First of all, the way you choose to present your script is really important if you want the reader to enjoy your play and to concentrate fully on it. Here are a few things which can make reading difficult:
- Plays presented on brightly coloured paper
- Plays printed with expiring cartridges so that the type is so faint you have to squint at it
- Plays printed on continuous listing paper with the content of each page dropping down on to the next one (one of our readers likened this to reading a toilet roll)
- Plays typed in unusual fonts which are really difficult to read, or typed in very large or very small fonts
- Plays typed in such a way that there's no differentiation between character names, sound effects and dialogue
- Plays hand written in pencil
A common mistake is to abbreviate characters' names down to a single initial so the reader has to keep stopping to think who's speaking. The best way to present a script is not so that it will stand out from the competition, but just the opposite - if it's neatly typed, double-spaced, with the characters' names in capitals down the left margin and sound effects or music described in italics, it'll be so easy to read, the reader will find it effortless. Then they can really concentrate on the content of the play.
As for the content of the play - radio drama is very different from theatre and television. We often get scripts which say 'written for the stage but I thought it might do for radio' on the front cover. It usually doesn't. Stage directions like 'puts glasses on' or 'bends over and picks up a piece of paper' aren't going to be easy to get across to a radio audience. It has to be in the dialogue or sound effects, otherwise it will be lost. Stage plays can be adapted for radio, but not without a great deal of attention to detail.
There are no limits on the imaginative potential of the dramatist and there are no limits on how the radio dramatist can express that potential. The sound medium is free of all the physical and practical limitations of the stage and film set. A radio play can move through any dimension of time. It can move to any location. It can voice metaphysical, surrealist and subconscious feelings and images.
The radio dramatist needs a creative interaction with the listener, and the ability of the radio dramatist to create a unique world in the listener's imagination is a special quality generally denied to TV viewers or theatregoers. Theatre, film and TV plays paint the colours for the audience, whereas the pictures in the mind of the radio listener are individual to that person alone. This gives radio a special intimacy.
Radio is very good at dramatising what people are thinking. The contrast between what people say and what they think can be shown very effectively on radio. 'Interior thought' is a convention which is special to the radio medium. In radio the listener can be instantly transported inside the head of a character and can hear those secret, private thoughts that are often better left unsaid. Radio drama has been described as 'The Theatre of the Mind'. The potential conflict between exterior dialogue and speech and interior thought creates a special ground of conflict which is a fertile area for the creative radio playwright.
The key to writing successful plays for radio is to realise that the listener can only understand what is going on by what he or she hears. The physical environment and the appearance of the characters depends on what they say and the images created in the listener's imagination by words and sounds and/or music.
Radio drama has only one chance to be successful. A dissatisfied listener only has to twiddle the radio dial, or turn the switch off altogether and the playwright has lost the audience. It's important to bear in mind that a radio playwright can't afford to bore or confuse the listener.
AND NOW THE DIALOGUE IN THAT PLAY
Writing dialogue — realistic dialogue, anyway — does not come easily to everyone. Done well, dialogue advances the story and fleshes out the characters while providing a break from straight exposition. However, just as realistic dialogue is one of the most powerful tools at a writer's disposal, nothing pulls the reader out of a story faster than bad dialogue. It takes time to develop a good ear, but noting these simple rules and obvious pitfalls can make a huge difference.
1. Listen to How People Talk
Having a sense of natural speech patterns is essential to good dialogue. Start to pay attention to the expressions that people use and the music of everyday conversation. This exercise asks you to do this more formally, but generally speaking it's helpful to develop your ear by paying attention to the way people talk.
Though your mother may have taught you that it's rude to eavesdrop, it is a great way to develop an ear for dialogue. Go to a coffee shop or a restaurant where you can sit unobserved within earshot of other people. Jot down bits of dialogue as you sit there (your activity will actually disguise the fact that you're listening).
If you get really good subjects, you might also be inspired to sketch out descriptions, noting what they're wearing, if they're well-groomed or unkempt, and guessing at what kind of work they do. Notice how much you can learn or surmise just from sitting there listening.
Of course, dialogue has to be shaped before you put it in a story, but notice how people basically communicate. Do they have to explain a lot, or is much understood? Do they talk in complete sentences or fragments? How does rhythm come into play in everyday speech? Also pay attention to how little it takes for you to understand what they're talking about. Your dialogue should operate in the same way, communicating a lot, but spelling out very little.
