- 1). Place the speech as late as possible in your script. Your goal is to keep the reader on the edge of his seat, waiting for information or that big moment in which a character reveals a secret or rallies the other characters to action with an inspiring speech.
- 2). Write the speech in present tense even if the content of the speech refers to something that happened in the past. Effective screenplays use active verbs in present tense to create a sense of immediacy. By its very nature, a speech is a long bit of dialogue, which can bog down your script unless you keep the language urgent.
- 3). Ensure that the speech is a big moment. The character who makes the speech must reveal something that has a direct bearing on the story's plot, or must be trying to convince someone or a group of people to do something that has a direct bearing on the plot. Don't waste your speech on something tangential to the main thrust of the story. For example, in the film "Wall Street," the lead character, Gordon Gekko, gives a speech in which he famously says "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed, in all its forms ... has marked the upward surge of mankind." This not only gives you insight into his character, but foreshadows his willingness to do anything, even breaking the law, to get his way. (Reference 2)
- 4). Convey emotion in your speech. By virtue of the fact that this is your character's largest amount of dialogue, every word must count. Instill emotion in the way your character speaks, whether it's dredging up a painful memory, or exhorting others to follow his lead. Strive to infuse feeling into the speech that stirs your reader as much as the characters within your story. For example, in the film "Jaws," the grizzled sailor Quint's speech about his experiences on the USS Indianapolis during World War II is powerful because it starts out as part of a drunken evening among three characters and develops into a harrowing tale of survival and loss. (Reference 3)
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