Importance of the Scribble Version

When writing dialog, you need to write, write and write! Don’t waste time when the ideas are flowing. Two critical versions of your dialog are:

1. The Scribble Version
2. The Nice Version

Let’s look at each specifically:

Write the scribble version

The scribble version is the very rough draft of a scene, without much formatting, punctuation and other garnishes. Most scribble versions tend to be largely dialogue, with an emphasis on the overall flow rather than finding perfect structure.

Write the nice version

Once you have the blueprint for the scene, it’s time to go back and start worrying about getting each word right. Great dialogue has a melody to it. You can write pretty good dialogue simply by reading each line aloud, over and over, smoothing off the awkwardness through better words or a different composition.

Movie dialogue is how characters would speak if they had a few extra seconds to compose their thoughts between lines. It’s just slightly optimized. But it’s very easy to overshoot and end up in soap opera land. Keeping dialogue real but efficient is one of the hardest challenges in screenwriting.

Regards,

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Brian K. Allen
Screenplay Writer & Coach
http://www.TheScriptReviewer.com
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