2. Not Exactly like Real Speech
But dialogue should read like real speech. How do you accomplish that? Alfred Hitchcock said that a good story was "life, with the dull parts taken out." This very much applies to dialogue. A transcription of a conversation would be completely boring to read. Edit out the filler words and unessential dialogue — that is, the dialogue that doesn't contribute to the plot in some way. Your first draft of a story may be messy, with a lot of unnecessary words and phrases. You'll probably find that as you edit your dialogue, it will become more succinct. If you've included any filler words, like "uh" and "oh," cut them. Although they are realistic -- we use words like this all the time when we talk -- they look unprofessional on the page. (The same is true with trying to write a stutter.)
In general, keep sentences short. Oakley Hall, in The Art and Craft of Novel Writing, offers the rule, "One thought at a time and keep the lines short." Most people don't talk in perfectly formed, complex sentences. For example, in this passage from Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," note how short and simple most of the sentences are:
"When I left, he drank rat poison," Terri said. She clasped her arms with her hands. "They took him to the hospital in Santa Fe
Paring down your sentences may not be enough, however. Chances are, there'll be scenes you wrote for yourself, to get to the next part of the story. Cut any unnecessary dialogue. If it doesn't build character or advance your plot, edit it out. In the Gotham Writers' Workshop guide to writing fiction, Allison Amend explains it this way: "The realism of good dialogue is something of an illusion. Readers of fiction have a higher expectation for dialogue than the conversations of real life. Fictional dialogue needs to have more impact, focus, relevance, than ordinary conversation."
A conversation about the correct route to take, for instance, is extraneous if it goes like this:
"So I think we should take Elm all the way to Lincoln
"Is that really the best way?" Mel asked her. "What if we hit traffic?"
"But it's Sunday. We'll be fine."
"Is that really the best way?" Mel asked her. "What if we hit traffic?"
"But it's Sunday. We'll be fine."
There's no tension and nothing necessary is revealed here, so there's no reason to include this scene, though it is true to life. Presumably, these characters are on their way to something important: why not fast-forward to those key scenes?
On the other hand, if the scene were to reveal something about Mel and Mary's relationship, something that mattered to the plot, we would keep it:
"Why aren't we taking Elm?" Mary asked.
"Did I ask your opinion?" Mel said, switching lanes a bit too quickly. "When you drive, you can pick the route. But I'm driving, so I'll pick the godd*@n route."
"Fine, fine," Mary said. With a sigh, she reached over to switch on the radio. "If you'd ever let me drive, then maybe I could," she said under her breath.
"Did I ask your opinion?" Mel said, switching lanes a bit too quickly. "When you drive, you can pick the route. But I'm driving, so I'll pick the godd*@n route."
"Fine, fine," Mary said. With a sigh, she reached over to switch on the radio. "If you'd ever let me drive, then maybe I could," she said under her breath.
3. Don't Provide Too Much Info at Once
It should not be obvious to the reader that they're being fed important facts. Let the story unfold naturally. You don't have to tell the reader everything up front, and you can trust him or her to remember details from earlier in the story.
When writing dialogue, keep in mind the three-sentence rule: give no character more than three uninterrupted sentences at once. You really can trust your audience to read between the lines: in fact, part of the pleasure of reading a story is putting the pieces together. And most importantly, remember that your characters should not tell each other things they already know.
The classic example of this is Hemingway's story "Hills Like White Elephants." In the story, a man and a woman sit in a train station bar talking. As the scene progresses, it becomes clear that she's pregnant and the man wants her to have an abortion:
"The beer's nice and cool," the man said.
"It's lovely," the girl said.
"It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said. "It's not really an operation at all."
The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.
"I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in."
The girl did not say anything.
"I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural."
"Then what will we do afterward?"
"We'll be fine afterward. Just like we were before."
"What makes you think so?"
"That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy."
Note that the abortion, the procedure, is only alluded to. This helps illustrate their discomfort with the topic, but it's also realistic. Since it's the main thing on both of their minds, why would they spell it out? And while a less skillful writer might assume that the reader requires an explicit set up, Hemingway refrains from offering one. In addition to being more realistic, it's also more satisfying to the reader.
