Script Format 4: Character Dialogue + Headings

We’ve covered most of the basics of screenwriting format, but the last big pieces that remain are character headings and dialogue, which I also lump parentheticals into, too.

So, to get started...

WHAT IS DIALOGUE?

Dialogue is what the characters say, literally. The words you write into the dialogue portion of the script are what you expect an actor to say if/when they’re playing the character in a motion picture.

Given the context of when characters speak in a motion picture, they might be speaking to another character, in an act of dialogue; or perhaps they are speaking to themselves. Somewhere in between lie characters that speak to animals or other companions that don’t actively talk back. Any of these are perfectly acceptable reasons for your characters to speak. Most of us talk to ourselves. Most of us talk to our animals. If you don’t, you’re a weirdo.

Naturally, many actors will take some liberties with the wording of what is said, usually to make it more naturally flow out of their version of the character. But, you as the writer should treat the dialogue as if it’s exactly what an actor would say.

I’ve seen some novices who summarize or otherwise write the gist of what the character is saying in the dialogue portion of the script. Don’t do that. If you read your dialogue out loud, that’s how it would be said by an actor.

Another common mistake I see new writers make is to summarize parts of the dialogue in narrative description, and only write in the dialogue what they choose to. I don’t know if they really would want an actor to improvise that part of the dialogue or what, but this is also a no. Don’t do it. 

Anything that you don’t find important enough to write word-for-word in the dialogue isn’t important enough to be in your script or story.

WHAT DOES DIALOGUE LOOK LIKE?

On the page, dialogue will be aligned one inch (ten spaces) to the right of your scene headings and narrative description, which make up the left margin. 

It will be written in normal sentence-case, meaning the same capitalization rules you would follow when writing an essay. But since people don’t always speak in complete sentences, dialogue does *not* need to be written in complete sentences.

DIALOGUE IS AN ILLUSION

Many beginning writers think writing dialogue is all about making it ‘realistic’, but it’s important to remember: it’s not real. Dialogue is not human speech. It’s written by the writer to serve a purpose in the story. It has a point.

As a new writer, it’s easy to convince yourself that the best way to learn how to write dialogue is to write down the things that people say, and to find ways to include that dialogue, or similar dialogue, in your script. The best way to write realistic dialogue is to pull it straight from reality, right? Maybe, but realism shouldn’t be your highest priority.

OK, WELL, WHAT’S THE POINT OF DIALOGUE, THEN?

The point of dialogue is to deliver information to the reader/viewer.

Dialogue is usually between characters, but is ultimately directed at the audience. Always keep this in mind. Every piece of dialogue is for the audience. It’s how we learn about our characters, their backstories, what has happened off-screen, etc.

Dialogue is also important in delivering subjective information. It’s one way that we learn how our characters feel about things, or what they think.

Keep in mind that we can’t really know how they feel or think, and dialogue is only one way of extracting this information. The other being what characters actually do. You can create drama, comedy, or even horror, through a character saying one thing, and their actions implying a contradiction.

SUBJECTIVITY

By the way, subjective is a conditional term for a source of information, meaning that it’s coming from a subject’s point-of-view. The term subjective can mean something that’s affected by emotional experience, or simply something that has a limited point-of-view.

As it relates to people, it means both. We’re inherently subjective creatures. Everything we experience is filtered through our emotions, and our sensory perceptions are limited in perceiving any situation. 

This is opposed to objective information, which is ‘factual’. This deals primarily with things like math, numbers, and what we understand in the realm of science. It’s hard for much to be objective past that. A lot of people consider what a camera captures to be objective, but even that is inherently limited in its point-of-view, so it’s only objective so far as it’s not influenced by emotions associated with what it’s capturing. 

CHARACTER HEADINGs

It’s necessary to know who is speaking at any given time. That’s the purpose of a character heading.

A character heading goes above a block of dialogue, and includes the name of who is speaking, as well as any other modifiers that help us understand the context of how they’re speaking. Character headings are always in ALL CAPS.

Note that you don’t have to write the character’s name in whole, or even the character’s actual name at all. Basically, you want a character heading to match how you refer to a character in the narrative description. So, if a character is known in the script as Henchman #3, then that’s what their character heading would read as well.

On the page, character headings are 2.2 inches (22 spaces) from the left margin, or an additional 12 spaces to the right of the dialogue. This puts character headings pretty close to the center of the page.

TO BE (CONT’D)

One of the most common character heading modifiers, (CONT’D) indicates to the reader that the character speaking is the same one that was just speaking. (CONT’D) stands for CONTinueD, as in the dialogue is continued from before.

The purpose of (CONT’D) stems from the most common context of when characters are speaking, which is in a dialogue, or conversation. Generally, one character will speak, and then the other will speak, and then the first will speak again, and back and forth and so on.

This general conversation cadence lulls us into a rhythm as readers, so that every time there’s a break after dialogue, we assume the other character is speaking now, without consciously reading the character heading.

