Talk the Talk

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by Penny Penniston




  “Talk the Talk is packed with all sorts of tools to help the characters breathe, stand up, and come alive.”

  — Shawn Lawrence Otto, Screenwriter and Co-Producer, House of Sand and Fog

  “Put this book in action and see your dialogue leap off the page.”

  — Joan Scott, Founder of Writers & Artists Agency and Joan Scott Management

  “This is the book dramatic writers have been looking for! Teachers and students alike will find its sound advice and step-by-step approach invaluable and inspiring.”

  — Rebecca Gilman, Playwright and Screenwriter; Author of Spinning into Butter and Boy Gets Girl

  “Its discussion of status — its effect on dialogue, and how it shifts in various contexts — is particularly illuminating.”

  — Wendy MacLeod, Playwright and Screenwriter; Author of The House of Yes, Schoolgirl Figure, and Juvenilia.

  “Hollywood wants great scripts. Great scripts must have great dialogue. Great dialogue writing begins with this book.”

  — Brantley M. Dunaway, Producer, Love in the Time of Cholera

  “Talk the Talk opened my eyes to new ways of looking at developing characters and their dialogue. Highly recommended for course work or for the individual.”

  — Paul Chitlik, Author of Rewrite: A Step-by-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in Your Screenplay

  “Although Talk the Talk is a must-read for student and aspiring screenwriters, it also should be heralded as a fantastic resource for professionals. The exercises are simple, yet thought-provoking, and are easily adjusted for television, film or theatre. Talk the Talk will certainly help writers of all levels break free of old ruts and look at dialogue in a fresh, dynamic, creative way!”

  — Steve Baldikoski, Television Writer and Producer, Glenn Martin, DDS; 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter; Andy Richter Controls the Universe

  “Thorough, thought-out and extremely helpful… this book will make your dialogue explode off the page.”

  — Matthew Terry, Filmmaker, Screenwriter, Teacher; Columnist for www.hollywoodlitsales.com

  “Talk the Talk will help you determine which characters should be allowed to speak and what they should say, depending on their importance to your story.”

  — Mary J. Schirmer, Screenwriter, Writing Instructor, Film Critic

  “Talk the Talk is an accessible and wonderfully helpful book. Full of exercises, examples, and great advice, this book illuminates why, where and when dialogue is needed.”

  — Jule Selbo, Screenwriter; Associate Professor, Lead of Screenwriting Program, California State University, Fullerton

  “Talk the Talk is a perfect gem of a book that directly addresses the daunting challenge of writing dialogue that works. It should be a prerequisite for every writer's library, whether you're tackling a novel, play, or script.”

  — Kathie Fong Yoneda, Script Consultant, Workshop Leader, Author of The Script-Selling Game: A Hollywood Insider's Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced

  “Whether you're writing comedy or drama, movies or plays, even novels and short stories — Talk the Talk is a must-have workout for the imagination.”

  — Chad Gervich. TV Writer/Producer; Author, Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writer's Guide to the TV Business

  “As Penniston states in the book's introduction, ‘Great moments of dialogue are the great moments of film and theater.’ With this workshop, you'll learn to create your own insightful, original dialogues that will give your writing a competitive edge. What are you waiting for?”

  — Amanda Porter, Associate Editor, School Video News

  PENNY PENNISTON

  M I C H A E L W I E S E P R O D U C T I O N S

  Published by Michael Wiese Productions

  3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd. – Suite 1111

  Studio City, CA 91604

  (818) 379-8799, (818) 986-3408 (FAX)

  [email protected]

  www.mwp.com

  Cover design by MWP

  Interior design by William Morosi

  Edited by Gary Sunshine

  Printed by McNaughton & Gunn

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Copyrightright 2009

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  ISBN 978-1-932907-70-4

  Penniston, Penny, 1970-

  Talk the talk : a dialogue workshop for scriptwriters / Penny Penniston.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-932907-70-4

  1. Motion picture authorship. 2. Television authorship. 3. Drama–Technique. 4. Dialogue. I. Title.

  PN1996.P46 2010

  808’.066791–dc22

  2009029892

  Printed on Recycled Stock

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction

  Why You Need This Book

  How to Use This Book

  The Voice: How People Talk

  Lesson One: Capturing the Voice

  Lesson 1: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 1: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 1: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 1: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Two: Imitating a Voice

  Lesson 2: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 2: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 2: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 2: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Three: Creating an Original Voice

  Lesson 3: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 3: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 3: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 3: Solo Exercise

  Dialogue: How People Talk to Each Other

  Lesson Four: Status

  Lesson 4: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 4: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 4: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 4: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Five: Give and Take

  Lesson 5: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 5: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 5: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 5: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Six: Building Dialogue

  Lesson 6: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 6: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 6: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 6: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Seven: Dialogue on Shifting Sands

  Lesson 7: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 7: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 7: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 7: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Eight: Strengths and Weaknesses

  Lesson 8: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 8: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 8: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 8: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Nine: Friends and Foes

  Lesson 9: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 9: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 9: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 9: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Ten: Tools

  Lesson 10: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 10: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 10: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 10: Solo Exercise

  The Scene: Dialogue with Direction

  Lesson Eleven: Setting the Scene

  Lesson 11: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 11: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 11: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 11: Solo Exercise


  Lesson Twelve: Populating the Scene

  Lesson 12: Exercise Introduction

  Lesson 12: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 12: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 12: Solo Exercise

  Lesson 12: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson Thirteen: Crafting the Line

  Lesson 13: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 13: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 13: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 13: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Fourteen: From Line to Line

  Lesson 14: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 14: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 14: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 14: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Fifteen: Focusing the Scene

