Characteristics of Effective Dialogue

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE DIALOGUE

Adapted from The Elements of Playwriting by Louis E. Catron  

Tensions and Actions:

Strong dialogue often delivers a sense of tension, demonstrating conflict, characters’ emotional involvement in issues highly important to them (a.k.a their motives), and crucial disagreements. Building tension is an excellent way to hook your audience because if done with effective dialogue, they’ll be eager to arrive at the resolution.

Dialogue is Action:

Active dialogue will progress your play forward as much as strong character development and plot. For example, characters engaged in a heated argument which ultimately develops plot, characters, or themes can be considered active dialogue.

Dialogue Makes an Emotional Appeal:

Dialogue puts forth characters’ emotions, awakening comparable feelings in the audience. It’s a way of affirming the way an audience is reacting to a play, and the piece becomes all the more powerful because of such "acknowledgment"—kind of like being rewarded for investing your time and thoughts into the lives of the characters on stage.

Dialogue Expresses Playwright’s Belief:

Quite simply, dialogue can serve as the vehicle that expresses the author's personal beliefs that initiated the composition of the play.

Dialogue Implies Theme:

Although it’s not a good idea to explicitly state your themes, dialogue is used to imply the message and deeper ideas of the play.

Dialogue Shows the Play’s Tone:

Is the language playful? Complex? Dark? Serious? Warm?

Dialogue Makes Characters Unique and Easily Recognizable:

You want to characterize and develop characters with your dialogue. Think about how dialogue creates unique, dynamic characters. You never want someone to read / see your play and remark, “The characters all speak with the same tongue.” How does each character use language differently?