Most Dialogue Advice Is Making Your Writing Worse

How to write dialogue is one of the most searched questions in writing, and the answers usually sound the same. Give every character a goal. Add conflict. Use subtext. Avoid exposition. Make it sound natural. Give everyone a distinct voice. So why does following all of that advice sometimes make your dialogue worse? Because good dialogue advice is only good when it fits what the scene actually needs. Some conversations need conflict. Some don't. Some need subtext. Others need a character to say exactly what they mean. And exposition can be the most powerful thing in the scene when it arrives at the right moment. After more than a decade in film and television development, reading thousands of scripts and coaching hundreds of writers, I've stopped asking, "Is this good dialogue advice?" I ask: "What does this conversation need?" In this screenwriting and creative writing video, we put the most common dialogue writing tips on trial in a game show called IS THAT GOOD ADVICE? Then I'll share the system I use in my own writing, and with the writers I develop, to diagnose any dialogue scene and fix what's really broken. Welcome back to Dialogue That Delivers. 🧩 INSIDE TODAY'S VIDEO 🔵 Why popular dialogue writing advice can backfire in your scenes 🔵 When a dialogue scene needs conflict, and when it doesn't 🔵 When subtext makes a conversation stronger, and when saying it plainly hits harder 🔵 How to use exposition in dialogue without it feeling forced 🔵 How to figure out what your characters want before a single line is written 🔵 How setting, time pressure, and who's in the room change what characters can say 🔵 Four subtext tools every writer should know: mystery, dramatic irony, masking, and familiarity 🔵 Where character voice belongs in your process, and why it's usually the last layer 🔵 How to make a conversation actually progress with "but" and "therefore" 🔵 Practical questions you can use when writing dialogue for a screenplay, novel, game, or any fictional story 🧭 THE SIX DIRECTIONS OF DIALOGUE: QUICK REFERENCE 🔵 BEFORE What does each character want out of this moment right now? Look for the immediate want, plus the deeper competing wants that could surface. 🔵 AFTER How should this conversation end? Fill in the blank: "By the end of this dialogue, ________." 🔵 AROUND What circumstances are shaping this conversation? Location, time pressure, and who else is listening can change everything a character is willing to say. 🔵 UNDER What information, emotion, history, or familiarity sits beneath the literal words? Your subtext toolbox: Mystery, Dramatic Irony, Masking, and Familiarity. 🔵 OVER How would this particular character actually say it? Vocabulary, rhythm, humor, formality, and vernacular. The polish layer. 🔵 BETWEEN How does the back-and-forth progress? Every exchange should move on "but" and "therefore," never just "and then." 🎭 IN THIS VIDEO We look at The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and the storytelling principle from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. We also build an original scene from scratch: one guard, one door, and one person who needs to get through it. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 🎯 Most Dialogue Advice Makes Your Writing Worse 1:18 🎤 Game Show: IS THAT GOOD ADVICE? 3:34 🧭 The Six Directions of Dialogue 4:23 ⬅️ Before: What They Want Walking In 6:13 ➡️ After: Where the Scene Has to Land 8:28 🏚️ Around: The Room Changes Everything 10:11 🧊 Under: Your Subtext Toolbox 15:29 🎙️ Over: Finding the Character's Voice 17:01 🔁 Between: But, Therefore, and the Power Shift 22:05 🛠️ Diagnosing Your Dialogue 🎥 WELCOME TO PLOT LUCK I'm Brian, a writer, story consultant, and studio insider who has worked with more than 600 writers across film, television, and games. Plot Luck is a workshop and masterclass for serious storytellers who want to understand how great stories actually work. Every video explores the frameworks, systems, character dynamics, and psychological engines behind powerful storytelling. If you want to write better characters, stronger relationships, more meaningful conflict, and stories that stay with people, subscribe and pull up a chair. Let's stir the plot together. #HowToWriteDialogue #WritingDialogue #Storytelling #Screenwriting #CreativeWriting #WritingTips #WritingAdvice #DialogueWriting #CharacterDevelopment #Subtext #NovelWriting #FictionWriting #AuthorTube #WritersCommunity #StoryStructure