John August

Words on the page

One dash, two dashes

Formatting, QandA, Words on the page

questionmarkI’m thinking this might boil down to “personal preference”, but I can’t seem to find any direct answers as to whether it’s best perception-wise to use one hyphen, two hyphens (as I see more and more) or no hyphen at all? The trend seems to be going towards two, but I can’t see or find what the relevance is. Can you elaborate?

— Chris
The OC

There are at least three distinct names for those little horizontal lines used in English.

A **hyphen** is the shortest of these, and is used to break a word into syllables (i.e. hyphenation). You also use hyphens to make compound words like inside-out. On your keyboard, it’s probably next to the plus sign, so it’s fair to conflate it with “minus.”

A **dash** is a punctuation mark. An **en-dash** is commonly used for ranges, such as “6–10 years.” An **em-dash** is longer, and used to set off a phrase—often a parenthetical thought, like this—from the rest of the sentence.

With most typefaces, you can and should use en-dashes and em-dashes instead of just automatically hitting the hyphen. You can use a special key combination, ((On a Mac, you make an en-dash with option-hyphen and the em-dash with shift-option-hyphen.)) but many applications will automatically choose the right one based on context, such as converting two hyphens into an em-dash.

Em-dashes in particular just look better. And you don’t need to put spaces around the dash.

Screenplays are set in monospace fonts like Courier. Because every letter takes up the same amount of space, a lot of what looks good in normal typefaces looks wrong in Courier. ((Notably, we still double-space after the period in Courier.)) Traditional typewriters never had “real” dashes, so the convention was to use two hyphens instead, generally set off with a space on either side.

TODD BLANDERSNOT (14) is the homeliest kid at Miskatonic Academy -- and two of Cthulu’s kids go here.

That’s what I use: two floating hyphens. Other writers jam two hyphens right at the end of a word, ((The Wibberleys do this. We rewrote once each other on a project, and it involved a lot of dash-redeployment.)) or leave a single hyphen dangling at the end of a line when cutting before the end of a sentence.

You can also simply stop a line early, with no punctuation. I often do this when the next thing will be an intermediate slugline:

Dazed, Todd scrambles to feet just as

THREE GRIFFONS

swoop down from above, snatching random classmates in their talons.

It’s all to your taste. The important thing is to pick a style and stay consistent throughout the script.

Are parentheticals over-used?

QandA, Words on the page

questionmarkYou often hear you shouldn’t use parentheticals for things other than acting directions (“surprised”, “relieved”, etc… And even use those sparingly).

What’s the accepted tolerance for parentheticals for actions such as:

MINDY

(raising her glass)

I wish to say a few words...

or

JÜRGEN

Wait!

(signaling for the soldiers to stop)

She has the detonator!

Is this a big no-no? A small no-no? Can you get away with it once or twice in a script, if you want to shave off a few lines from a page? Or does it reek of the amateur screenwriter?

— Liam Paris

I’ve used parentheticals in situations similar to both your examples, though I’m more likely to break those lines out as scene description:

Raising her glass --

MINDY

I wish to say a few words...

But as I’ve written about before, there are other situations in which parentheticals make sense, and using them smartly can both trim pages and improve the read. It’s all to your taste and style.

You’ll find A-list screenwriters who write five-line parentheticals and others who eschew them altogether. (Anything you do in a parenthetical could theoretically be accomplished in scene description.)

Read a lot of screenplays and find a style you like. For example, you may find yourself emulating writers who use parentheticals for as-if situations…

TARA

(“damn it!”)

Puppetfuzz!

…or to establish the pacing on a joke. Try it and see what works.

Like CUT TO:’s and sluglines, the use of parentheticals comes down to personal preference. As long as you are consistent and engaging, readers are unlikely to object.

Learn more about the basics of parenthetical usage here!

Angles, spacing and monikers

Formatting, QandA, Television, Words on the page

questionmarkThree quick questions:

(a) I was reading over a pilot example, and I saw a lot of angle descriptions, camera descriptions, etc. I thought that was a big no-no: don’t describe angles or try to “direct” via your script. Is that less a concern these days? Or less a concern when writing for TV than film?

(b) Ditto the spacing. I was under the impression that TV scripts had to be double-spaced, all dialogue in caps, etc. Is that not true for pilots?

(c) There is already a writer working on film/TV with my name (Joshua Siegal). I’m thinking of going with J. Howard Siegal. Do I need to get registered with the writer’s guild and such with that name? Is it a good/bad idea to find a unique name to write under?

— Josh

(a) Some screenwriters refer to the camera a lot. It’s not wrong, but it can annoy directors. I try to avoid mentioning angles and camera movements unless it’s very important. As an alternative, I use “we” —

RISING THROUGH THE CHIMNEY, we reveal Kruchkov.

He pulls the pin on a grenade. Drops it with a smile.

— and you should know that some people hate “we.” I think it reads better, but to each his own.

(b) The only way to know how a show is formatted is to read an actual script from the series. Single-camera TV shows are generally formatted like feature films, single-space. Multi-camera shows (sitcoms) are double-space. But there are exceptions, so never assume.

(c) Screenwriter names are not regulated the way actor names are, but yes, it’s a good idea to have a unique moniker. For example, there is already another [aspiring John August](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2004/my-namesake-also-a-screenwriter).

Stressing out in dialogue

Formatting, QandA, Words on the page

questionmarkI was just wondering how to indicate that a character is stressing a certain word in the dialog. I’ve thought about using capitalization but I’m not sure that’s the proper way, as I’ve also seen quotation marks used to similar effect. If you had any advice on which method you use, that would be more appreciated.

— Mike Morin
Portsmouth, Rhode Island

Underline. But remember, in most cases, you needed and shouldn’t give a specific line reading for any piece of dialogue. If a scene is working, readers (and actors) will naturally fall into the right tone.

But if you have a line that only makes sense one way — and it’s not the first way someone would read it — you have a couple of choices:

Set it up in stage direction:

Through clenched teeth --

MARGARET

I’d delighted.

Use a parenthetical:

CORBIN

(condescending)

I’m sure you’ll improve.

Underline the word or words that need to be stressed:

XANDER

I’m not not saying he wasn’t a Bugwath demon but if he was — or wasn’t, I confused myself there — either way he was surly. And oddly cat-phobic. Now can we get back to the part where the whole world goes boom at midnight?

You’ll occasionally see italics in dialogue (often for foreign languages). A few screenwriters use boldface or uppercase in dialogue. I’ve never seen the need.

Quotation marks should be reserved for moments that a character might make “air quotes” around something they’re saying. The misuse of quotation marks is a scourge of modern English.