Tackle Screenwriting Like a Pro with 3 Exercises for Writing Dialogue Screenplay
by Noi Sabal • September 13, 2022
No matter how experienced you are as a writer, writing dialogue in a screenplay can be challenging. You know who your characters are, but when you begin to write them, you’re unsure how to create unique dialogue for each character.
So often, readers give that oh-so-frustrating note: “all the characters sound the same.” Well, that makes sense. After all, every character was written by you, right? So how do you write differently for each character when you are only one person?! How do you write dialogue?!
Don’t worry — writing good dialogue doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, it can be downright easy and fun! Let’s get to it.
Here are a few simple writing exercises to help you differentiate your characters, easily giving them unique voices when you are writing dialogue screenplay.
Writing Dialogue Screenplay Exercise #1:
Create Character Backstories or Journal Pages
When you know your characters, you know how they’ll react.
One of the easiest things you can do to differentiate your character’s dialogue in a script is to know what lead them to this point in their lives. Of course, you don’t have to do it for EVERY character — that would be overkill. But for your major characters (anyone with 3+ scenes), you could write a quick page of backstory or maybe even a little “Day in the Life” journal. Then, once you see what they have done or been through up until now, you’ll start to understand how they interact with others — which naturally comes out in their dialogue.
If you won’t want to write a backstory from scratch, our Screenwriting Ninja software has fun and interactive Brainstorm Boards that lead you through a character’s life, world, and arc. They are like dialogue worksheets – but better! Of course, you don’t need our software — you can just let your imagination go wild and have some fun writing for your major characters. But if you find yourself wondering what would help characters sound different, give it a try. We have a free trial that lets you do backstory work and even write a Daily Journal — all with tons of prompts to unlock your creativity and up your dialogue writing game.
Writing Dialogue Screenplay Exercise #2:
Pre-Assign Words per Character
Before you write, choose common words and responses to situations.
How do you greet someone? What do you say when you leave someone? How does your mom do the same? Your best friend? Your 4th grade teacher? The Queen? The President?
In the real world, everyone says things a little bit differently. So choosing a different way to say everyday things is one of the fastest and easiest ways to strengthen your dialogue writing. By making slightly different word choices for each character, they suddenly (and easily!) become distinct.
Screenwriting Ninja has an entire dialogue section to help you do just this. Full of prompts, questions, and hundreds of suggested words, you’ll be able to create unique character voices quickly. (For example, we have 180+ suggestions for how to say “Hello” and 140+ for “Goodbye” — all included in our free trial.)
Or just come up with your own list of everyday situations for your world. Then think about how each of your characters would react – what they would say (or ignore), what they would do/not do. Then each time you write, take a quick look at those character notes to re-familiarize yourself with their voices.
Writing Dialogue Screenplay Exercise #3:
Post-writing: Read Characters Aloud
Read your dialogue, one character at a time.
When you read everything that just one character says, you’ll see how their personality pops — or give you an idea of how you can get it to shine through.
How do you do this? Once you have a first draft done, most screenwriting software will allow you to export sides (a report with just the dialogue for each character). Export, view, or print out a pure dialogue script — a version of just the speaking parts. Then review each character, reading just their lines out loud, thinking about who they are. Make notes of little words you can skip, change, or omit (sometimes silence + action = the best character work!). Then go back in your script and revise, strengthening your dialogue writing during your first rewrite.
Here’s a great video from Variety, with lots of amazing screenwriters talking about developing and writing characters (which is exercise #1: know your character and you’ll know how they talk).
Hope you’ve enjoyed our three (somewhat unconventional!) writing exercises. Now you are ready to tackle writing dialogue while screenplay writing and make your character’s unique voices sing in your next script.
Get more screenwriting tips on our Ninja Blog.
Or watch some more character and dialogue videos on Variety.