  Lesson 15: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 15: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 15: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 15: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Sixteen: Keeping Everyone in the Scene

  Lesson 16: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 16: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 16: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 16: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Seventeen: Maneuvering Through the Scene

  Lesson 17: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 17: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 17: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 17: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Eighteen: Ending the Scene

  Lesson 18: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 18: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 18: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 18: Solo Exercise

  Lesson Nineteen: Rewriting the Scene

  Lesson 19: Rewrite Exercise: In the Audience's Shoes

  Lesson 19: Rewrite Exercise: Voices

  Lesson 19: Rewrite Exercise: Interactions

  Lesson 19: Rewrite Exercise: The World

  Lesson 19: Rewrite Exercise: Forces at Work

  Lesson 19: Rewrite Exercise: Turning Points

  Lesson 19: Rewrite Exercise: The Ending

  Lesson Twenty: Scene to Script

  Lesson 20: Script Analysis Exercise

  Lesson 20: Beginner Exercise

  Lesson 20: Intermediate and Advanced Exercise

  Lesson 20: Solo Exercise

  Put This Book Down

  Conclusion

  Appendix

  Script Analysis Suggestions

  Course and Workshop Syllabus Suggestions

  For Further Reading

  About the Author

  GEORGE: My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you.

  —Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Dave Bell, Jessica Ross, and Kathy Stieber for allowing me to raid their DVD collections. Thanks to Kathleen Lange for her assistance in compiling the dialogue quotes that begin each chapter. Finally, I am grateful to Michael Wiese, Ken Lee, and Gary Sunshine for their guidance in putting this book together.

  This book was born out of my experience teaching Dramatic Writing at Northwestern University. With warm wishes, I dedicate it to all of my former students. Keep writing.

  HENRY: Words if you look after them… they can build bridges.

  —Tom Stoppard (The Real Thing)

  Introduction

  WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK

  Dialogue puts conversation in motion. Great dialogue moves like a great athlete; it is nimble, precise, and powerful. It commands the attention, yet feels effortless in its execution. However, if we want our dialogue to move like an athlete, then we must train like an athlete.

  This is a book of exercises to tone the scriptwriter's dialogue skills. It is written for university-level playwriting and screenwriting students or preprofessional writing groups and workshops. It is also appropriate for professional playwrights and screenwriters who wish to keep their dialogue skills sharp.

  Most playwriting and screenwriting books take a sweeping scope. They tend to include a brief discussion of dialogue, but then abandon the topic in favor of other issues. Talk the Talk is exclusively a focused examination of and an exercise regimen for dialogue writing. By mastering this fundamental building block of dramatic writing, authors breathe life into characters and create scripts that jump off the page. Great moments of dialogue are the great moments of film and theater.

  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

  This book is based on a few core beliefs about the teaching of writing:

  Writers Learn by Writing

  The frustrating thing about dialogue writing is that it seems like it ought to be easy. We all engage in dialogue every day. We've all been in situations that are funny or ironic or tragic. And, being human and living in a world of humans, we are all experts on human behavior. So why is it so hard?

  The truth is that all those things are just the notes of drama. They are the keys on the piano. Anyone can come along and make noise on a piano — all you have to do is bang on the keys. But to make music on a piano — that is harder. It requires striking a particular set of notes in a particular sequence in order to generate a particular set of sounds. Trained pianists do this gracefully and beautifully. Their fingers glide across the keys. They make it look effortless. The truth is that it only got to be effortless after lots and lots of practice.

  So if you want to be a writer, practice writing. Practice it the way a musician practices her instrument. Great piano players did not become great by attending lectures and reading books on music theory. Those things certainly helped, but, at the end of the day, it is years and years of fingers on the keyboard that make a piano player. Scales and drills and études get played over and over again until they become instinctive. Technique that once required careful concentration becomes effortless and subliminal. It is the same with writing. Think of this book as a book of scales and études. Use this book to drill technique into your muscle memory so that when you sit down at your keyboard in the future, the dialogue will flow effortlessly.

  A few tips on doing the exercises in this book:

  There are twenty lessons in this book. Most lessons contains four dialogue-writing exercises. These exercises are marked in the margins so that you can find them easily:

  • Script Analysis Exercises are marked with a .

  • Beginner Exercises are marked with a .

  • Intermediate/Advanced Exercises are marked with a .

  • Solo Exercises are marked with a .

  All exercises are appropriate for both screenwriters and playwrights. However, if you are focusing exclusively on screenwriting or exclusively on playwriting, then I recommend the following tweaks to the exercises:

  • When doing the script analysis exercises, screenwriters should exclusively analyze films. Playwrights should exclusively analyze stage plays. (The Appendix includes script suggestions for both film and theater.)

  • Screenwriters should write all dialogue in standard screenplay format. Playwrights should write all dialogue in standard playscript format.

  • In general, screenplays have shorter dialogue scenes than stage plays. Therefore, when doing a dialogue-writing exercise, screenwriters should lean toward the lower end of the recommended page count. Playwrights should lean toward the higher end of the recommended page count.

  The Best Feedback Is from an Audience

  As playwrights and screenwriters, we aren't just writing, we are writing for an audience. Writing without an audience is simply a form of self-expression. We write down all sorts of things for our own reference: lists, notes for class, journal entries, etc. This writing exists only for ourselves. We don't expect or require other people to take meaning from it.

  Writing for an audience is different. We write something and an audience interprets it. It is an act of communication. If we do our job well, the meaning that we put into our words will interact constructively with the meaning that the
audience takes from our words. Or, to put it simply: Our audience will understand what the hell we are talking about.

 

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