William Monahan, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of "The Departed," shares invaluable insight on character-driven dialogue, incorporating speech patterns, and the screenwriter as a performer.

How To Write Good DialogueUse the dialogue of other people. Become more aware of how other people speak, how they emphasize certain words and swallow others. Listen to the sound of their voices ...

Dialogue that's tense, exciting, melodic, and full of subtext, or maybe punchy and raw.Many will point to writer/director ...

dialogue zingy and quotable — do the same for your descriptive passages. This sounds obvious, but it’s an important first step. Engage all five senses. Again, starting with the obvious.

In National 5 English learn how to write good short stories by using setting, dialogue and description to create believable characters and plots.