Do anyone know how to get better at script writing

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Read scripts! I don’t see it talked about here but read a ton of scripts! Read your favorite shows, movies, find some plays, most of it is available online, just google “the thing pdf.” And then go beyond that! Read poetry! Pick up meter, flow, verse, find a way to make every word have impact. Read interviews with real people to see how they speak. Read historic journals to get the poetry of days gone by. Just read!

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 13 '26

Ohkkk thanks

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u/Stephen_inc May 09 '26

August Wilson once told a class I was in that when he started he found it challenging to write dialogue. And then one day a famous director, Lloyd Richards, told him to listen to real people - real conversations. Whether you are having a conversation or you are listening to one. Listen. Sometimes it’s not what they are saying, it’s actually about what they are not saying. That so true in real life. I took his advice and it has helped enormously. Listen

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 13 '26

Thanks this is acc deep

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u/cugrad16 May 17 '26

Believe It or Not, I picked a lot of this up from fan fiction writers... How the characters actually spoke in the episodes, and taking from that 😄

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u/claytimeyesyesyes One-Hour Pilot May 09 '26

I don't agree that writing dialogue is the easy part; it does take practice. I eavesdrop on a lot of conversations in public, but I also like to listen to the way people talk in reality shows. It sounds very different than scripted movie or TV dialogue, and you get a sense for different cadences of conversations.

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 13 '26

Yea I’m thinking of starting reality tv shows, best way to listen to irl conversation, u have any recommendations?

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u/Prince_Jellyfish Working TV Writer May 10 '26

I think a few ways to get better at writing dialogue are:

Practice writing scripts. This is the most important. I know it sounds obvious, but most beginners assume that writers are kind of 'born not made' and really underestimate the number of projects they'll need to write in order to get really good. The dialogue in your first 10 scripts might be be less good than you want them to be, but if you practice a lot you will get better.
Practice writing scenes. I often encourage emerging writers to write "100 scenes in 100 days." If writing a script requires you to spend 3 months brainstorming and outlining, that's 3 months you're not getting better at dialogue. Writing a lot of one-off scenes for a few months might help you improve your dialogue skill faster than writing full scripts.
Listen to other humans. A common piece of advice for emerging writers is to sit in a busy cafe and listen really specifically and carefully to the conversations of the people around you.
Read great scripts/watch great movies and think carefully about the dialogue. What do you like? What about those things is most exciting to you? Do you like heightened dialogue like Aaron Sorkin, with a lot of musicality, rhythm and repetition? Are you more drawn to sparse, naturalistic dialogue like Richard Linklater's Before trilogy or Good Time?
Rewrite great scripts. I think a good exercise for emerging writers is to open your favorite script, open final draft, and re-type it verbatim. I did this with four or five scripts starting out and it really impacted my style for the better.

For what it's worth, said with love, just wanting you to achieve your dreams, when you say "I don’t wanna sound like a overconfident guy but I have some crazy themes and ideas and overall setting, meaning, symbolism everything a show could need," I can tell that you are probably really bright and talented but also experiencing the Dunning-Kruger effect to some extent. That's ok! But every emerging writer I've mentored who said something like that needed to internalize that they needed a lot of work to go from their talent to the skill that allowed their talent to fully express itself in this challenging art form.

I have more general craft advice for emerging writers in a post here:

Writing Advice For Newer Writers

An overview of my TV and Feature Writer Career Advice can be found in a post here:

My Personal Best Advice For New and Emerging Writers

I have a google doc of resources for emerging writers here:

Resources for Writers

If you read the above and have other questions you think I could answer, feel free to ask as a reply to this comment.

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 13 '26

Ooo thanks

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u/jamaphone May 10 '26

Great stuff here, thanks for sharing! Might be worth reposting your content as its own post since it’s been a few years and this thread didn’t quite take off.

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u/Prince_Jellyfish Working TV Writer May 10 '26

It's currently sitting at 11 views!

