1. 30/9/14 Dialogue 3
TP: Understand the difference between boring and effective dialogue Bell work: Read the extract below. What kind of person do you think Scrooge is? Give reasons for your answers. ‘What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in them through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,’ said Scrooge indignantly, ‘every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!’

2. Is this effective or boring dialogue?
“Did you get the aspirin, babe? I really need it.”
“Yes, I got the aspirin.”
“And the burger buns. I hope you got those.”
“Yes, I got the burger buns.”
“Did you remember to stop by my mother’s house? She said she had something for us.”
“No, I didn’t remember to stop by your mother’s house. I didn’t remember that she said she had something for us.”
Too much repetition
Too much straightforward question and answer dialogue is unrealistic. In real life, there are misunderstandings, people avoid answering questions or they annoy one another.

3. Everyday vs. Novel Dialogue
Everyday dialogue is functional. A lot of it is not very exciting. For example, greeting a person you know or asking for something in a shop.
Novel dialogue should:
reveal characters’ relationships
to one another
move the plot forward
increase the tension

4. Dialogue that shows the relationship between characters
Jerry and Susan have a tense and unhappy relationship.
It's clear that they've known
each other for a while, and that Susan treats Jerry with
disrespect.
"What's the capital of Spain?" Jerry asked, pausing over his crossword puzzle. Susan looked up from her book and rolled her eyes. "Madrid, duh.“ "Why are you so sarcastic all the time?” Jerry slammed his pencil on table. He looked like he was going to cry. “I don't think I can take much more of this."
We've learned about how these two characters interact—and a lot about who they are—all through a few simple lines of dialogue.
Jerry’s reaction to Susan in this exchange shows that he has been putting up with Susan’s behaviour for too long and is at his wit’s end.

5. Dialogue that moves the story forward
Right away, we want to know who this Dave guy is, if he's telling the truth, and why Jerry hung up on him. Basically, we want to know what will happen next.
The phone rang, and Jerry picked it up. "Hello?“ There was a moment of silence on the other end. "Is this Jerry Simmons?" a male voice asked. "Yeah. Who is this?" The man paused. Jerry could hear him take a deep breath. "Jerry, my name is Dave. I’m your brother” "If this is a prank, it isn’t funny,” Jerry said. “My family died a long time ago." “Not your whole family,” Dave said. Jerry hung up the phone.
This is a great inciting incident. The discovery of a long-lost sibling
is certain to move the story forward in interesting ways.

6. Dialogue that increases the tension
Are Dave and Jerry going to save
Susan? It's a matter of life and death here, and this little
exchange of dialogue has us wanting more.
Dave!" Jerry shouted. "We've got to get away from here! The building's gonna blow!" "We've got to go back!" Dave screamed. "Why?" Dave pointed at the roof. "Susan's still up there!"

9. Paired Work Create your own cartoon, using the blank template.
If you are struggling for ideas, you can choose from the list of scenarios below.
Your character gets to meet someone famous who they admire
Your character argues with their parent about whether they can go to a party
Your characters gets picked on by a bully and stands up to them
Remember: make sure that any dialogue you include is essential to the story.

10. WAS ALL OF THE DIALOGUE USED NECESSARY?
DID MY DIALOGUE ACHIEVE AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
move the plot forward?
build up tension?
reveal the relationships between characters?
WAS ALL OF THE DIALOGUE USED NECESSARY?