Narratives come from a character working toward a goal and overcoming an obstacle toward the goal using tactics.
A character in a narrative will face a disruption to their normal, baseline life, which will prompt them to resolve the disruption (fix something broken, move on to something new) and create a new normal, baseline life. Their goal connects to their disruption and to their resolution.
The acronym we use for characters pursuing a resolution is G.O.T.E.
What are a character’s goals?
What are the character’s obstacles to accomplishing their goals?
How will a character overcome those obstacles? What are their tactics?
What are their expectations? (The characters should expect to succeed)
A character and their world should be different at the end than it was in the beginning because of their work towards their goal.
Think of the toughest thing you’ve experienced in your life. You felt and thought differently before and after that experience. The main character in a narrative should undergo a meaningful change.
Each scene has small arcs that build into the larger arc. To complete a larger goal, a character has to complete smaller goals or tasks and overcome those small goals’ obstacles.
As a screenwriter, you have to build the world and lead the audience to the character and their pursuit. Each scene should start by answering these questions:
Focus on what an audience will see and hear.
A good film will show, not tell. And a good screenplay will instruct the filmmakers on what to show. When writing a screenplay, you’re writing using an imperative voice. You’re writing what an audience should see and hear.
If I’m writing a short script about a break-up in a coffee shop, I need to write what an audience will see: the setting with some description relevant to the vibe and mood we want to communicate; and the characters we’re focused on, with some description like what they’re wearing or how they’re acting - things we can represent on screen.
We don’t write “Coffeeshop - Morning.” We write “Urban coffeeshop. Late morning - that time when everyone who does not want to wake up, wakes up. This place has an industrial chic vibe cool for the local college students - exposed brick, communal long tables made of former doors. Band posters on the walls.”
We don’t write “Annie feels anxious.” We write “Annie fidgets...” because we want the audience to see this specific action because it’s important in understanding her internal anxiety and her nervousness through an external and visible action.
That’s what you must do in a screenplay: translate something internal into something external and visible.
Dialogue enables an action step for a character. It enables the audience to learn more about the imaginary world. It can propel a narrative forward. Treat dialogue as a weapon - it’s a tactic to overcome an obstacle just like a punch or running away might be a tactic. Good dialogue should move a character in motion.
That’s not to say that a character has to speak bluntly and directly. But an eloquent speech should serve to do something. You can write “Give me the money!” You can write “Hey baby, how about you give me everything you have.” You can write “I’m sorry to do this, but calmly place the money in my bag.” All communicate the same thing but each reads and sounds differently based on the personality of whoever says that line.
Here are two things you can use to propel your story forward with dialogue:
One, think of the dramatic action of each line of dialogue you write.
Here’s something actors and directors do: break down dialogue into components of dramatic action. Dramatic action refers to the motivation of each line. They may think of a verb - an active verb as opposed to “to be” - to represent what they are doing with the line.
For instance:
JANE:
(1) Do you know why I am mad at you?
JOHN:
(2) I bet you will tell me.
JANE:
(3) You are a waste of space.
Each line could be broken down with these verbs:
(1) to jab; to question; to control
(2) to defend; to attack; to repudiate
(3) to attack; to hurt
As a writer, revise dialogue as if you were an actor performing the dialogue. Write down the verbs for each line and take away any line that doesn’t deserve a useful verb.
Two, have good flow.
Dialogue, a conversation, should have good flow. Dialogue contains “di-” because it is between two characters. When two characters speak the reader should understand the connection between lines of dialogue. Dialogue should flow well.
Each line of dialogue has to answer or has to connect with the previous line of dialogue.
JANE:
I want a divorce.
JOHN:
What? After 20 years...I mean...we’re just throwing those years away?
JANE:
My life is too short to remain as we are.