How to break-up long passages of Dialogue in Screenwriter

Screenwriter does not like long (over 50 lines), unbroken sides of dialogue or action because it becomes difficult to manage the page breaks.  This often happens when writing stage plays, since long monologues are more accepted than in screenplays. 

The solution is to break them up into multiple paragraphs. When you have very long sides of dialogue, we recommend that you break up the dialogue with one of the following:

1. a parethetical direction, e.g. (pause) or (he looks away)
2. a line of action / scene description
3. split the dialogue into multiple pieces

The third option can be done if you go to Format>Element Styles, click on the Dialogue tab, check the "(Cont'd) Dialogue shouldn't have Character Names" option, and press OK to apply the change.  The second paragraph of dialogue will have a 'ghost' character name that displays onscreen but will NOT print or export.

A TEMPORARY solution is to turn off automatic page breaking temporarily, but you'll need to do the above before you print or export the document so that you can turn page breaking back on.

Here is how to turn of Automatic Page Breaking:

WINDOWS SCREENWRITER 6:

• Use the Tools>Options menu command
• Click on the Misc. tab
• Select the "No Real-Time Pagination" option
• Click on OK to apply the change

MAC SCREENWRITER 6 / 6.5:

• Use the Screenwriter>Preferences menu command
• Click on the Misc. tab
• Select the "No Real-Time Pagination" option
• Click on OK to apply the change