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Dialogue Secrets
What makes great dialogue? How can I make my characters each have a different and unique voice? A step-by-step guide to improve your screenplay's dialogue. How to remove bad dialogue (and what *is* bad dialogue), First Hand Dialogue, Awful Exposition, Realism, 50 Professional Dialogue Techniques you can use *today*, Subtext, Subtitles, Humor, Sizzling Banter, *Anti-Dialogue*, Speeches, and more. Almost 200 pages of tools you can use to make your dialogue sizzle! Special sections that use dialogue examples from movies as diverse as "Bringing Up Baby", "Psycho", "Double Indemnity", "Notorious", the Oscar nominated "You Can Count On Me", "His Girl Friday", and many more! Professional Screenwriter William C. Martell (19 produced films) shares professional dialogue techniques, showing you step-by-step how to write great dialogue for your screenplay.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
231 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 28, 2011
38 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
William C. Martell
34 books28 followersWilliam C. Martell has written nineteen produced films, including three HBO World Premiere movies: the Tom Clancy style techno-thriller STEEL SHARKS (filmed with full U.S. Navy cooperation) with Gary Busey, Billy Dee Williams, and Billy Warlock, the submarine thriller CRASH DIVE! starring Frederic Forrest, Catherine Bell, Chris Titus, and Michael Dudikoff (also with Navy cooperation), and the sci-fi actioner GRID RUNNERS starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Michael Dorn and Athena Massey (all three produced by Ashok Amritraj, producer of the Bruce Willis Comedy BANDITS and the Steve Martin - Queen Latifah comedy BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE.)
His two Showtime Films include BLACK THUNDER, about a stolen stealth fighter plane, starring Michael Dudikoff and Richard Norton and a sci-fi film (both produced by Andrew Stevens, producer of Jack Nicholson's THE PLEDGE and the Bruce Willis-Matthew Perry film THE WHOLE 9 YARDS and its sequel). He has written a couple of CineMax Premieres like action-thriller TREACHEROUS which stars Tia Carrere, C. Thomas Howell, and Adam Baldwin (from 20th Century Fox), the martial arts vampire flick NIGHT HUNTER and military action flick THE BASE (starring Mark Dacascos), plus a USA Network thriller.
His noir thriller HARD EVIDENCE (starring Gregory Harrison and Joan Severance - from Warner Bros.) was "video pick of the week" in over two dozen newspapers, was a Blockbuster featured new release, and beat the Julia Roberts film "Something To Talk About" in video rentals when both debuted the same week.
He is the West Coast Editor of Scr(i)pt Magazine (the largest circulation screenwriting magazine in the world) where he has written the "Independents" screenwriting column for over a decade, a contributor to Writer's Digest Magazine and a past columnist for The Hollywood Scriptwriter Magazine. He was Entertainment News Editor for Dean (INDEPENDENCE DAY) Devlin's Eon Magazine, wrote the Screenwriting 101 column for the Independent Film Channel Magazine, and was the only non-nominated screenwriter mentioned on "Siskel & Ebert's If We Picked The Winners" Oscar show in 1997. He is a frequent contributor to Ebert's Movie Answer Man syndicated column and Ebert's annual Year In Film books. He was on the jury of the Raindance Film Festival (London) in 2001 (with director Mike Figgis and actress Saffron Burrows) and again in 2004 (with actor Lennie James and director Edgar Wright) and just returned from 2009 "jury duty".
His two Showtime Films include BLACK THUNDER, about a stolen stealth fighter plane, starring Michael Dudikoff and Richard Norton and a sci-fi film (both produced by Andrew Stevens, producer of Jack Nicholson's THE PLEDGE and the Bruce Willis-Matthew Perry film THE WHOLE 9 YARDS and its sequel). He has written a couple of CineMax Premieres like action-thriller TREACHEROUS which stars Tia Carrere, C. Thomas Howell, and Adam Baldwin (from 20th Century Fox), the martial arts vampire flick NIGHT HUNTER and military action flick THE BASE (starring Mark Dacascos), plus a USA Network thriller.
His noir thriller HARD EVIDENCE (starring Gregory Harrison and Joan Severance - from Warner Bros.) was "video pick of the week" in over two dozen newspapers, was a Blockbuster featured new release, and beat the Julia Roberts film "Something To Talk About" in video rentals when both debuted the same week.
He is the West Coast Editor of Scr(i)pt Magazine (the largest circulation screenwriting magazine in the world) where he has written the "Independents" screenwriting column for over a decade, a contributor to Writer's Digest Magazine and a past columnist for The Hollywood Scriptwriter Magazine. He was Entertainment News Editor for Dean (INDEPENDENCE DAY) Devlin's Eon Magazine, wrote the Screenwriting 101 column for the Independent Film Channel Magazine, and was the only non-nominated screenwriter mentioned on "Siskel & Ebert's If We Picked The Winners" Oscar show in 1997. He is a frequent contributor to Ebert's Movie Answer Man syndicated column and Ebert's annual Year In Film books. He was on the jury of the Raindance Film Festival (London) in 2001 (with director Mike Figgis and actress Saffron Burrows) and again in 2004 (with actor Lennie James and director Edgar Wright) and just returned from 2009 "jury duty".
