How to Write Actions in a Script
Learning how to write actions in a script represents a big part of the script writing process. There are a lot of working elements to any script, and the actions that are to take place on the screen are equally as important as the dialogue, character arcs, and other pertinent details of the story. Action writing is challenging, even for professional screenwriters that have a lot of experience, but they’re also what make up the story and the visuals that occur.
Depending on the type of actions taking place, they’ll be written into the script in different manners. This is why knowing how to write actions in a script can be so challenging for a new screenwriter. Let’s take a look at some examples to help you make sense of it all.
Writing Actions and Narration in a Script
What happens if you’re writing a script that includes, for example, animal sounds like a dog barking followed by a human narrative from the nearby window “hey, stop barking!”
Writing these actions into a script will require some planning. You’ll write the animal sound, the dog barking, as a narrative description such as:
“a dog barks nearby, then speaks in English”
ACTOR 1
“Hey, Stop barking!”
Writing Non-Conversational Actions in a Script
What happens if you want to write that someone screams in your script? This is considered a non-conversational sound and the action should be written in based on how it occurs – is it narrated or did a character actually scream? In the event that the character did the screaming, it would look like this:
CHARACTER 1
(screams)
Writing Actions in Parentheticals
Sometimes you’ll use parentheticals to write the actions in a script. Learning how to write actions in a script that uses parentheticals is something that you must be careful with as you don’t want to step on the toes of the director.
If the action MUST be dictated in the script, and cannot be dictated in any other way, then a parenthetical can be used.
For example, if you want the actor to know that upon saying a particular line, or while saying a line they should be acting a certain way, such as smiling in a devilish manner, you would write the action into the script as follows:
CHARACTER 1
I have no idea who would have made this mess.
(smiling in a devilish manner)
Overall
As you can see, there are many different ways to learn how to write actions in a script. The format that you use is largely based on the type of action, who is performing the action, and whether it is something that must be advised to the actor or not. Practice makes perfect when learning how to write actions in a script.
