Dialogue or Description?

Pioline

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When writing a script, which do you find harder?

For me it's description.
 
Dialogue... meaningful, real, dialogue.
 
Description.... xD When I write in script form it comes out novelly, and I was told your not supposed to do that.

And sometimes dialouge can be a pain in the ass as well
 
description is easy. all you do is tell exactly what's happening, nothing more.

Description.... xD When I write in script form it comes out novelly, and I was told your not supposed to do that.

And sometimes dialouge can be a pain in the ass as well

if you don't mind some advice, it probably comes from trying to explain too much. for an example you might be writting this.

"John gets a drink of water. he is a stern man who has flashbacks from a war long ago. His wife divorced him three years ago and he's resented her for that."

when writing a screenplay you only write what the camera can show, so you basically could leave the last two sentances out. you could write all the ^^^^ but all you would see on the screen is John getting some water, there's no way you would know that he fought in a war and divorced his wife from just watching. (sorry for the horrible example. it was just off the top of my head)

so, i would say dialouge. dialouge is essentially what moves the story along and the wrong words ruin a good scene.
 
i find both very easy but when i try to write a novella its VERY hard for me but i write scripts PERFECT
 
If you're having trouble writting dialouge, you should read Screenwritting For Dummies. Laura Schellhardt gives some great insight on how to write compelling dialouge. She also tells you how to write description of characters. Basically, when it comes to writting"direction" just write what you see. Don't worry about all the things the character in your script is thinking, just what the audience and you are seeing the character do.
 
JTIZZLEVILLE said:
if you don't mind some advice, it probably comes from trying to explain too much. for an example you might be writting this.

Lol, most likely.
 
JTIZZLEVILLE said:
description is easy. all you do is tell exactly what's happening, nothing more.



if you don't mind some advice, it probably comes from trying to explain too much. for an example you might be writting this.

"John gets a drink of water. he is a stern man who has flashbacks from a war long ago. His wife divorced him three years ago and he's resented her for that."

when writing a screenplay you only write what the camera can show, so you basically could leave the last two sentances out. you could write all the ^^^^ but all you would see on the screen is John getting some water, there's no way you would know that he fought in a war and divorced his wife from just watching. (sorry for the horrible example. it was just off the top of my head)

so, i would say dialouge. dialouge is essentially what moves the story along and the wrong words ruin a good scene.

My description's are usually only a line or two but I've seen other people's writing and their's have been a few lines, I thought I was the one putting in less detail and doing it wrong.
 
Discription. I seem to turn everything into a narrative :(.
 
Description. For me it's like writng a book, except I put dialogue in script format :confused:
 
Diaolge. I am a beginner, so it's hard not to sound a little cheezy. I can't always get the mindblowing lines that people remember for a while (Not many ppl can).

Discription is sooo much easier, because I have been writing stories and novellas for a long time so it is easier to write that then narrow out the unneeded stuff.
 
Dialogue is what f***s me up. I always have to come up with what my characters have to say, and It has to feel like it's something they would say. Descriptions? I barely use them, and if I do, I use them in the wrong way.
 
Plotting, actually. I'm really anal about my plotting. My plots are complex as hell and I have to keep all the parts straight. Also, I have to convince myself to simplify them.
 
Dialogues.

They are really very hard (especially when you try to make them simple and realistic and at the same time logical).

But with description and plotting, I am ok. It also isn't so easy, but still very enjoyable for me.
 
I know it's not good, but I barely plot. I'm more of a "write and see where this goes" type of writer.
 

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