A desk for people who are in the middle of a draft.

The Dialogue Lab publishes practical writing on how spoken lines work in novels, screenplays, stage plays, comics, games, memoir, and audio. It is published by Stewart Ferris. The desk can be reached at [email protected].

Why trust this

The pages are specific because vagueness is the problem they exist to correct. You will find worked lines, not a mood. Where a famous workshop rule is too absolute — never use said, never use an adverb, never let dialogue carry a fact — the piece says so and shows the case it was papering over. Formatting pages name a reviewer. Dates are on the articles. Corrections go to the same inbox as everything else, and visible errors get a revision, not a quiet delete.

What this is not

The Lab is not a script coverage service, not a contest, and not an MFA. It will not rank your screenplay, and it does not sell a manuscript critique. Those are real jobs done by people who read the whole draft. If you hire a script consultant or book editing services, ask what they have edited in the form you are writing, whether the fee covers a second look, and whether they will mark dialogue as a system or as a pile of line notes. Software will not do that job either; the software comparison is about tools, not about taste.

How the words are made

Guides are written and revised by the editors below. We use search, style manuals, and the practice of reading aloud. We do not publish unedited model output. A fuller account of research, AI, dialect, and the clinic queue is on the editorial policy. Nothing here is legal advice; the disclaimer says what that means for quotations and for affiliate links.

The editors

• Marcus Bello

  Screenwriter and story editor

  Marcus Bello is a screenwriter and former story editor for a network drama. He edits the Lab’s screen, crime, and software pages, and still times pages with a stopwatch.

• Helen Okoye

  Novelist and dialogue coach

  Helen Okoye is a novelist and dialogue coach. She edits the Lab’s pages on subtext, voice, prose punctuation, and the line between what a character says and what a scene knows.

• Priya Raman

  Playwright and dramaturg

  Priya Raman is a playwright and dramaturg. She edits the stage, audio, and banter pages, and cares more about what a pause does to a room than about a clever exit line.

• Jonah Ellery

  Narrative designer

  Jonah Ellery is a narrative designer who has written game barks, comic scripts, and branching scenes. He edits the Lab’s interactive and balloon-economy pages.

• Amira Solt

  Manuscript editor

  Amira Solt is a manuscript editor. She reviews the Lab’s formatting, punctuation, and exercise pages, and would like the word “hissed” to take a long holiday.

Start somewhere

If you are new, begin with subtext, then the punctuation rules, then the medium you actually write. The example library and the clinic are the long-visit rooms. The workbook is the daily one.