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In dialogue, how do you express that one character is interrupting another?

Tagged: formatting, screenplay, screenwriting, script, scriptwriting

As with all formatting advice, the idea is to clearly express your vision without interrupting the flow of the screenplay.

One easy way to show one character interrupting another is to use double-dashes or an ellipsis to indicate the first character’s dialogue is being interrupted.

SETH

How about --

ERIN

No.

Both doble-dashes and ellipses indicate an unfinished thought, but double-dashes are usually the safer bet for interruption, as they indicate an abrupt cutoff, while an elipsis implies the idea trailed off.

Another option is to include the [parenthetical](https://screenwriting.io/what-is-the-proper-way-to-use-parentheticals/) “interrupting” if clarification is necessary.

SETH

Looking through our other options...

ERIN

(interrupting)

No. Still no. None of those.

### More from johnaugust.com

* [Pardon the interruption](http://johnaugust.com/2011/pardon-the-interruption “Pardon the interruption”)
* [Using parentheticals](http://johnaugust.com/2003/using-parentheticals “Using parentheticals”)
* [Are parentheticals over-used?](http://johnaugust.com/2010/are-parentheticals-over-used “Are parentheticals over-used?”)
* [Are parentheticals overused, cont’d](http://johnaugust.com/2010/parentheticals-contd “Are parentheticals overused, cont’d”)

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