Compare that to this break-up scene from a romance novel:
"Look, I know I should have invited you to my party!" he yelled. "But you hate my parties. You refused to move in with me. You never want to do anything fun anymore. Ever since you bought that old movie house, you are as outdated as the classic movies you show there. And when it comes to sex . . . let's not even go there. You never want to try anything new."
"Maybe because I'm tired after running the classic movie theater all day."
"Which you're always rubbing in my face. I have money, too. I bought this house. I run it. So what if I don't have a real job?"
Think back to your last break up. How much did you explain to each other why things were ending? Chances are, you didn't list every single problem, in complete sentences, in that final argument. The dialogue here is more concerned with communicating certain facts to the reader, which is why it doesn't sound nearly as realistic as the Hemingway dialogue. (Though in the writer's defense, which of us does sound as good as Hemingway?)
4. Break Up Dialogue with Action
Remind your reader that your characters are physical human beings by grounding their dialogue in the physical world. Physical details also help break up the words on the page: long periods of dialogue are easier for the reader's eye when broken up by description. (And vice versa, for that matter.) See the link above for examples of how this can work.
Just as straight exposition gets old for the reader, dialogue on its own becomes tedious, too. Just a few simple descriptions solve this problem and provide context. Here's one example of how to combine dialogue with action, from "Big Bertha Stories" by Bobbie Ann Mason:
"Is your little boy still having those bad dreams?" Miss Bailey asks, looking up from her clipboard.
Jeannette nods and looks at Rodney, who has his finger in his mouth and won't speak.
"Has the cat got your tongue?" Miss Bailey asks.
Show her your pictures, Rodney." Jeannette explains, "He won't talk about the dreams, but he draws pictures of them."
Rodney brings his tablet of pictures and flips through them silently. Miss Bailey says, "Hmm." They are stark line drawings, remarkably steady lines for his age. "What is this one?" she asks. "Let me guess. Two scoops of ice cream?"
Those are Big Bertha's titties," says Rodney.
Notice the mix of dialogue and description in this scene. While a scene can be composed entirely of dialogue, it's fairly rare. Note also that each change of speaker means a new paragraph (on the page, the paragraphs would be indented).
5. Don't Overdo Dialogue Tags
Veering too much beyond "he said/she said" only draws attention to the tags — and you want the reader's attention centered on your brilliant dialogue, not your ability to think of synonyms for "said."
Veering too much from "he said/she said" only draws attention to the tags. While readers tend to read over these phrases, obvious efforts to insert variety, through words such as "interjected," "counseled," or "conceded," pull the reader out of the action. If the writer is doing his or her work, the reader is already aware that the speaker is interjecting, counseling, or conceding. The writer won't have to say it again in the tag.
A member of the forum expressed this perfectly: "The main reason for all the 'he said' / 'she said' tags is so your readers can keep straight who is doing the talking. You can throw in other business to identify the speaker."
He went on to give the following examples:
ñ "You're late again, Clarence!" Petunia looked at her watch. "How much time does it take to put on your shoes, anyway?"
ñ "Didn't anybody do the homework?" Miss Smith tapped her ruler on the desk. "There will be a fifty point test on this chapter tomorrow."
You can often omit the tags altogether if it's obvious enough who said what.
"Hello, what's your name?" Tom asked.
"Susan."
"What an unusual name."
"It was in an opera my parents liked."
"Susan."
"What an unusual name."
"It was in an opera my parents liked."
6. Stereotypes, Profanity, and Slang
Be aware of falling back on stereotypes, and use profanity and slang sparingly. All of these risk distracting or alienating your reader. Anything that takes the reader out of the fictional world you're working so hard to create is not your friend. Read some examples of how to achieve the tone you want without stereotypes, profanity, and slang.
Stereotypes are best avoided altogether, unless you're writing satire, and profanity and slang are best used sparingly. With regard to stereotypes, only write in dialect if you know the culture intimately: Any Southerner will cringe if a character says "Pa" in this day and age, and unless you grew up in Brooklyn, think twice before inserting, "Fugeddaboutit," into the mouth of your Brooklyn cop. Get it wrong, and you risk appearing naïve and/or offending your reader.
As far as profanity and slang go, both will quickly date your work -- rather than make your characters look cool or tough. Hemingway, whose characters included soldiers, fishermen, hunters, and artists, had excellent advice on this subject: "Try and write straight English; never using slang except in dialogue and then only when unavoidable . . . slang goes sour in a short time." And you'll notice that even with his toughest characters, profanity is as rare as slang.
