"ing" Words?

[Xiu]

Are the words ending in "ing" bad in a screenplay coz I read you shouldn't use 'em, you know like walking, flying and reading? Has it got something to do with passive writing? Thx!

[NikeeGoddess]

nothing is bad. it's just that some words are better than others. active/action verbs: walk, fly are stronger words. however, read is no better than reading - it's boring to watch someone read just as boring as it is to watch someone reading. ;)

[StephieM]

Yes, it has a lot to do with passive writing, although you'll see a lot of produced scripts that do use "ing" words. The reason why were told not to use them, is because new writers tend to over use them, and use them incorrectly, where as an experienced writer knows how to break the rules and do it well.

A script is written in present tense, everything that happens, happens right now. It's what we will see take place on the screen.

The police officer chases the crook down the street with his gun drawn. will always be stronger than... The police officer begins chasing the crook down the street, drawing his gun.

The former shows the action happening as we speak, as the latter tends to interrupt the flow and take the reader out of the action.

Hope it helps
Steph

[UltimateSWChallenge]

All true.

Another reason is you only have so many pages to do your thing and you cannot afford to waste one single word or character for that matter.

Using "Bob walks across the parking lot."vs. "Bob is walking across the parking lot." will save you five characters for each instance.

That can translate to an entire page or more by the time you get to 120 pages and who wouldn't kill to have an extra page?