Also known as wryly · actor direction
A short note in parentheses inside a dialogue block — how a line is delivered or a small action during it, e.g. (whispering). Use sparingly.
On the page
Parenthetical
(quietly, not looking up)
Actors and directors often ignore crowded parentheticals. If the delivery is obvious from the line, cut the note. If the action is large — crossing the room, pulling a gun — put it in action lines above or below instead of stuffing stage business into (beats), (then smiles), and similar metronome clutter.
Parentheticals earn their keep when the line would otherwise be misread: sarcasm that looks sincere in plain text, or a quiet aside inside a loud scene. Used that way, they prevent wrong table-read choices; used as a metronome for every line, they train readers to skip the column entirely.
A practical test before you keep one: remove it and re-read the cue and dialogue alone. If meaning and tone still land, delete it. If the line flips into the wrong emotion without the note, keep the shortest clear parenthetical you can write, then move on without stacking more notes.
V.O. vs O.S.: voice-over or off-screen dialogue?
O.S. means a speaker is in the scene but outside the frame; V.O. covers narration and voices outside its physical space. See screenplay examples of both.
How to format foreign-language dialogue and subtitles
Tell the reader what language is spoken and whether the audience understands it, then write the readable translation without repeating the instruction on every line.
How to format song lyrics in a screenplay
Set sung lines apart from speech — italics or all caps, one lyric line per line — and quote only the lyrics the scene actually needs.
When the line would otherwise be misread — sarcasm that looks sincere on the page, or a quiet aside in a loud scene. If removing it does not change meaning, remove it.
Usually no. A pause the audience should feel often plays better as a short action line or as white space in the dialogue rhythm. Reserve parentheticals for clarity, not metronome marks.
Standard craft puts the parenthetical under the cue and before the line it modifies. Trailing notes after a speech are easy to miss and look nonstandard to professional readers.
Aim for a few words. If you need a full sentence of business, that is action, not a parenthetical. Long notes inside the dialogue block choke the spoken line on the page.
