Im 26 year ancient filmmaker/writer аnd I wаѕ wondering іf аnу fаntаѕtіс writers/screenwriters out thеrе hаνе аnу thουghtѕ hοw I саn improve mу dialogue. Mу favorite writer аnd director іѕ Quentin Tarantino. I want tο learn hοw tο write fаntаѕtіс brilliant dialogue lіkе hіm. Thank Yου!
Simple. Have some tension between two characters, have then talk about something that one of them is very passionate about for a long time, then have the other guy say that he/she is not that attracted in the subject, then have them kill eachother.
I don’t reckon you can teach it. Not all can be a comedian, and not all can be Tarantino.
One way of building your dialogue sound untreated, which I use all the time, is to have an thought of what the characters must talk about, and then record yourself pretending to be the characters and acting out the scene, pulling the dialogue off the top of your head. Then go through it and keep the excellent stuff, throw out the terrible.
This is a weird process, but if you have any talent, must work. You’ll get very naturalistic things that will slip in there, like your use of the word man, like, ah, buddy, pal, um, k, dunno, etc. It’ll just sound authentic.
I wouldn’t try to write like Tarantino, leave that to Tarantino, it’s best not to be derivative, try to be original. He tends to include pop culture references into his dialogue (much like Kevin Smith) and that is something you can do, but don’t try to mimic his stylishness, it’ll by no means work. Be yourself.
I’m a screenwriter as well but I have some distress writing memorable dialogue. It’s something I haven’t quite mastered yet. But, the best piece of advice I came across while conception a screenwriting book was listen to how people speak to each other. If you really listen you may pick up some memorable quotation marks as well as the type of language they speak with.
Other than that, I don’t reckon it’s something that can really be taught as much as having a untreated flair for it. All I can say is practice makes perfect.