Have you ever had your writing performed for you? I have, and it’s as bad as watching yourself on film or listening to your own voice. A one act play that I wrote in my senior year of college was selected as one of the winners of a school-wide contest. It was while the play was being performed that I realized something: actors bring dialogue to life.
Hearing your writing being read aloud
I don’t like to hear my writing being read aloud. However, it’s crucial to make sure you’re hitting the right pauses and beats. It’s not so bad when I’m reading aloud myself, but when someone else is, I want to tear the paper away from them and start editing.
This can happen with even the most polished pieces. It’s one of the reasons why I never revisit my books after they are published. The temptation to edit would just be too much.
But at the same time, I find it fascinating how actors deliver their lines in movies, TV shows, or plays. When you’re reading silently, you do put on a performance in your head. You make choices as to how each character speaks a line or how narration is delivered. Everything is in your voice, but that voice differs depending on how the text is written.
It helps when the writing is good, the dialogue varies from character to character, and the dialect is pronounced. A clear picture of the scene forms in your head, and the situation feels more real.
How actors make dialogue better
Taking that performance from your imagination to your voice, though, is not easy. Good actors have a gift for not only memorizing lines but deciding on how they should be spoken. Everything from voice over work to on-set/stage takes of a scene are carefully rehearsed, selected, and performed in a way that feels theatrical but genuine.
I’m always amazed when I read a script for a well-known movie and wonder what caused the actor to stress a particular word or speak a line a certain way. Of course, by then, I’m reading it as I’ve heard it performed. But when I read the script before I see the performance, I’m hanging on every choice that the actor makes.
Sometimes what we are seeing is the director’s favorite version of a line delivery cut from scene to scene. Maybe the actor wanted it to sound different from how it turned out. Maybe the line was ad-libbed or provoked by a spontaneous motivation or instinct made in the moment.
I also like to study how an actor varies their delivery from character to character or makes surprising choices that differ from what they have done in the past. I’m in awe of their attention to these subtleties, how they treat their lines while trying to keep it authentic to the character. How they can take a bad line and make it good or take a cheesy line and make it genuine. It demonstrates the advantage they have in bringing a story to life.
Acting in your head
Sometimes I use their advantage to my own, placing certain actors in roles as my characters so that I can visualize the character better in my head and get a sense of their voice and how well a line is working in a scene. When you write for kids, adult characters can seem a little stiff in comparison to your young heroes. I try to keep them from being stock parents and teachers and acquaintances using this “insert the actor” technique. They definitely help to beef up smaller roles in my stories.
Imagination works best when it’s collaborative. Luckily, I have thousands of Hollywood actors to lean on for this collaboration without the mortification of having to listen to them read the work aloud in front of me. Just another wrench in my writer’s toolbox.
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