(CONT’D) helps us realize that the same character isn’t done, and that they’re still speaking. Their speech has simply been broken up by some narrative description, or action.

On the page, (CONT’D) goes after the character’s name in the character heading, with a space in between. It’s as simple as that.

Not all writers use the (CONT’D) convention, but I do find it somewhat helpful to stay oriented as a reader. I don’t personally think there’s a drawback to using (CONT’D), other than just remembering to include it in the character heading when appropriate. 

PARENTHETICALS (WRYLIES) 

Right below the character heading, you’ll often find some words in parentheses. These are known as parentheticals, or wrylies. These can represent a few different things.

First, parentheticals can inform us of the way in which a character speaks. This might be something general, such as their accent, or a specific manner in which they’re saying that piece of dialogue, such as (whispering).

Another use for parentheticals is to describe a minor action the character performs as they speak. For example, a teacher who is speaking while they write on the chalkboard might have a parenthetical that reads (writing on the chalkboard).

If there are several characters in the scene, and your character is speaking directly to certain characters, you can use parentheticals to indicate this as well. This usually looks like (to Dee) or (to Charlie).

Parentheticals can also go in the middle of a character’s dialogue. Perhaps a character is multi-tasking as they speak, or they change which character they’re talking to. Either way, the parenthetical gets its own line that breaks up the lines of dialogue. This helps to keep the script moving, rather than hitting return, writing a line of narrative description, hitting return again, and writing another character heading.

On the page, they are 1.6 inches (16 spaces) from the left margin. This puts them 6 spaces to the left of the character heading.

OS vs VO

Two of the other conventions that you’ll frequently see in character headings are (OS) and (VO).

(OS) means the character is ‘Off-Screen’. They are physically present in the scene, but they aren’t on camera. Usually they’re communicating from another room, or they simply aren’t visible. In a shooting script, this might be used to simply indicate that the character isn’t in frame. Perhaps they speak, and the camera whip-pans over to them.

(VO) stands for ‘Voice-Over’. This is a bit more broad, but generally means they are not physically present in the scene. You might use this in a character heading for a character speaking through a phone, speaker, television, etc. This is also the proper abbreviation to use for a voiceover narrator.

Many beginning writers struggle with the difference between (OS) and (VO). When in doubt, you probably want (VO). (OS) is such a specific use-case that you’ll probably know when it’s appropriate, and (VO) applies to pretty much everything else.

VOICEOVER NARRATION?

While we’re on the subject, let’s talk a bit about voiceover narration. Anytime we hear a character’s voice establishing the world by informing us of the backstory, or by otherwise talking us through the narrative, that’s voiceover narration. The character speaking the voiceover narration is the narrator.

Most of the time, the narrator is a character in the story.

If the voiceover narrator is the protagonist, then the story is likely from the first-person perspective. If the story is from the protagonist’s perspective, and if the protagonist is delusional or otherwise dishonest, then perhaps what we’re seeing in the story isn’t exactly the ‘truth’.

The narrator might be another character in the story, though, which means the story is from the second- or third-person perspective, depending on how they address the audience. It’s still subjective, but we have a different sort of filter for when or why certain aspects of the story might not be totally truthful.

Sometimes, the narrator isn’t a character that’s *in* the plot at all, but their entire character is based around their role as narrator. Most of the time, this means that they’re a more knowing, semi- or fully omniscient (all-knowing), third-person perspective. A lot of times, this kind of narrator will seem god-like, authoritative and straightforward.

Sometimes, though, this kind of narrator will have just as much character as anyone else. Their omniscience can create moments of humor as they juxtapose or contradict what other characters are saying, such as in Arrested Development (2003).

A narrator is seen as lazy writing by some, because it can be used to spoon-feed backstory and information that would otherwise need to be delivered through dialogue and visuals.

Of course a narrator can be used too much, or in an ineffective manner, but so can every other aspect of screenwriting. A narrator is just another storytelling tool that can be used to great effect to strengthen a story, when used in a way that works and fits with the story.

For instance, use a voiceover to quickly bring us up to speed, summarizing what otherwise would be too lengthy or difficult to show on-screen. You’ll probably want to write a series-of-shots that complement what the narrator is saying, too. 

Using a narrator in this way is especially common in sci-fi narratives; most of which take place in unique worlds and realities. Explaining how the world got to that point through dialogue would almost certainly seem unnatural and heavy-handed. Using a narrator to explain the context of the reality also helps because you can lay it out at the start of the narrative, so the reader/viewer has a sense of understanding as we move into the story. They’re not distracted by trying to make sense of the world, and they can focus on what’s happening with the characters.

A poor or ineffective use of a narrator would be to have them state exactly what the reader/viewer is already seeing. This makes the narrator redundant and pointless.

A good narrator complements or contradicts what we see and hear.

WRITING DIALOGUE

When scripting dialogue, it’s important to keep in mind the roles that dialogue should play in a story. This helps form the foundation of what the dialogue should be doing. Once you figure that out, then you write the actual dialogue in a way that fits your character.

