How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre Quotes

“Every time a character enters or exits, the relationships between the remaining characters changes. So should the dialogue.”
― Tom Leveen, How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre: Techniques from a published author and theatre guy

“Characters do not speak unless they want something. Each speaking character has an agenda. Every line they say out loud advances that agenda.”
― Tom Leveen, How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre: Techniques from a published author and theatre guy

“Where the character is coming from before he enters into a scene should influence his dialogue.”
― Tom Leveen, How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre: Techniques from a published author and theatre guy

“Where your scene is set—where the characters are physically located in the storyworld—changes their dialogue.”
― Tom Leveen, How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre: Techniques from a published author and theatre guy

“Every novel has a point of view, and the world should be seen through that point of view. That point of view needs to be consistent, but also contextualized.”
― Tom Leveen, How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre: Techniques from a published author and theatre guy

“Dialogue can be tough because it has so many requirements to be truly wonderful. It must sound authentic but not overly realistic (think of all of our hiccups and pauses and repetitions and filler words). It must move the story forward while revealing character. It must entertain and provide information. It must have “Voice” with a capital V, and not sound derivative of other writers who went before you. And if you’re working in first-person, then you have to do all of this within the narrative too.”
― Tom Leveen, How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre: Techniques from a published author and theatre guy

“An “awesome” plot does not necessarily mean unique or original. For our purposes, “awesome” merely means strong. Well-defined. Clear. Our first and only real rule about writing of any kind is this; Clarity Is God. Strive for clarity in all aspects of your writing, from the plot and theme to the dialogue and narrative.”
― Tom Leveen, How To Write Awesome Dialogue! For Fiction, Film and Theatre: Techniques from a published author and theatre guy