ASK DR. FORMAT

by Dave Trottier

JUST MY STYLE 

QUESTION

Recently, I came across something regarding screenplays that talked about style and tone.  Can you give me a brief explanation of these terms?

ANSWER

Style is the way your writing is dressed up (or down) to reach your audience or achieve your purpose.  All writers develop, usually subconsciously, an individual style of writing.  For example, Shane Black often begins sentences with verbs.  Here’s an example from a football game from his screenplay The Last Boy Scout: 

He takes the ball on the run.  Tucks it under his arm.  Turns the corner.  Picks up a blocker. 

Style influences tone, which is the mood of the piece.  In fact, the tone of a particular scene may imply a certain musical mood to the eventual composer of the musical soundtrack.  

When famous cartoon character Snoopy writes “It’s a dark and stormy night,” he’s trying to create a mood.

Often, writers adopt different styles for different scripts they are writing to influence the tone or mood of those scripts; and yet, everything they write will carry their imprint, something of their personal writing style.

DUAL IDENTITIES 

QUESTION

I have a character (let’s call him Joe) who at times takes on the persona of a new character (Wayne).  There is no other Wayne in the script.  When Joe is pretending to be Wayne, should I still use his original name Joe when writing his dialogue, or should I use Wayne?  

ANSWER

Naturally, you are referring to the character cue section of the dialogue block.  That’s where you must be consistent.  There, I would refer to him as JOE/WAYNE or JOE AS WAYNE when he is posing as Wayne.  

Please allow me to clarify the term character cue so that everyone knows what I am referring to.  A dialogue block consists of three possible sections, named below.

                    CHARACTER CUE

              (parenthetical)

         Dialogue or spoken words. 

In screenplay writing, you should refer to a character in the character cue section by using the exact same name each time.  There are some exceptions, and we have just discussed one of those, although I would refer to it as a variation rather than an exception. 

There is one other area where you should be consistent, and that is in the quality of the writing itself.  So...keep writing.

ABOUT DAVE TROTTIER

DAVE TROTTIER has sold or optioned ten screenplays (three produced) and helped hundreds of writers break into the writing business.