I'm having trouble drawing a line between stage direction of my characters and their dialogue. I'm not sure if I'm balancing them correctly or if one outweighs the other. Does anyone have advice on how to handle a situation like this? What are your personal preferences when it comes to direction paired with dialogue?
Script is kind of arbitrary with this but ultimately the less dialogue the better. You're writing for a visual medium. You want more action then you do dialogue so use it only when you must. Even if it's a full conversation of an argument the characters are still moving around and doing stuff so you just write the action where it fits.
I would have to say the opposite of @GrJs. There are going to be directors and actors to put their spin on physical movements and such. I think they should be kept to a minimum in the actual script, especially if you're hoping to sell it. You can find and read scripts of movies online. This will give you a good idea of how it's done. I have written a few stage plays. I always have to go back through and cut out stage directions. They seem necessary when I'm writing, but after I've had time to think about it and I'm rereading it, I always realize how much the stage directions are just muddying up the story.
I didn't even consider that it might not be a film script . @The Bishop if this is a stage play ignore me. I don't know how those work.
