The four main jobs of dialogue are:
1) To Advance the Plot
(explaining why things are happening) It is showing a character’s motives for doing what they are doing. This is their intentions, ambitions, needs and wants.
2) To Reveal Character
(Through subtext)
3) To give us facts or information
Worldbuilding, exposition (but not too much)
4) To Express Dramatic Emotion
Sometimes, the information Dialogue is giving us is in what’s not being said.
Basic Rules of Writing Dialogue
- Less is more
- Show don’t tell. Try to convey the same info without using words
- It’s mainly about the subtext - sometimes the most eloquent statements are not spoken
The better you know and understand your characters, the more authentic the dialogue will be.
Subtext
Subtext is what is not being said.
The audience connects to a character’s inner self through subtext. Things get much more interesting when a character is saying one thing when we know they actually mean another.
Another way to look at subtext is, if a scene is about exactly what it is about, then something it wrong.
Source: A guest lecturer we had at uni.