Comments on: The Best Dialogue I Never Wrote… Insider screenwriting stories, plus occasional stuff on how to write a screenplay, by Phil Gladwin 2008-10-22T10:14:52Z WordPress http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/feed/atom/ By: deathbean deathbean http://vintage-anarchy.blogspot.com http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/#comment-5917 2008-07-28T12:00:49Z 2008-07-28T12:00:49Z Reading that made me feel a little bit sick. That’s the kind of dialogue that stops you in your tracks. I WISH I could write like that!!!

]]> By: Joe Whyte Joe Whyte http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/#comment-5330 2008-06-19T17:11:43Z 2008-06-19T17:11:43Z M. Night Shyamalan makes a living off of finding those ending lines/moments. I love it when I see a film and the climax happens and you think “wow…that was good” and then suddenly Carrie’s hand pokes up out of the dirt and grabs the other girl - scares the shite out of you - but my point is that sudden “left turn” at the end can be the difference between walking out feeling that you’re “done” or walking out feeling like the story still lives and breathes. Think about it - unless the character dies at the end, time still marches on for them - they still have a future - like Phil said, the girl’s going to get out of prison in 15 odd years and THEN what? I love it.

:)
jw

]]> By: Amit Amit http://www.anahataindia.com http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/#comment-5236 2008-06-13T19:34:09Z 2008-06-13T19:34:09Z Excellent dialogue indeed to end the script…it shows the power of dialogue to give depth to a story and characters in it. It reveals a lot and give viewers many choices to make their own inferences about the character.
It is a revelation to me that so much discussion goes to find the right way to end the script…I have always been thinking the script writing with dialogue is basically a solo exercise and many re-writings finally brings the best solutions to reveal the essence of your story and your vision.
Phil, I do visit the blog but was really very busy for the last three months..problem related with shifting of residence and related issues…and was keeping myself to just very essential in the net..and now I am back to catch up with lost time…

]]> By: manfred von manfred von http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/#comment-5232 2008-06-13T18:41:03Z 2008-06-13T18:41:03Z very nice work phil.
solid advice.
and from experience i can tell you writing in period language, some of it translated to english, is a bear.
that means difficult;
in idiomatic american english.
you’ve illustrated again what mark twain said about wordsmithing: “the difference between a word and the right word is like the difference between a lightning bug, and lightning”.
thanks phil.
m.

]]> By: Phil Gladwin Phil Gladwin http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/#comment-5126 2008-06-06T13:57:57Z 2008-06-06T13:57:57Z Thanks for that outstanding link, Purple Hearts - I’m honoured!

And that’s a good idea for a future article Storyditto, but I’d have to give it a lot of thought. Casting my mind back I don’t think I’ve ever written a period story. I’m not convinced I wouldn’t struggle to get the voice.

I would set off to be as minimal as possible - on the basis that the simpler the English was the less likely it would be stand out as being dodgy. (Not a hugely positive approach, but a start!)

After that, well, I guess I’d spend a lot of time reading books from the period and seeing what soaked in. There would be a balancing act after that - old literary patterns of speech can make terrible dialogue.

(Humm. The other approach would be to be meta textual about it - deliberately using modern slang because that’s effectively how the characters would hear each other’s speech. Can be truly terrible if you dont get it right.)

Interesting question - glad I don’t have to solve it right now!

]]> By: StoryDitto StoryDitto http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/#comment-5125 2008-06-06T13:40:32Z 2008-06-06T13:40:32Z Dialogue is something that I have constantly beat myself up on. Trying to make sure that my chracters are speaking correctly and in the correct timeline they are in. Currently my story is set in British/London era of years between 1500-1700 A.D. I’m not british or have an english accent, but from most of the movies I watch with sets of this time is a good learning tool for Dialogue. My co-writer wrote a dialogue that was too 21st century and I have to re-write the dialogue to fit the timeline. This is a hard task, however, we have come up with some outstanding lines…some that may be memorable.

Hey Phil,
Maybe this is something you can go over…Dialogue and Timelines….making the speech correct for the century or time the story is in. (western,english accents, chinese, forklord, american traditional language, ect) This would be great information!
What do you THINK?

]]> By: What’s New in Publishing Blogs this Week « Purple Hearts What’s New in Publishing Blogs this Week « Purple Hearts http://purplehearts.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/whats-new-in-publishing-blogs-this-week-14/ http://www.screenwritinggoldmine.com/blog/my-best-line-of-dialogue-i-never-wrote/2008/06/05/#comment-5123 2008-06-06T11:10:21Z 2008-06-06T11:10:21Z [...] word count and Phil Gladwin posted an awesome example on the Screenwriting Goldmine in his post, THE BEST DIALOGUE I NEVER WROTE . . . We really hope you check it out. It is so effective, it will give you [...]

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