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 7, 2015
This book is a gold mine. It offers incisive secret after incisive secret to creating stellar dialogue—in either a screenplay or a novel. It does suffer from some shoddy editing (typos and outright repetition), but these are small flaws to deal with in the face of the overwhelming amount of great information crammed into this volume.
December 13, 2015
Um dos melhores e mais práticos livros sobre como escrever e melhorar diálogos de roteiros. As dicas também servem para escritores. William C. Martell é um experiente roteirista, com décadas de trabalho em hollywood.
O livro tem dicas e exercícios práticos de como trabalhar diálogos. Martell fala de como colocar subtexto nos diálogos, de como diálogos tem que ser trabalhados para soarem reais sem ser reais.
O mais interessante desse livro é a explicação da mecânica de um diálogo de filme, o vai e volta das frases e de como usar os diálogos na caracterização.
Recomendo fortemente!
O livro tem dicas e exercícios práticos de como trabalhar diálogos. Martell fala de como colocar subtexto nos diálogos, de como diálogos tem que ser trabalhados para soarem reais sem ser reais.
O mais interessante desse livro é a explicação da mecânica de um diálogo de filme, o vai e volta das frases e de como usar os diálogos na caracterização.
Recomendo fortemente!
January 20, 2024
(this is a copy and paste because it applies to all his books)
I read his books awhile ago so I can't write an in-depth review. But, I want to say, now that Im getting paid to write screenplays - his books and Truby's together were what did it. It's when I had my break through. I remember it happening while reading Mr. Martell's books and they changed my scripts forever. Thank you!!!
I read his books awhile ago so I can't write an in-depth review. But, I want to say, now that Im getting paid to write screenplays - his books and Truby's together were what did it. It's when I had my break through. I remember it happening while reading Mr. Martell's books and they changed my scripts forever. Thank you!!!
August 31, 2019
Must read!
I write novels, but the information found in This book is invaluable. Many of the tips and notes can be applied to anyone writing. Read all the Blue Book series and all the other books by Mr. Martell.
I write novels, but the information found in This book is invaluable. Many of the tips and notes can be applied to anyone writing. Read all the Blue Book series and all the other books by Mr. Martell.
January 29, 2014
I love this guy!
I've read a number of books on creative writing, many of which just layer-on platitudes and generalities. I was tempted to apply the adage "Those who can't, teach." to authors of books on writing until I came across this remarkable series. Martell, an accomplished screenwriter, is engaging, funny and full of wisdom. Rather than just lapsing into abstractions, his book is full of real-life examples that drive home his message.
If you aren't a screenwriter (I'm not!), don't be put off by the reference to screenwriting. Out of the two Martell books I've read so far, I'd estimate that 90-90% of the content is applicable to general writing.
This is the second book I've read of William Martell -- and this is just as great as his previous one. This is part of a "Screenwriting Blue Book", which I gather used to cost more in the print edition. Available now for Kindle, this is money well worth spending.
I've read a number of books on creative writing, many of which just layer-on platitudes and generalities. I was tempted to apply the adage "Those who can't, teach." to authors of books on writing until I came across this remarkable series. Martell, an accomplished screenwriter, is engaging, funny and full of wisdom. Rather than just lapsing into abstractions, his book is full of real-life examples that drive home his message.
If you aren't a screenwriter (I'm not!), don't be put off by the reference to screenwriting. Out of the two Martell books I've read so far, I'd estimate that 90-90% of the content is applicable to general writing.
This is the second book I've read of William Martell -- and this is just as great as his previous one. This is part of a "Screenwriting Blue Book", which I gather used to cost more in the print edition. Available now for Kindle, this is money well worth spending.
January 17, 2014
You have to get used to his writing style a bit, but once you do there's a ton of practical tips in this book on how to write strong dialogue. The structure of the book could have been better and I would have liked it to be longer on some occasions, but all in all it's worth the money. It's geared at screenwriters obviously,m but fiction writers can learn a lot from it. One thing I keep noticing is the tendency to keep using older movies as examples, notably Psycho or other classics. I wish writers of books like this would use more modern examples (I admit: the author does reference The West Wing, Pulp Fiction and a few more), so we can stay more up to date with what's working now.
January 3, 2015
Excellent Advice for the Novice Screenwriter
Writing effective dialogue is an art. William Martell provides screenwriters with 40 excellent pieces of advice to help ensure your dialogue propels your story in a way that is memorable.
Writing effective dialogue is an art. William Martell provides screenwriters with 40 excellent pieces of advice to help ensure your dialogue propels your story in a way that is memorable.
November 20, 2016
An interesting set of ideas and techniques to write a meaningful and interesting dialogue. It’s also a great help to understand why certain books or movies have interesting conversations while others are just boring.
August 17, 2012
Some really good tips on writing better dialogue. This book is focused on screenwriting but most everything here is applicable to novels and short stories as well.
September 19, 2012
Had a few useful tips, but I don't recommend the book as a whole.
May 24, 2013
Each time I read one of Mr. Martell's books, I improve my script.
March 6, 2013
Contained some useful tips on writing dialogue for film and television
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews