Quick Tip

Never end a dialogue block with a parenthetical.

I’ve been seeing this kind of thing a lot lately in the amateur scripts I’ve been reading:

DEMON

You think that puny gun can kill me?

(laughs)

If you need to indicate an action that follows a block of dialogue, then just write it as an action line following the dialogue. For example:

DEMON

You think that puny gun can kill me?

Demon laughs.

Note: The first example would have been okay if there were another line of dialogue after the parenthetical (also known as a “wryly”). For example:

DEMON

You think that puny gun can kill me?

(laughs)

Shit, you might be right.

For more juicy insight on this absolutely fascinating topic (not really), please check out my 10 rules for using parentheticals.