Whether it is the original 1868-69 novel or the most recent film adaptation in 2019, Little Women has an incredible following. As one of the great coming-of-age tales ever written, Little Women has a spectacular following. Since its first release, the book has produced a hugely successful series of inspirations. 

Even to this day, many writers still look to use Little Women as an inspiration for their own writing. How, though, can you use some lessons from Little Women to your advantage? 

Use Dialogue To Transform Your Story

One of the main skills a writer can pick up when using Little Women as inspiration is the power of its conversations. Many books and screenplays use dialogue to fill in the gaps or to give characters some form of part in the story. Others might use conversation to help pass the time so that the plot does not feel like a runaway train. By contrast, in Little Women, characters develop through conversation.

The dialogue provides an effective way for the audience to understand how the characters within feel. It provides insight into their inner conflicts, as well as their desires. As conversations unfold with the same character(s) later in the book, their growth is shown through how they talk, react, and resolve matters.

Your characters, then, should evolve through their words. Not just how they speak or what they say but how they resolve matters and how they find conflict or resolution with other characters.

Progress Through Conversation 

Given that Little Women is a coming-of-age piece, it should be no surprise that its characters see incredible depth. Early in the writing, characters are full of self-doubt and uncertain how to move forward. This creates characters that are easy to relate to because we all remember times in life when we felt that same uncertainty and doubt.

As the writing goes on, though, we see the characters become increasingly more confident in the situations and the scenarios they deal with. Situations that would have shaken a character in Little Women early on become an incident they deal with handily later on in the writing. Use that to your advantage: make sure that your characters evolve.

If a character is wracked with self-doubt early on in the writing, Little Women inspires us to show progress. That progress, though, could work the other way; they might go from being overly confident and brash to being more thoughtful and considered. Either way, characters in Little Women develop as the story goes on, and it is most commonly shown through dialogue. Use that to your advantage.

Use Vulnerability To Create Authenticity

A big part of what makes the characters in Little Women so easy to believe in is their vulnerability. Many screenplays and writing pieces fall down because the characters feel unrealistically resilient. Promote the fact that your characters are vulnerable – human, even – through their conversations. Show that they do not always know what to think, or how to feel, or what to say.

This creates authenticity in the character, but it also ensures that as the screenplay goes on they can change. They can become more capable of dealing with situations that, earlier on in the writing, caused strife. Little Women masterfully shows characters who are akin to opeple you could know in real life because, just like real humans, they are vulnerable. They do not always find the answer, and they are not always right. 

Use these ideas to your advantage; you should find it much easier to craft a screenplay that feels genuinely valuable to its audience. Little Women is a work of art celebrated with good reason; learning how Little Women does things to such a high standard helps elevate your work and increase the standard. Good luck!