"Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live."

Ralph Waldo Emerson made this observation, which should be in the back of every writer's mind while writing dialogue. Since I'm preparing a workshop on dialogue for the retreat next weekend, it's at the forefront of mine.

Brad went poking around online for me and got some wonderful examples of dialogue from screenplays. I was just looking at Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" and found this marvelous scene between the three sisters. This is only a segment of the scene. But it uses dialogue to convey internal conflict, their history with each other as siblings, plus reveals that the main character has caught on to a major plot point revealed to the audience prior through voice over.

For a male writer, Woody Allen writes quite well for female characters. The amusing thing is his insistence upon giving every character his own vocal idiosyncracies. I'll take those out and just present the dialogue to stand on its own:

HOLLY
You know,I could always tell what
you thought of me by the type of
men you fixed me up with!

HANNAH
You're crazy! That's not true.

HOLLY
Hey, Hannah, I know I'm mediocre.

LEE
Oh, will you stop attacking Hannah?!

HANNAH
Oh, now--

LEE
She's going through a really rough
time right now.

HOLLY
Why are you so upset?

LEE
You know, you've been picking on
her ever since she came in here.
Now just leave her alone for a
while! I'm just suffocating.

HOLLY
What's the matter with you, Lee?
Why are you so sensitive all of a
sudden?

HANNAH
Look. Listen. Listen. You want to write? Write.

HOLLY
What's the matter?

HANNAH
Write! Let's just not talk about
it anymore.

HOLLY
Good.

HANNAH
Take...take a year. Take six
months. Whatever you want. Who
knows? Maybe you'll, maybe you'll
be sitting with a good play.

HANNAH

(To LEE)What's the matter? What's the
matter with you? You look pale. You okay?

LEE

I'm-I'm okay. Yeah, I, you
know, I...I'm just, um, I got dizzy
all of a sudden. I'm-I'm...I have
a headache.

HANNAH
Yeah?

LEE
I think we need to eat.

I really love that! Dynamic, tense, realistic. Great handling of plot development and character reveal, and allows the viewer to start putting the pieces together for herself. That's what I'm shooting for as a writer.