Parenthetical
From CeltxWiki
A Parenthetical is minor direction for characters during their dialog. More substantial direction can be inserted as action with a following "continued" character dialog.
Parantheticals are used when
- it is not obvious how a piece of dialogue is supposed to be said and you feel the actor would need to be directed, e.g. (sarcastically), (jokingly)
- it is an action that happens during the dialogue.
Parentheticals are also known as wrylies due to their excessive use as follows:
JIM I didn't do it - (wryly) or did I? | Some directors and actors perceive this as micromanagement by the writer, crushing their creative input into the film making process. |
In Celtx, the keyboard shortcut ctrl-5 (cmd-5 on a Mac) switches to parenthetical formatting, as does picking the Parenthetical option in the Script Editor Toolbar.
To insert a parenthetical at the start of a block of dialogue, press Tab when you are about to edit the dialog, or just type ( - open parenthesis. Pressing Enter or close parenthesis once you're finished with the parenthetical puts you in Dialog:
OBI WAN (standing) Well, let's see what we can do with you. |
To insert a parenthetical within a block of dialogue, e.g. the pauses in a phone conversation, create three Dialog blocks, then press Tab (or select from the toolbar, or press ctrl-5) on the one you want transformed into a parenthetical.
COMEDIAN Take my wife. Please. taps microphone Is this thing on? | Pressing tab on the middle dialog block produces |
COMEDIAN Take my wife. Please. (taps microphone) Is this thing on? |
Be wary of creating parentheticals that are too long; consider replacing them with Action instead. A rough guide is if a parenthetical covers two lines, it might be better as an action item.