7. Read Widely.
Pay attention to why things work or don't work. Where are you taken out of the story's action? Where did you stop believing in a character? Or, alternatively, when did the character really jump off the page, and how did dialogue help accomplish that? You can start reading like a writer with the link above, or pick up an anthology and start your own list of writers to learn from.
While books on writing have a lot to say about the writing process, many valuable skills and strategies can be learned by studying the work -- as well as the lives -- of writers you admire. Writing fiction is a complex process: it requires a suitably nuanced course of study. In the same way, the answers to many questions about how to lead a writer's life can be found in the models provided by successful writers.
Learning from Literature
Literature, especially the books that have stood the test of time, offers an endless supply of examples of how to approach various writing roadblocks, as Francine Prose points out in her worthwhile book, Reading Like a Writer. Want to see how to handle an emotional topic without lapsing into sentimentality? Try Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter, for instance. Or how metaphors can establish character and allude to a novel's themes? Raymond Chandler's your man. Contemporary fiction has a lot to teach as well, but don't discount the masters. They continue to be read for a reason. In finding out why, we learn valuable strategies for better telling the today's stories.
Make an Author Study
Writers are often urged to immerse themselves in the work of one author, to really absorb that person's style and learn as much as possible from it. It's a good approach, but I advise taking it a step further. Once you've studied their oeuvre, see how they came to write these books.
For instance, this spring, an old Paris Review interview led me to make a study of Katherine Anne Porter. I started with some of her most acclaimed works and then read the biography by Joan Givner.
Through the biography, I got to see how these stories and short novels came into being: what life experiences went into them, what her process was like, and what her stumbling blocks were. I had an epiphany when I saw that she often put stories aside for years. I'm always afraid that if I don't muddle through a story or novel right then, I'll never go back to it. But clearly for Katherine Anne Porter, this was integral to her success. She kept the drafts, returning to them when she had the insight or skill to finish them properly. I imagine that this kept her from ruining or overworking her stories, and let her go on to new work (or, very likely in her case, more drinking!).
I've done this other times, with Raymond Chandler, Eudora Welty, and Jane Austen. Each time I took something away that helped my writing.
How-to's are fine, but writing fiction is a complicated process: simple advice isn't going to work for everyone or for every story. By studying literature and biographies, you collect the examples you need for your writing life.
8. Punctuate Dialogue Correctly.
The rules for punctuating dialogue can be confusing: many writers need help getting them right in the beginning. Take some time to learn the basics. A reader should get lost in your prose — not feel lost trying to follow your dialogue.
Nothing marks a beginning writer faster than improperly punctuated dialogue. Learn these rules, and you'll avoid obvious mistakes:
1. Use a comma between the dialogue and the tag line (the words used to identify the speaker: "he said/she said"):
"I would like to go to the beach this weekend," she told him as they left the apartment.
2. Periods and commas go inside the quotation marks in American writing (the Brits have slightly different rules); other punctuation -- semicolons, question marks, dashes, and exclamation points -- goes outside unless it directly pertains to the material within the quotes, as in this example from Raymond Carver's "Where I'm Calling From":
"I don't want any stupid cake," says the guy who goes to Europe and the Middle East . "Where's the champagne?" he says, and laughs.
In the next example, the question mark goes outside the quotation marks because it is not part of the material being quoted:
Did he say, "We should all go to the movies"?
Also note that the sentence ends with only one mark of punctuation: the question mark. In general, don't use double punctuation marks, but go with the stronger punctuation. (Question marks and exclamation points are stronger than commas and periods. Think of it as a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, if it helps.)
3. When a tag line interrupts a sentence, it should be set off by commas. Note that the first letter of the second half of the sentence is in lower case, as in this example from Flannery O'Connor's "Greenleaf":
"That is," Wesley said, "that neither you nor me is her boy..."
4. To signal a quotation within a quotation, use single quotes:
"Have you read 'Hills Like White Elephants' yet?" he asked her.
5. For interior dialogue, italics are appropriate, just be consistent.
6. If a quotation spills out over more than one paragraph, don't use end quotes at the close of the first paragraph. Use them only when a character is done speaking.
Want to take it to the next level? See more tips on writing dialogue. Or, review the editing checklist to make sure you've got other aspects of grammar covered as well.
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