A workshop for spoken lines
Write dialogue people believe.
The Dialogue Lab is a craft desk for novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, comic writers, and narrative designers. The advice is specific, the examples are written out, and the tools never upload your pages.
“You left the light on,” Jon said. Mara kept her coat. “It’s on a timer.” “We don’t have a timer.” She put her keys in the bowl they both used and neither of them owned. “Then it must have been you.”
Start here
Pick the room the line has to survive.
Novels
Subtext, voice, and the sentence that doesn’t explain itself.
Screenplays
Format first, then the four-line habit that keeps a page alive.
Stage
No close-ups. The pause and the overlap have to do the looking.
Comics
A balloon is a shot size. Spend the words like ink.
Games
Barks, branches, and the player who will walk away mid-line.
Audio
If it cannot be heard, it is not in the scene.
The long path
Craft, then format, then the medium, then the genre.
- 01CraftTwelve principles, subtext, voice, conflict, and the cut.
- 02FormatCommas, cues, balloons, and the British/American split.
- 03MediumScreen, stage, comics, games, memoir, audio.
- 04GenreRomance, crime, fantasy, history, and books for younger readers.
- 05PracticeThirty prompts, six private tools, a streak you don’t have to log in for.
Private tools
Paste the scene. It does not leave the browser.
Dialogue Punctuation Checker
Flags comma, cap, and action-beat mistakes and explains each one.
Screenplay Format Converter
Turn prose dialogue into screenplay blocks, and the reverse.
Dialogue-to-Narration Ratio Analyser
Split a scene into dialogue, action, and interiority.
Dialogue Tag Auditor
Count tags, adverbs, and beats without punishing the word said.
Subtext Exercise Generator
A hidden want and a hidden obstacle for two characters.
Speaking Time Calculator
Pages or words into minutes for stage, audio, and narration.
From the desk
Published by Stewart Ferris.
The Lab is an editorial workshop, not a coverage mill and not a contest. If you need a script consultant, a manuscript critique, or book editing services, the About page says how to tell a useful one from a slogan. Questions come to [email protected].