Proposal: using pipe for blank lines in dialogue

[Paul Rankin]

Hello hello,

I come proposing an addition to the spec, which is to allow the pipe (or bar or vertical line) character "|" to connect lines of dialogue separated by a blank line, i.e. in addition to what the two-space rule does currently.

So, I've never been a huge fan of dual dialogue, but recently I was recently reading Kenneth Lonergan's script for Manchester by the Sea, and he uses dual dialogue in a wonderful way to convey characters not necessarily talking at the same instant but talking over each other, by adding blank lines. (I've attached a page from the script to illustrate.)

It's great that Fountain supports blank lines within dialogue with the two-spaces rule, although there are some issues with this:

1. It's difficult to see whether you've added two spaces or not (unless your Fountain editor highlights this somehow).
   
2. Also difficult to see if you want to work with multiple blank lines within dialogue.
   
3. Trailing whitespace is problematic in plain text version control systems (sometimes this whitespace won't be registered as a change, sometimes the version control system will cleanup trailing whitespace automatically).
   

Allowing users the choice of spaces or a pipe would alleviate this.

Here's how the dual dialogue in the attached page would be formatted with pipes:

LEE (CONT’D)

And then you get out of the car without telling me? What the fuck’s the matter with you?

|

I coulda ripped your fuckin’ leg off, that’s my problem.

PATRICK ^

Yeah, I meant let’s go inside. I meant let’s just go look at him!

|

OK, OK! What’s your problem?

|

OK! I’m sorry I misused the English language!

What I like about this is that these look like little connectors, a nice visual reminder that the lines are connected to the same dialogue block.

n.b. This isn't suggested as a replacement for the current two-space rule, only an additional choice.

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https://www.paulwrankin.com

[John August]

Using the pipe "|" to join dialogue seems like a smart and do-able addition. I'm trying to think of break cases, situations in which the | could be misinterpreted. I know it's used in Markdown tables, but I can't envision a lot of situations where those would get mixed in.

[Paul Rankin]

Awesome. Great to hear you're into the idea John.

As for technical implementation, here's what I was thinking:

[dialogue OR pipe]

[start of line][zero or more whitespace]|[zero or more whitespace][end of line]

Allowing whitespace before the pipe permits the following:

PATRICK ^

Yeah, I meant let’s go inside. I meant let’s just go look at him!

 |

OK, OK! What’s your problem?

 |

OK! I’m sorry I misused the English language!

...which some people might prefer, for aesthetic reasons.

I think trailing whitespace is most likely a user error, and so I think probably should be ignored. (All my element matching regexes ignore trailing whitespace as is.)

Allowing multiple pipes I think is important, as it gives the writer much more control for spacing out dialogue (especially dual dialogue, see another attached page of Manchester by the Sea with two and three blank lines in dialogue).

I don't think it should be possible to add a pipe under a character name. This would create very weird looking output with floating character names that would probably confuse a reader... Thoughts?

I haven't really considered how parenthetical elements are handled.... input very welcome.

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https://www.paulwrankin.com