Make sure your dialogue is easy to understand. It’s one thing to have a character with a weird accent or feature to make him interesting; it’s another to make him incomprehensible. Unless he’s supposed to be that way (like Farmer Fran in The Waterboy, for example), either change the dialogue or the actor’s delivery so audiences don’t get frustrated.

Don’t underestimate the power of monologues and narration. Though you may find them dull, they have done wonderful things in movies like The Shawshank Redemption and Of Mice and Men.

Make the dialogue interesting. If it’s slow, be sure it has a stirring point (such as Tommy Lee Jones’s lines in No Country for Old Men). Nobody wants to watch a movie where a girl sits around talking about eating toast all day. Unless your characters are detectives, make them stumble upon revelations the way real people do–not directly question their family and friends. Beat around the bush to create drama, but not to the point where it gets tiresome.

Let your characters lie–particularly if they are liars! Average people lie–mostly little lies–every day. If your character is really depressed in a scene, he may lie about it to a parent, saying he feels fine or even great. This will provide a very realistic element to your film.

Here are just a few tips to follow when guiding your actors through their dialogue.

Maintain consistency. If your movie takes place in Ireland and your actors have their Irish accents down perfectly, great! Just keep in mind that these accents will have to be maintained throughout the entire film. If Mr. O’Brien is going on about his potatoes in one scene and then suddenly drops the accent when he sees an alien on his farm, it’s going to be very distracting for your viewers.

Cut all unneeded dialogue. If it doesn’t serve a purpose in the film, it doesn’t need to be in it–period. The four main purposes of dialogue are to move the plot along, to explain character, to provide relevant past history or to show feelings you can’t show otherwise. Be sure that your dialogue does at least one of these things before filming the scene.

The same goes for words that are being used when you don’t need them. Unless you have a really poetic way of saying, “I like you” or “I’m so mad!” just go with the character’s actions to convey these words instead. The effect will be much more powerful, whereas using overused words will just make it appear lackluster.

Edit dialogue so that it will flow smoothly. If your actor can’t get a breath in while delivering an epic sentence, it’s probably best to cut the sentence down a bit.