I was recently on set talking to some of the actors that had been hired to say the dialog I’d written into my screenplay. They asked me if it annoyed me when actors ad-lib and embellish the dialog I’d written. This is how I explained it to them and now I’m going to explain it to you as well:

Good dialog is concise. It’s tight. There aren’t a lot of extra words thrown in. Words are rarely repeated in a scene (I explain this in my previous post Writing Good Dialog). Rhythms differ for different characters and the word choices align with that character’s level of education and IQ. [Read more…]