Writing ASL

[Darthclaw13]

Hi all,
I hope everyone here is well and keeping their sanity during this weird time in our world.
My question today is... when writing dialog for a character that uses American Sign Language how would that look?

I have started a new script during this downtime that has a character, who can hear, but uses ASL some of the time.
Would I need to put "using American Sign Language" in parentheses under their name when writing their dialog?
Would I need to do that for each time?
Is there a better way?

This character talks part of the time and uses ASL part of the time throughout the story.
I haven't yet looked up any screenplays that have ASL in it, like Children of a Lesser God-but I plan to soon.

Apologies if this topic has be discussed before.

[Done Deal Pro]

This is pretty much what I would have suggested before even seeing it, but I'll do a link to save typing and give credit to John. I don't think italics is truly necessary but a nice enough touch and reminder each time:

https://johnaugust.com/2009/how-to-i...-sign-language

[Darthclaw13]

This is pretty much what I would have suggested before even seeing it, but I'll do a link to save typing and give credit to John. I don't think italics is truly necessary but a nice enough touch and reminder each time:

https://johnaugust.com/2009/how-to-i...-sign-language

Thank you for the response and link. It is very helpful.

[ComicBent]

I also liked John August's answer to the question of how to handle sign language.

The italics do add a nice touch to the silent dialogue conveyed through sign language.

I noticed, however, that John only used the parenthetical (signing) initially, then omitted it for subsequent dialogue in italics.

Personally, I would use the parenthetical every time. This will not add much to the physical length of the script unless you have a huge number of instances of signing. But if you do not want to do it that way, you can include an initial note to explain that a particular character's dialogue, when it is in italics, represents signing.