Following up on last week’s article, Synthian took it upon himself to count how often screenwriters are actually using them, resulting in “a semi-random sampling of successful multi-decade, multi-genre writers vs their own parentheticals.”
The following numbers do not include non-dialog parentheses such as (O.S.), (V.O.) (MORE), or (CONT’D). They represent only dialogical parentheticals such as (through the megaphone) as well as (beat)s and (pause)s.
Brian Helgeland
THE POSTMAN: 137 pages
161 parentheticals
1.17 parentheticals per page
LA CONFIDENTIAL: 110 pages
99 parentheticals
.9 parentheticals per page
MAN ON FIRE: 128 pages
76 parentheticals
.59 parentheticals per page
Brian Helgeland’s average parentheticals per page: .88
John August
BIG FISH: 124 pages
97 parentheticals
.78 parentheticals per page
THE NINES: 100 pages
57 parentheticals
.57 parentheticals per page
CHARLIE’S ANGELS: 104 pages
109 parentheticals
1.04 parentheticals per page
John August’s average parentheticals per page: .79
Other writers
DAVID WEBB PEOPLES, 12 MONKEYS: 150 pages
144 parentheticals
.96 parentheticals per page
AARON SORKIN, A FEW GOOD MEN: 149 pages
225 parentheticals
1.51 parentheticals per page
J.F. LAWTON, PRETTY WOMAN: 126 pages
143 parentheticals
1.13 parentheticals per page
TED ELLIOTT & TERRY ROSSIO, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: 139 pages
152 parentheticals
1.09 parentheticals per page
With this (obviously limited) sample of 10 screenplays, we find a cohort of successful screenwriters using an average of .97 parentheticals per page. That’s higher than I would have guessed. I’m also surprised to find myself on the lower end of parenthesists.