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I've talked about this before.
A lot of screenwriters are nice, decent, civil people. The problem with being nice, decent and civil is that you might have a tendency to make your characters too nice, decent and civil.
Pleasant, friendly banter is what we all want in our daily lives. Live and let live. Let's all try to get along. Life is tough enough without having to deal with some out of the blue problem that forces us to have an argument or a scene with somebody.
But in fiction it just can't be this way because it's boring. Characters are either talking or talking "about" something. And it's not so much that they should be screaming at each other (although that's always fun to watch), but they should be disagreeing. They should have opposing opinions and philosophies. They can be lovers, co-workers, neighbors, siblings...anything.
But to make an audience want to watch them and an agent, producer and studio want to make a movie about them they have to come alive in a script.
The best way to make your characters come alive and jump off the page is to have them riled up about something and confronting someone else about it.
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