In Cut To The Chase, Karl Iglesias describes ten steps for crafting compelling dialogue.
In a moment I'll tell you how business can benefit from these steps... First, here's seven of the steps.
Step 1: Is my dialogue active?
Step 2: Is my dialogue as lean as it can be?
Step 3: Is my dialogue realistic?
Step 4: Is my dialogue individual to each character?
Step 5: Does my dialogue reveal exposition invisibly?
Step 6: Is my dialogue emotionally impactful?
Step 7: Does my dialogue have subtext?
Step 2 is my favorite because it keeps speeches short. Karl writes, "Contrary to popular belief, actors hate long speeches... Good actors want fewer words."
When I took Karl's dialogue class, he challenge me to write speeches that contained no more than twelve words. This is a powerful creative constraint that helped me write better dialogue.
How can business benefit from these steps? Well, have you ever received an email from a coworker who rambled on for two or three pages. Like me, you probably deleted that email.
Learning to write lean memos that captures your coworker's attention sets you apart.