Playwriting Dialogue Rules
Playwriting Dialogue Rules
Playwriting Dialogue Rules
What is dialogue?
Through speeches and silence, what is spoken and deliberately unspoken, dialogue is the
action that characters do, expressing conflict of people working at cross-purposes.
1. To reveal character
2. To advance the play’s action
If dialogue does not reveal character or advance plot, leave it out – it’s fluff.
Structural emphasis:
1. A sentence has three areas of strength: the end, which is the strongest; the
beginning, second in strength; and the middle, the weakest part of the sentence.
The premise of structural emphasis is that the most significant concept, word,
phrase, or ideas is placed at the end of the sentence, the secondary concept is
placed a the beginning of the sentence, and the least important materials belong in
the middle.
Placement of names at the end of sentences tends to weaken the speech. (p. 142)
C. Punctuation: