DIALOGUE

Dialogue consists of three parts: 1) the name of the character who is speaking; 2) the words that are spoken; and 3) any parenthetical direction related to how the line is spoken or what the character is doing during the speech.

1LOUISE

     3(rifling her purse)
2Where did I put that check?
Where is it?!

Character name over dialogue

The first and simplest rule here is that a character’s name over dialogue should remain consistent throughout a script. With large numbers of speaking characters in a cast, this isn’t always easy to achieve. The name of a character introduced as CAPTAIN MILFORD BROOKS shouldn’t appear over dialogue first as CAPTAIN, later as CAPT. BROOKS, and later still as BROOKS. Choose one name for each character and use it consistently over dialogue.

Changing a character’s name over dialogue

Sometimes, a character’s name over dialogue must change. When that happens, it is done in a clear and orderly way. Say a character has been introduced as FEMALE SURGEON and that name appears over her dialogue:

A FEMALE SURGEON strides into the operating room.

FEMALE SURGEON

I’m going to need coffee, black,
stat!
That plate of egg rolls
from the lounge!
And a breath mint
for the anesthesiologist!

Later, we learn the surgeon’s name and decide to switch to using that name over dialogue. We do it like this:

SURGICAL NURSE

(rolling his eyes)
Good morning, Dr.
Crump.

CRUMP (FEMALE SURGEON

’Morning, sunshine.
Crump picks up a scalpel and goes to work.

CRUMP

Keep those breath mints coming.

The first time a character’s new name appears over dialogue, the old name appears beside it in parentheses. From then on, the new name is used alone over dialogue. The change has been made in a way that confuses no one.

Numbered names over dialogue

A group of minor characters, say guards or doctors, may be introduced and have only a small number of lines. These characters sometimes never receive individual names like Sal or Throckmorton. They’re simply Guard One, Guard Two and Guard Three. Or First Doctor, Second Doctor and Third Doctor. Or Assassin #1, Assassin #2 and Assassin #3. Any of these numbering schemes is acceptable. Simply be consistent:

ASSASSIN #1

Where are the bullets?

ASSASSIN #2

I thought you had the bullets!

ASSASSIN #3

We have no bullets?!

Group names over dialogue

Sometimes a group of characters speak together, all saying the same thing, and a plural or group name over dialogue is used:

The MARINES respond in unison.

MARINES

Semper fi!

It is also possible to use a plural name over dialogue for a group of characters who speak simultaneous but distinct lines:

REPORTERS swarm around the mayor.

REPORTERS

Mr. Mayor!/How do you respond to
the charges?/Will you have to
drop out of the campaign?/Do you
deny the allegations?

This is the simplest way to handle short bursts of simultaneous dialogue. A more involved method is described later, under the heading Double, triple or quadruple dialogue.

Capitalizing McDonald’s and DeVries over dialogue

Just like with shot headings, when names like McDonald’s and DeVries appear over dialogue, capitalize like this:

MCDONALD’S MANAGER

C’mon, c’mon. Who’s on registers?

DEVRIES

Ciao now, brown cow.

V.O. and O.S.: When we don’t see the person talking

Often dialogue is spoken by characters who aren’t visible onscreen at the time their voices are heard. When this happens, the abbreviation V.O. or O.S. appears beside the character name over dialogue. Where and when each designation applies has been a source of great confusion among writers. The rule is this: When a character is physically present in a scene but is simply outside the view of the camera while speaking, he is offscreen and the abbreviation O.S. applies. The abbreviation V.O. applies in every other case: voices heard over telephones, answering machines, tape recorders, TVs, loudspeakers and radios, the voices of narrators, voices that overlap from preceding or following scenes and voices originating in memory, imagination or hallucination. The abbreviations V.O. and O.S. appear beside the character name, capitalized, with periods, enclosed in parentheses.

Melissa pushes play on her ANSWERING MACHINE. There’s a BEEP, then:

MRS. TEAGUE (V.O.)

Melissa? Melissa, it’s Mom. If
you’re there, pick up.
Sweetheart,
it’s an emergency.
Your daddy cut
up all my plastic again.

The sun rises over Walton’s Mountain.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

That was the last time John Boy
ever saw his uncle.
But he never
forgot the man.
Or the lesson he
had taught.

A TV behind the bar is PLAYING the NEWS:

NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.)

… Authorities say that the
storm is expected to strike about
midnight tonight.

Nick snaps up the RINGING PHONE.

NICK

This is Nick.

MARY (V.O.)

(on phone)
It’s me.
I’m still waiting.

Jake tumbles through space, the helmet of his space suit shattered, his face a mask of terror, as the space ship drifts away from him.

MOM (V.O.)

Jake. Wake up, Jake. You’re going
to miss the school bus.

INT. JAKE’S BEDROOM — MORNING

His eyes snap open and he looks up at his longsuffering Mom. Gives her a gueasy smile.

All of the above examples are designated V.O. because the voice comes from somewhere outside the physical location of the scene. In the next example, the voice originates nearby, but outside the view of the camera, and is therefore designated O.S.:

Queeg turns at the sound of Ned calling from outside the locked door.

NED (O.S.)

I’ll break down this door, you
don’t open it.
Don’t think I
won’t.

Using “Voice” instead of V.O. and O.S.

An older, less common but still legitimate method of handling offscreen voices and voice overs is to use the word “voice” beside the unseen speaker’s name:

MARY’S VOICE

(on phone)
It’s me.
I’m still waiting.

NED’S VOICE

I’ll break down this door,
you don’t open it.
Don’t think
that I won’t.

When this method is used, offscreen voices and voice overs are handled identically. Whichever method you decide to use, use it consistently throughout the script.

The words that are spoken

The actual words that characters speak comprise the vital heart of dialogue. Several guidelines apply. First, for the sake of the actors who will say them, spell out every spoken word. Instead of “Lt.” type “Lieutenant.” Instead of “St.” type “Street.” Or perhaps “Saint”:

ZUZU

Lieutenant Gi lives on Saint
Street.

Grammar, accents and colloquial speech

Characters speak in a manner consistent with who they are. Their grammar isn’t always correct. Their sentences aren’t always complete. They talk like real people talk. Consequently, incorrect grammar is common and acceptable in dialogue:

SNAKE

Ain’t nobody gonna stop me.

Nonstandard spellings may be used when they serve to describe a unique way a character pronounces a word:

AGENT GUTHRIE

I plan to shoot that fat Eye-talian
Al Capone.

STEVE MARTIN

Well excuuuuuuse me.

Accents can be suggested by judiciously modifying the spellings of words.

TEX

We’re fixin’ to do some dumpster
divin’.

A strong word of caution here: When this sort of thing is overdone, it’s murder to read. An accent can be suggested with word choices and syntax as well as spelling changes, and a little goes a very long way.

Emphasizing words in dialogue

To give a word or group of words in dialogue special force or emphasis, underscore them:

MICAH

Not this one. That one.

SCHMIDT

Go ahead. Call your New York
lawyer.
We will bury you.

As with underlining in direction, underscoring of multiple words is always continuous (not We will bury you). Notice also that the punctuation at the end of the sentence doesn’t get underscored.

If you want to give even greater force to a word or group of words in dialogue, combine capitalization with the underscoring:

SGT. LITTLE

Fire your weapons! FIRE!!!

Don’t use bold or italics. This rule dates to the era when scripts were typed on Underwoods and boldface and italic type weren’t practical. It continues to make sense today because when an original print of a script is photocopied, as it will be if it’s widely read, bold and italics can come to look more and more like regular type and the intended emphasis is lost.

Initials and acronyms in dialogue

Initials and acronyms occurring in dialogue should be typed in all capital letters. Initials are typed with periods to indicate to the actor that the letters are to be pronounced individually:

SCHRECKER

We met at an I.E.P. for
L.A.U.S.D.

Acronyms are typed without periods to indicate that they are to be pronounced as words:

SMYTHE

He left FEMA to run an AIDS
clinic.

This can be an extremely helpful pronunciation aid when the terms are technical and relatively unfamiliar:

DR. BECKETT

Push the V-ZIG I.M. before the
G.C.S.F., which is given sub-Q.

The above guidelines notwithstanding, some initials (e.g. TV and FBI) are so familiar that they present no risk of confusion even without periods and no harm is done if the periods are omitted.

Breaking words with a hyphen in dialogue

Unless the word is already hyphenated (e.g. sister-in-law), don’t break words at the right margin of dialogue with a hyphen. Instead, move the entire word to the next line and keep it intact. Your actors will thank you. (A necessary exception occurs when a word is so long it can’t possibly fit within the margins of dialogue. Sadly, very few such words actually exist.)

Parenthetical character direction

Parenthetical character direction refers to words of direction contained in parentheses within a line of dialogue:

JONAH

(absolutely terrified)
Why shouldn’t you throw me
overboard?
    (eyeing the angry
    water)
I can’t swim.
And I’ve a fear
of fish.

SHIPMATE

And we’ve a fear of drowning.
    (looks at his fellow
    sailors; smiles)

          And there’s more of us than
          there are of you.

Five rules of parenthetical character direction

Five principle rules govern parenthetical character direction:

  1. Include in parenthetical direction only a description of how a line is spoken or what the character is doing while the line is being spoken. Never include direction for anyone other than the character actually speaking. Never include technical direction such as sound effects or camera direction. All of the following are INCORRECT:

    ALYSE

    (Mike enters)
    Hey, what’s up?
         (Mike ignores her)
    Hell-o.
    Earth to Mike.

    TREVOR

    (PHONE RINGS)
    Trevor Trotter speaking.

    GRIFFIN

    Stay right there.
         (steps OUT OF FRAME,
         returns)
    I got you this book.

    All of what appears in parentheses above should be pulled out and placed in regular direction:

    Mike enters.

    ALYSE

    Hey, what’s up?

    Mike ignores her.

    ALYSE

    Hell-o. Earth to Mike.

    The PHONE RINGS.

    TREVOR

    Trevor Trotter speaking.

    GRIFFIN

    Stay right there.

    He steps OUT OF FRAME, returns.

    GRIFFIN

    I got you this book.

  2. Never capitalize the first letter of parenthetical direction or add a period at the end. Punctuation consists primarily of commas and semicolons, never a dash, never an ellipsis, and never a final period.

    Instead of this:

    HAMLET

    (Relishing the famous
         line.)
    To be or not to be.

    Do this, lower-casing the first letter and omitting the final punctuation:

    HAMLET

    (relishing the famous
         line)
    To be or not to be.

    Instead of this:

    NIXON

    (points to recorder …
         signals Haldeman to keep
         quiet — smiles)
    I just had the new tape system
    installed.
    Have to look out for my
    place in history, you know.

    Do this, replacing the ellipsis and dash with semicolons:

    NIXON

    (points to recorder;
         signals Haldeman to keep
         quiet; smiles)
    I just had the new tape system
    installed.
    Have to look out for my
    place in history, you know.

    As in the example above, multiple directions can be linked with semicolons:

    SGT. SLICK

    Hey, Jerry!
         (waits a beat; throws
         grenade; ducks)
    Catch this.

    A colon is also sometimes used:

    CENSUS WORKER

    (re: clipboard)
    Sign here.

    On rare occasions a question mark or exclamation point is used:

    DEFENDANT

    (gulp!)
    I’d love to have dinner with
    you, Your Honor.

    SHEILA

    (what, me worry?)
    Bring it on.

  3. Don’t start parenthetical direction with “he” or “she.” It’s understood.

    Instead of this:

    SHERIFF

    (he draws his gun)
    Stop right there.

    Do this:

    SHERIFF

    (draws his gun)
    Stop right there.

  4. Don’t let parenthetical direction run to more than four lines.

    Instead of this:

    ROBBIE

    Let me show you something.
         (opens drawer, pulls
         out three brightly
         colored balls and
         starts to juggle;
         drops one and starts
         again; a little
         embarrassed)
    I’m still learning.

    Do this:

    ROBBIE

    Let me show you something.

    He opens a drawer, pulls out three brightly colored balls and starts to juggle. He drops one and starts again.

    ROBBIE

    (a little embarrassed)
    I’m still learning.

  5. Don’t place parenthetical direction at the end of a speech.

    Instead of this:

    JOJO

    (laughing)
    Don’t you just wish.
         (touches his arm)

    Do this:

    JOJO

    (laughing)
    Don’t you just wish.

              She touches his arm.

An important exception to this rule, as writer John August has pointed out, occurs in scripts for animation, where speeches commonly end in parenthetical directions like “(sigh)” and “(nervous laugh).”

Sotto voce, beat, re:

Three terms get heavy use in parenthetical direction: sotto voce, beat and re:.

Sotto voce is Italian for “soft voice” and is used in parenthetical direction to instruct an actor to deliver a line quietly or under his breath:

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

I can’t tell you how happy I am
to be in North Dakota today.
     (fake smile; sotto voce)
Because I’m not.

Sotto voce is sometimes shortened to just “sotto”:

BURGLAR

(sotto)
Hand me that crowbar.

A beat is a script term meaning a short pause. It appears often in both direction and parenthetical character direction:

NICHOLS

Let’s walk.
     (beat)
On second thought, let’s ride.

Beats come in several flavors:

SAMPSON

(short beat)
Why not?

DELILAH

(long beat; shakes
     her head)
We’re dead.

RUNNING HORSE

Know what I think?
     (two full beats;
     grins)
Hell, I don’t even know what I
think.

Z

(half a beat too
     slow)
Of course I love you.

The term “re:” appears often in parenthetical direction, meaning “with regard to”:

WHITE

(re: his haircut)
What d’ya think?

Foreign language dialogue and subtitles

When dialogue is in a foreign language, it can be written in the desired language, like this:

LARS OLE

Hvor er du, Hans?

If you want the foreign dialogue to be subtitled, indicate that in parenthetical direction, in lower case letters, then type the dialogue in English, saving yourself years of foreign language study:

LARS OLE

(in Norwegian;
     subtitled)
Where are you, Hans?

If an entire conversation is subtitled, that can be indicated in direction, in all caps, preceding the exchange:

The men speak in German with SUBTITLES:

HELMUT

Have you ever seen a U-boat?

WERNER

Never. But isn’t that the whole
idea?

Song lyrics in dialogue

Unless the movie is a musical, type the song lyrics in upper and lower case letters, enclosed in quotation marks. Observe the lyrical line endings by wrapping the ends of long lines and indenting the wrapped text two spaces:

TEX

“Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging
    word
And the skies are not cloudy all
    day.”

If the movie is a musical, type song lyrics in all capital letters, without quotation marks or ending punctuation:

TEX

HOME, HOME ON THE RANGE
WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY
WHERE SELDOM IS HEARD A DISCOURAGING
    WORD
AND THE SKIES ARE NOT CLOUDY ALL
    DAY

Breaking a page in the middle of dialogue

Never break a page in the middle of a sentence in dialogue. Always split the page between sentences, add (MORE) at the bottom of the page, and (CONT’D) beside the character name at the top of the following page:

FRANCONI

The treatment lasts just over
a year.

(MORE)

—-page break—-

FRANCONI (CONT’D)

It starts with fractionated
radiotherapy combined with a
chemotherapeutic agent.

Not:

FRANCONI

The treatment lasts just over
a year.
It starts with

(MORE)

—-page break—-

FRANCONI (CONT’D)

fractionated radiotherapy
combined with a chemotherapeutic
agent.

Never break dialogue with parenthetical direction at the bottom of the page. Instead, carry the parenthetical direction to the top of the following page, like this:

FRANCONI

Vincristine. It’s given outpatient.

             Intravenously.

(MORE)

—-page break—-

FRANCONI (CONT’D)

(writing it down)
Vincristine.
Look up the side
effects.

Not:

FRANCONI

Vincristine. It’s given outpatient.
Intravenously.
     (writing it down)

(MORE)

—-page break—-

FRANCONI (CONT’D)

Vincristine. Look up the side
effects.

Adding (cont’d), (CONT’D) or (continuing) when a speech is broken by direction

In years past, it was customary when a character’s speech resumed after being broken by direction to indicate that it was a continuing speech. This was accomplished by adding (cont’d) or (CONT’D) beside the character name or the word “continuing” in parenthetical direction beneath the character name. It was done like this:

JONESY

Come in. Sit down.

The PHONE RINGS.

JONESY (CONT’D)

I’ll get that.

Or:

JONESY

Come in. Sit down.

The PHONE RINGS.

JONESY (CONT’D)

I’ll get that.

Or:

JONESY

Come in. Sit down.

The PHONE RINGS.

JONESY

(continuing)
Come in.
Sit down.

In each case, the determining factor was that the same character was continuing to speak, direction notwithstanding, without an intervening speech by another character.

Marking continuing speeches ceased to be standard practice in Hollywood in the 1980s. The practice made a resurgence years later, with the advent of script software that, through a programming quirk, defaulted to include (cont’d) beside the character name.

Writers now have a choice. If your script software is set to add (cont’d) or (CONT’D) or (continuing) when a speech is broken by direction, you can leave it that way because readers are accustomed to seeing it. You can also feel free to turn it off. I prefer to omit (cont’d) beside the character name in order to save words and streamline my scripts.

(An important caveat: The one place the inclusion of (CONT’D) beside the character name remains mandatory is in multi-camera television format.)

Double, triple and quadruple dialogue

As a more flexible alternative to group dialogue, as described earlier, when multiple characters speak at the same time their dialogue can be typed in side-by-side columns like this:

SLADKEY BROWN
I told him but he didn’t
listen.
He never
listens.
     (not listening)
What do you want me to
do?
I told you exactly what
to say.
I told you
what to do if he didn’t
listen.
Why don’t you
ever listen?

Complete, separate conversations can run in parallel columns:

SLADKEY

Is Manny there?

MARIA (V.O.)

He’s at the mill.

SLADKEY

Really? I thought he was
working nights now.

MARIA (V.O.)

He’s filling in for
someone out sick.

SLADKEY

Tell him I called.

LISZT

I’m calling from Doctor
Brockman’s office.

JUNE (V.O.)

Are my results back?

LISZT

Not yet. There was a
mix-up at the lab.
We
need you to come back
for another blood draw.

JUNE (V.O.)

Ah no. You’re kidding
me.

Two, three, four and even five characters can speak simultaneously:

SLADKEY

Kids, I’m home. Who wants
pizza?

RACHEL HOPE PETER
Where’s it from? I want sausage. I’m not hungry.

Sladkey opens the box on the counter.

SLADKEY

Just get in here. I got
pepperoni.

RACHEL HOPE PETER EMILY
From where? Not sausage? I’m not hungry! Yeah!!!

SLADKEY

Where’s Pam?

Pam enters from the bathroom.

PAM RACHEL HOPE PETER EMILY
Here I am! Pam who? Pam hates
pizza.
Pam owes
me five
dollars!
Yeah, Pam!!!

Bear in mind that simultaneous dialogue can be tedious to read and should be used sparingly.

Margins for simultaneous dialogue

Margins for simultaneous dialogue are as follows:

Two simultaneous speakers

  1. Dialogue

    • First speaker

      • Left margin is 1.9″

      • Right margin is 4.5″

    • Second speaker

      • Left margin is 4.0″

      • Right margin is 2.0″

  2. Character name over dialogue

    • First speaker

      • Left margin is 2.7″

    • Second speaker

      • Left margin is 5.2″

Three simultaneous speakers

  1. Dialogue

    • First speaker

      • Left margin is 1.7″

      • Right margin is 5.3″

    • Second speaker

      • Left margin is 3.5″

      • Right margin is 3.5″

    • Third speaker

      • Left margin is 5.3″

      • Right margin is 1.7″

  2. Character name over dialogue

    • First speaker

      • Left margin is 2.2″

    • Second speaker

      • Left margin is 4.0″

    • Third speaker

      • Left margin is 5.8″

Four simultaneous speakers

  1. Dialogue

    • First speaker

      • Left margin is 1.6″

      • Right margin is 5.8″

    • Second speaker

      • Left margin is 3.0″

      • Right margin is 4.4″

    • Third speaker

      • Left margin is 4.4″

      • Right margin is 3.0″

    • Fourth speaker

      • Left margin is 5.8″

      • Right margin is 1.6″

  2. Character name over dialogue

    • First speaker

      • Left margin is 1.9″

    • Second speaker

      • Left margin is 3.3″

    • Third speaker

      • Left margin is 4.7″

    • Fourth speaker

      • Left margin is 6.1″

FAQs about dialogue

Don’t actors hate parenthetical character directions? Don’t they just sit down with their script and cross them all out?

Urn, no. But you’ll hear absolute pronouncements to that effect. The truth is that professional writers use parentheticals all the time. John Wells, former president of the Writers Guild of America West and the show runner behind the series China Beach, ER, Third Watch, and, in its later seasons, The West Wing, is a prolific user of parentheticals. But he doesn’t use them to give actors instructions about how to deliver their lines, obvious things like “(angrily)” or “(brooding).” Instead, he uses parentheticals like “(and)” and “(then)” for rhythm and pacing, to break up longer speeches into their discrete emotional movements. He uses them like a poet uses line length.

Consider the way parentheticals are used in the following passage:

EXT. MOUNTAIN FIRE ROAD — DAY

Jackie and Sylvia hike along a ridge above Malibu.

SYLVIA

He wants to meet? Where?

JACKIE

A restaurant up in the Valley.

SYLVIA

Are you going to do it?

JACKIE

No!
       (then)
I don’t know.
       (then)
Should I?

SYLVIA

Well. Where do you want this
thing to go?

JACKIE

What do you mean?

SYLVIA

I mean, are you really that
unhappy with David?

Jackie stops walking. She drinks from a water bottle and looks out toward the Pacific.

JACKIE

I’m not going to leave him. I’ll
never do that to my kids.

SYLVIA

Till death do you part.
       (beat)
So what are you looking for here?

JACKIE

Oh God, Sylvia, it feels so good
to be talking to a man at this
level again.
I’ve been so alone
for so long and I didn’t even
know it.
       (beat)

Couldn’t it be better for
everyone?
If I could be happy
like that again?

SYLVIA

  (takes a long drink)
Know what I think?
       (wicked smile)
You should just run off with this
guy.
And I’ll move into your
house and take over your life.

Legitimate uses of parenthetical character direction include:

No actor is likely to cross out parenthetical direction of this kind.

Do you know anyone named Fred?

Yes.

I want the audience to hear the dialogue from a scene before we actually cut to the scene. I think it’s called a pre-lap voice over. How do I do that?

Like this:

EXT. SINCLAIR HOUSE — NIGHT

A strange, impossible view. The CAMERA FLOATS bizarrely ABOVE the Sinclair house, LOOKING DOWN as if from a dream. The quiet is broken by a CHILD’S CRY.

CHARLIE (V.O.)

I know it was a dream but —

INT. CHARLIE’S BEDROOM — NIGHT

A sleepy Zoe sits on the bed rubbing Charlie’s back. He looks at Jackie with eyes filled with fear.

CHARLIE

Don’t you remember last summer
when I dreamed Whisper died —
then he got hit by a oar?

Was that you that day in Helsinki?

Possibly. Was that you?