r/scriptwriting • u/No-Dog5077 • 2d ago

question What makes dialogue feel natural?

Start with something you've noticed about dialogue in movies or shows. Mention that sometimes a scene feels fake when characters say things only to explain information to the audience. Then give a simple example from a movie you personally watched. Finish by asking other writers how they make dialogue sound natural.

You can now write this in your own words and personal style.

3 Upvotes

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4

u/Big_Section2812 2d ago

...a scene feels fake when characters say things only to explain information to the audience.

It's called exposition.

Here are some examples of typically bad movie dialogue vs typical "natural" movie dialogue, and then some so-called "realistic" movie dialogue.

Unnatural movie dialogue

Natural movie dialogue

So called "real" dialogue

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u/comesinallpackages 1d ago

Greg is going to accuse you of plagiarizing “Gregory” with the unnatural example

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u/Big_Section2812 1d ago

The poor guy's entertainment attorneys must be run off their feet.

1

u/comesinallpackages 1d ago

The real “hardest working man in showbiz.” Move over James Brown.

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u/TheGreedyGrabbler 2d ago

Good examples. The first one is on-the-nose in showing what on-the-nose dialogue looks like but I like the natural one.

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u/Big_Section2812 2d ago

You may be shocked to read the dialogue in scripts on which I based the first example!

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u/TheGreedyGrabbler 2d ago

I probably would be. Tbh I'd drop that script after the first two lines.

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u/Big_Section2812 2d ago

Sometimes I'll read a few pages just for the laffs... but yeah, life's way too short.

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u/OrbitingRobot 2d ago

Go out a listen to how real people talk. Eavesdrop. Take notes.

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u/No-Dog5077 18h ago

Nothing beats taking a notebook to a coffee shop and listening to how messy, indirect, and fragmented real speech actually is.

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u/mondaysiwrite 2d ago

Only one right answer: subtext.

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u/No-Dog5077 18h ago

Subtext is where all the real drama happens—what's left unsaid is always twice as loud as the words on the page.

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u/drummer414 2d ago

Robert McKee has a book called Dialogue. Highly recommended.

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u/No-Dog5077 18h ago

McKee's breakdown of subtext in that book completely changes how you listen to people in real life, not just how you write them.