EXPOSITION

One of the most important things that dialogue should do is to deliver exposition. Exposition is information that helps the reader/viewer to understand the story, including information about the world and characters.

So, if you want the audience to know that two characters are related, how a character feels about something, or when they first got their cat, that information is exposition and probably will come out via dialogue.

Remember that you cannot just write this information in the narrative description. The viewer can’t read the narrative description, so it’s not a way to practically deliver information in a screenplay.

Also, it’s important to note that exposition doesn’t have to be delivered via dialogue. In fact, as a screenwriter, you should use the sights and sounds of your story to inform the reader/viewer as often as dialogue, if not more. This is often called visual exposition.

RATIONING EXPOSITION

Writing exposition is a balancing act.

You don’t want to dump out all of your story’s exposition at the beginning because it will be heavy-handed and unnatural. Another problem with too much information is that your audience will likely become overwhelmed or bored with details.

At the same time, you don’t want to withhold all of your exposition indefinitely because you want your reader/viewer to know what’s going on in your story, and not to be confused.

That being said, it’s good practice to withhold *some* exposition to keep your reader/viewer intrigued to learn more.

SUBTEXT

It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Subtext is the meaning behind the words. It’s the truth of what is (or isn’t) said. 

Oftentimes what a character literally says doesn’t align with what they actually mean. People are rarely concise and to the point. Many people struggle with being direct, so there are many ways in which people say or indicate what they really mean.

These signs might not be obvious to those that don’t know them, so sometimes you might not pick up on the subtext of something a character says the first time you read or watch something through. It’s only given the context of what you learn later that provides you with enough understanding of the character to dig below the surface of their words to translate the subtext of what they’re really saying.

If you think of dialogue like an iceberg, the part of the iceberg above the surface is what the character literally says, and the bulk of the iceberg below the surface, the subtext, is what they actually mean.

Subtext is hard for many beginning writers, but this is one way in which you can start to write much more realistic dialogue. 

MONOLOGUE

Another tool at the writer’s disposal when it comes to dialogue is monologue. But what is a monologue? As the name implies, it’s one-sided dialogue. Basically, one character speaks extensively without being interrupted. A monologue can be delivered from one character to another, or from one character to a group of people.

It’s best to deliver a monologue in a context where the people listening can’t easily interject, such as a person giving a speech, or on the television. While monologues are often written into face-to-face situations, these are unrealistic and cheesy. 

It’s commonly used to reveal the motivations of an antagonist, and usually placed around the crisis, or toward the end of the film. But even though this is the most common use of monologue, it’s a bit of a cliché.

CHARACTER THROUGH DIALOGUE

While much of what’s written above is informational and hopefully helpful in writing effective dialogue, there are a lot of other considerations to make when writing dialogue; many of which are related to character development.

Some of the character considerations to make: grammar, syntax, vocabulary, accent, dialect, slang, jargon, etc.

People speak differently, so our characters should, too. Thorough development of the above will help your dialogue to feel more realistic as well.

In a nutshell, dialogue should be boiled down to the core message or information of what is being said, but then that message is run through the filter of the character saying it. The filter process might mean that the dialogue becomes long and meandering, or it's brutally to the point and honest.

SOME DIALOGUE DO’S AND DIALOGUE DON'TS

Do’s:

• Keep your dialogue relatively lean. One to three sentences per character, usually.

  • Dialogue is like a game of ping pong. Most interactions are back and forth

• If it’s a character who rambles, give them less to say per exchange.

• Read your dialogue out loud. Even better, read it with friends. This will help identify problems with cadence and believability.

• Try to have each bit of dialogue advance the plot, understanding of character, or theme.

• Have your characters’ dialogue play off of one another. There should be an action-reaction dynamic. One character says something, and the other person answers or reacts to what was said. You can break this, but do so with purpose.

• Likewise, there should be some form of exchange between characters. This exchange can be a dramatic exchange, fueled by some sort of conflict or resistance, or an informational exchange, where they are letting each other (and the audience) know new information. This exchange of information is exposition.

• Show, don’t tell.

  • Don’t always tell us something in dialogue that you could easily show us through narrative description instead.

  • You have the advantage of writing for a visual medium, so make use of the visuals.

Don’ts:

• Don’t have your characters say each other’s names, except when introducing someone, greeting someone, or saying bye. 

  • How often do you say people’s names?

• Don’t have characters tell each other information they already know, unless you write your character saying “I know” in response.

• Don’t try to spell out dialect heavy dialogue.

• Don’t write a bunch of filler words like “um”.

PAST THE BASICS

We’ve now covered all the main parts of the screenplay. Of course there are a lot of more advanced conventions that writers use when screenwriting, some of which we’ll look at in the final Format article, but understanding how to write scene headings, narrative description, and dialogue allows you to write any story that you’d want to. The rest is just convention.