, but you get the idea. Here’s another great example of personality and attitude revealed through the dialogue of a fast-talking, obnoxious, and sexist traveling salesman in It Happened One Night (Robert Riskin):

Contrast emotional tempo
This is one of the most effective ways to individualize a character, while creating conflict within a scene. Tempo is a musical term, which means the speed of a melody. Here, it means the speed of a character’s dialogue, which conveys his emotion—fast evoking happiness, excitement, or anger; slow and pained evoking sorrow, for instance. And when you contrast emotional tempos—fast with slow, angry with calm, it highlights the emotions and makes the scene more interesting. Pick two contrasting emotions, and imagine how the characters’ speech tempo would sound.

Give a character a favorite expression
Another effective tool to individualize characters is to give each of them a favorite expression. When you hear how different people speak—a great exercise for all writers—you may notice that they have at least one speaking quirk, whether it’s a favorite phrase or slang buzzword. Giving a character a signature line, if you will, or tag line at the end of his sentences—such as “Know what I’m saying?” or “Okay?”—will differentiate him from other characters. Note how the following signature lines individualize the characters throughout a script: In Fargo (Anderson: “You bet.”) In Some Like It Hot (Osgood: Zowie!) In Swingers (Trent “You’re so money.” If you’re a fan of the TV show Lost, note how the Sawyer character always gives a nickname to the character he’s addressing, like “Freckles” when talking to Kate.

There are many other techniques you can apply to your dialogue to individualize your characters but any of these three should do the trick. Good luck!

Karl Iglesias is a screenwriter and sought-after script doctor and consultant, specializing in the reader’s emotional response to the written page. He is the best-selling author of Writing For Emotional Impact: Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader from Beginning to End and The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters. He teaches at the prestigious UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program and online at Writers University, among others.