Writing Dialogue for Scripts

by Rib Davis

Writing Dialogue for Scripts deals with the media of stage, radio, television and film, giving a great deal of practical advice. This revised and updated edition also includes a number of examples of the most recent scripted dialogue. Chapters deal with how conversation works, naturalistic and stylised dialogue, pace and variation, scripted narration, comic dialogue and presentation. As well as highlighting the ways in which dialogue varies from one medium to another, this book shows how many of the skills of writing dialogue may in fact be applied to all the script media.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Drama

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Benjamin Bauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit pedantic, but Davis knows his stuff. There's a lot of useful kernels to be gleaned from this trim tome. If one grows impatient, they can also skip ahead to chapter 12, Reworking the Dialogue. It provides a succinct synthesis of many of the points he illustrates throughout the book, and is honestly a chapter I could see myself referring to several times when scripting.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, liked the fact that it was brief, that he uses dialogue from real plays, and found a reminder of many essential ideas in writing scripts. I like also the fact that Mr. Davis is brave enough to criticize Shakespeare, because the man (if there is only one person writing these plays) at times definitely needed an editor. Few producers stage Shakespeare's plays using the full script. Here's a quote: "The basic point is that conversational dialogue, unlike written dialogue, is a mess."

[Alison Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful book which uses worked examples.

[Scott Seeger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The one thing I got out of this book is that all dialogue should be action oriented. otherwise I didn't get much more.

[Lynn Neeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent source for anyone writing any dialogue.

[Belle Meade School]

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