How To Format a Poem In Dialogue

[finalact4]

Re: How To Format a Poem In Dialogue

I'm working on a pilot comedy and one of my scenes involves a character reading her poem. Do I have it set up like traditional dialogue or do I separate the lines with slashes like "/" ?

Since she's reading it, it is dialogue. You can place poem as it's recited in quotations, which seems most clear.

If it is something shown on screen you could format it as a "general" element instead of an "action" element then play around with the spacing (Final Draft).

If you want to be creative in the ACTION lines, type a letter, any letter will do, then add the blank spaces you want then delete that one letter at the beginning of the line. The ACTION element won't let you just use the space bar... you have to type a single letter then remove it after.

[ComicBent]

Re: How To Format a Poem In Dialogue

First, they do not pass laws saying that you must do it like this, or like that. So you have some freedom here.

You might want to look at what John August had to say about lyrics in screenwriting (not exactly the same thing as a poem, I know, but similar).

Here are my recommendations, and these are neither outrageous nor dogmatic.

1. As a general rule, do not use a slash at the end of a line. A slash adds nothing.
2. Use italics for the poem. If you do not do that, put the whole poem within quotation marks.
3. Put a line break (not a paragraph return) at the end of each line of the poem. In Windows you make a line break with Shift+Enter. This lets you enter several lines of a poem in one dialogue unit. When you are finished with the dialogue unit, hit Enter in the usual way.
4. If you have long lines of poetry, you may need to reset the right margin for that particular dialogue unit. The line does not have to break where a normal dialogue line would break. You can let it extend to the right. But if a line is so long that you have to break it at the right page margin, let it break, and then hit Shift+Enter for the next line.

Here is some blank verse. It works the same for lyric poetry. I used Shift+Enter at the end of each line of verse.

                               STUDENT
                   (recites verse)
              I ask you, Captain, what our chances are
              To weather out this fearsome storm tonight?
                   (to the Teacher)
              How was that? Enough emotion?

As I said, they do not pass laws about this kind of thing. Just be clear in what you do.

[Crayon]

Re: How To Format a Poem In Dialogue

Replicating the stylistic approach of this screenplay will likely serve you well:

THE DEAD POETS SOCIETY
by
Tom Schulman
https://www.raindance.org/scripts/De...ts-Society.pdf

(eg: see top of page 19)

Giggles in the class. Pitts reads.

                         PITTS
            "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
            Old time is still a flying
            And this same flower that smiles today
            Tomorrow will be dying."

                         KEATING
            Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
            The Latin term for that sentiment
            is "Carpe Diem." Anyone know what
            that means?

[TigerFang]

Re: How To Format a Poem In Dialogue

Just an educated guess, and I may be incorrect, but I would treat it as you would song lyrics (poetry set to music). Put the poem in italics and have it appear as it would if printed in a book. The way you suggest, it appears you’re attempting to save space on the page. Also, IMO, you lose the impact of the poetry your way (with slashes).

[Madbandit]

I'm working on a pilot comedy and one of my scenes involves a character reading her poem. Do I have it set up like traditional dialogue or do I separate the lines with slashes like "/" ?