In a recent discussion group for
playwrights, the conversation turned to the subject of how dialogue should look
on the scripted page. One individual stated that dialogue on paper should
please the printer, i.e., the words are spelled correctly, and the sentences
are grammatically correct. Another individual concurred, adding that improperly
spelled words would automatically be corrected by the proof reader, and, if
uncorrected, would draw attention of the reader to the seeming error rather
than to what the playwright might actually be saying.
I absolutely disagree with both of these
viewpoints.
First, let’s take a look at how thoughts
are communicated in spoken words. (And spoken words, as playwrights, are our stock
in trade.) Spoken words and written words are not the same. In normal day-to-day conversation, generally a
speaker will say only enough to get his or her message across, and then stop
speaking. Most of what is being said may be in complete sentences, true enough,
but a part of this rhetoric may also be in fragmented sentences. Indeed,
portions of what is being “said” may not be in words at all, but in gestures
and body language. Further, people rarely say combinations of words the way
they are written. For example, if you were to tell someone you are going to the
store, that’s how you would write it – “I’m going to the store.” If you were telling someone, you might say “I’m
goin’ t’ th’ store.”
Another misapprehension is that
playwrights create characters. They do not. Actors
create characters. Playwrights suggest characters.
The choices of words, the rhythm of the words, the pace, the slang, the actual
number of words in a sentence, the phonetically (as opposed to incorrectly)
spelling of words – all these things help an actor visualize a character from
whom these words, gestures, and thoughts, would believably flow. (You don’t
believe me? Take a Shakespeare soliloquy, give it to an actor, and have him
read it back to you. Then give the same soliloquy to your next-door neighbor.
In both cases the words are the same. Who created the character?) Perhaps this
is an unfair comparison, but the point is this; words flow from character, not
the other way around.
And so – simple enough – when a playwright
places dialogue on paper, he or she is communicating directly to the imagination of the reader, asking that
reader to hear the words being spoken the
same way the playwright hears them. Toward that goal, there are no rules,
no uniform structure, no ridged grammar. Whatever works is what works.
Thoughts?
