With 39 hours of produced television to his credit, George Merryman has twice been nominated for an Australian Writers’ Guild AWGIE Award. He was a staff writer on the serial Going Home and head writer on the series TwentyfourSeven, both for SBS. George teaches screenwriting at the University of Technology, Sydney and at weekends runs an independent cinema in Newcastle, New South Wales.
How did you get into screenwriting?
I started writing at university. I had a BA but I was doing a Diploma of Education at Newcastle University when I fell in with a bad crowd – a ragtag team of talented misfits responsible for the uni revue. When we graduated we lost touch. I moved to Sydney and started doing stand-up. Then one of my fellow uni revue actors spotted me on stage. Vanessa Bates was working for Beyond Productions and she asked me if I wanted to help develop some shows for television. I worked on a number of things: a couple of sitcoms, a sketch pilot, even a half-hour soap – none of which saw the light of day. But they taught me how to write for television and paved the way for future work.
Why is writing truthful dialogue such a challenge?
Writers can get self-conscious when writing dialogue. And you know what they say (they being Ray Bradbury, specifically): ‘Self-consciousness is the enemy of art.’ It might be helpful to remember that creating dialogue for characters is child’s play – literally. Speaking in character is something we all did as kids when we played house or cowboys and Indians. But we become inhibited. Possibly because of what they say (they being your mother), ‘Think before you speak.’ In writing dialogue, the opposite is true. Don’t think. Do. Because what’s the fear? The fear is that the characters may sound stilted, or all sound the same, or that the dialogue may feel forced or inconsistent. What’s the worst thing that would happen if any one or all of those fears were realised? The worst thing that would happen is that you’d have to re-write. But you know what they say (they being everyone who’s ever picked up a pen or opened a laptop): ‘Writing is re-writing.’
Keen to hear more of George’s insights on the art of dialogue? You Talkin’ to Me? Writing Great Dialogue
is a one-day workshop in which George will reveal all the secrets of truthful talk in fiction. Saturday 18 June, 10am-4pm at the NSW Writers’ Centre. Plus visit our blog later this week to see more of his Q&A.