Writing natural-sounding dialogue – the kind that
makes characters feel real – comes easily for a chosen few. The rest of us have to work hard at it.
Like anything else, it’s a skill that can be
learned and, with enough discipline and persistence, mastered.
But since mastery requires so much damn time and
effort, here’s a quick tool to use in the meantime. It’s a list of fifty common utterances that often
appear in natural-sounding dialogue. Work
a few of these into your script, and you’ll start sounding like a pro:
And I’m like:
And she was all:
- And so on.
Aw.
Anyhow:
C’mon.
Cuz:
For real?
Hey, hey:
Hell no.
Hmm.
I gotta say:
I happen to know:
I mean:
I’m sorry, what?
It’s just that:
Kinda.
Lemme tell ya:
Look:
Nah.
No no no.
Not for nothing but:
No way!
Oh:
- Or whatever.
- Right?
See:
So...
So it’s like:
So listen:
The point is:
The thing is:
Toldja.
Um:
- Uh -
Uh-huh.
Way to:
Wait, what?
Well:
What do you wanna like:
Whaddya say?
Whoa.
Who-da thought?
Wow:
- Ya know?
Yeah but:
Yeah no:
Yeah right.
Yeah, yeah:
Zzzzz.*
*Use that last one only in comic strip bubbles for
characters who are asleep.
So there you have it. It’s not an exhaustive list, but these are
some commonly used examples.
They show up a lot in Oscar winning films and
Pulitzer Prize winning plays.
Of course they’re only tools and are pretty much
just fillers, so you don’t want to go overboard with them, but when used sparingly
they can give your dialogue a genuine “real-life” feel.
