Reader Question: What about using (CONT’D) in separated dialogue?
Open forum question via email from Chris:
This is cfan from GITS. I have a question about using (CONT’D) in dialogue. I see it’s used when one character’s dialogue is interrupted by action. I thought it was meant to convey continuous speaking while the action is occurring. For example:
UNCLE JOHN
I was going to tell you about your mother.
He pours Sally a cup of tea.
UNCLE JOHN (CONT’D)
She was a lovely woman. It’s too bad you didn’t know her.
In my view, you wouldn’t use it if there were action that clearly broke up the dialogue or wanted to give silence to the scene. For example:
UNCLE JOHN
I was going to tell you about your mother.
He walks over to the cabinet. Reaches in and pulls out a photo album. He considers a photo of Sally’s mom.
UNCLE JOHN
She was a lovely woman. It’s too bad you didn’t know her.
But, I’ve noticed in most screenplays, it seems to be used mechanically every time there’s a character speaking, then action, then back to the same character — whether the dialogue is actually continuous or not.
Should I just use it every time there is a character’s dialogue, action, then back to the character? Am I thinking too hard about it?
This one I can dispense with quickly. Traditionally the (CONT’D) character extension has been used when one character has successive sides of dialogue or one side of dialogue that is ‘interrupted’ by scene description. Why? To alert the actor reading that character’s part about what is, in effect, their ‘continuous’ dialogue.
That’s all very thoughtful for actors, but as a writer I say dump it. It detracts from the read, another small, but oftentimes frequent reminder to the reader that they’re reading a script, a recurring nuisance that can pull them out of the story world into which you’ve worked so hard to pull them. Besides it translates into less white space. So again, I say get thee hither!
The (CONT’D) character extension is a default on Final Draft. Here’s how you turn it off:
* Click on Document
* Click on Mores and Continueds
* Uncheck Automatic Character Continueds
* Click OK
If you have Movie Magic Screenwriter:
* Click on Format
* Click on Character Names
* Click on No Automatic Character Continueds
* Click OK
There. One small blow against the tyranny of tired, irritating screenplay format jargon to help a selling script read better. And if your movies goes into production or you direct your own script, and you want to make your actors’ lives easier, you can simply click the (CONT’D) extension back into existence.
UPDATE: In comments, The High Dweller offers a counter-argument on why a screenwriter should used (CONT’D) character extensions. Not to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but I’d like to ask any professional script readers your take on the subject. I find them distracting, but THD has an opposite reaction:
I find it very distracting when reading a screenplay WITHOUT (CONT’D)’s where action breaks a character’s dialogue.
And I would think this is something that readers are so used to that when you don’t use it, you make the readers job a little harder.
What say ye, script readers?
And while we’re at it, why is a “mole hill?” Why not an ant hill?
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