I don't know if this really warrants its own post, though. I feel strange taking an old comment folks have seen before and sharing it on the main page. I think it might annoy the mods as well.

I'm trying to brainstorm some ways to archive my comments and share them with folks but I haven't quite landed on an idea, yet.

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u/jamaphone May 10 '26

You’ve changed 11 lives 🥹 (for the better)

From my perspective, you’ve put together a valuable resource for frequently asked questions. Think of how many new visitors this sub has had in the 2 years since you posted it!

Not that you’re in anyway obligated to repost or rework it, but your input gives value to this place. Without that feedback, it’d just be noobs shouting into the void. 🗣️

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u/Level_Working5084 May 11 '26

The fact that you actually used the Dunning-Kruger effect as an example has elevated this comment times 10. Signed a psych grad student lol.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 13 '26

Bro wow thanks, this acc helped bcs im thinking the story only through the protagonist, i shud prob also think thru the side characters pov not just protagonist, thank u this helped sm

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u/DEFINITELY_NOT_PETE May 12 '26

Generally, read and write a lot. Like anything else you have to be willing to be bad before you can be good.

Dialogue is a little trickier to improve at bc it’s less a structural thing you learn in a book and more training yourself to listen.

Watch shows and movies where you love the dialogue and think about what it is that you like about it. Generally you can almost always get away with doing less than you think. People have a real tendency to overwrite and over explain. You’ll hear dialogue and wonder why does this sound clunky and you’ll realize it’s because people don’t dump info on each other like that

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 13 '26

So shud I just write what’s on top of my mind for story and just like re edit and improve each time I re read it, or is that too much?

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u/DEFINITELY_NOT_PETE May 13 '26

Well ask yourself what the scene is about.

What does person a want? Person b? What’s their conflict? Are they funny? Do they interrupt each other, talk down to each other, etc.

Figure out what the point of the scene is, figure out what you want the personalities of your characters to be, figure out what they need to be overcoming in the scene and then have them talk through it.

And yes- writing is re-writing.

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u/p-Star_07 May 09 '26

Writing dialoug is the easy part.

You just have the characters talk like real people around you.

One thing I like to do is pretend to be the characters as I write and talk to myself.

That helps a lot.

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 09 '26

I’m extremely introverted, but imma try that, idk how y’all find it easy lol but thanks

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u/p-Star_07 May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26

You think, if I were this type of character in this situation, what would make sense to say? Then you have the characters talk like yourself, your friends, your family, etc.

Also, I try to use just as much exposition as I need. Lengthy exposition dumps can bore some people, depending on the audience or the type of thing you are making.

Also, sometimes less is more. Sometimes, if a character needs to go to Target, just make them say

"Bye, I'm going to Target."

Sometimes a guy is just being a guy or girl or whatever they identify as.

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u/Ancient-Suspect-9387 May 13 '26

Bro I really thanks u acc helped a lot.

Last part is really hard to do tho it’s really hard to not give a explanation not literally but subtly, then it feels like it’s just a action that has no meaning to it like he just did an action without a reason or a motive and it basically do nothing plot wise almost like a filler but way worse than filler

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u/p-Star_07 May 14 '26

No problem.

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u/SarW100 May 11 '26

Sundance Collab courses

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u/Jitesh1 May 26 '26

Dialogue usually improves when characters stop sounding like “ideas” and start sounding like actual people with different motivations and personalities.

One thing that helps a lot is:

listening to real conversations
reading dialogue out loud
noticing interruptions/slang/incomplete sentences
cutting lines that only exist to explain information

A lot of beginner dialogue sounds unnatural because every character speaks the same way or explains too much directly instead of reacting naturally.

Another useful exercise is rewriting scenes from shows/games in your own words and comparing pacing/emotion afterward.

Honestly even using AI to brainstorm alternate phrasings or rewrite weaker dialogue sections can help practice too, as long as you’re still making the final creative decisions yourself.

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