: Re: In a screenplay, how do you show people talking over each other? When writing a script where you have two (or more) people talking at the same time, how is that formatted? Side-by-side columns?

@Ravi5107385

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I've seen this done either as a directive in the dialog, or as an action description beforehand. It's such a rare case though, that I'd be surprised if there was a clear standard for it. I haven't seen the side by side column thing out in the wild, but I'd wager the meaning would also be pretty clear if I did.

So, I've seen:

AMY
Look, you really can't bring
my mom into this, it's not fair.
She's never really said anything
bad about you, you really have to...

JOHN
(simultaneously)
And your mom's is better? Let me tell
you, this is a hundred year old family
recipe and I'll be damned if you're going
to feed that crap to Jack...

JACK drops his toy audibly in the doorway.

...or...

AMY and JOHN begin yelling at each other simultaneously

AMY
Look, you really can't bring
my mom into this, it's not fair
she's never really said anything
bad about you, you really have to...

JOHN
And your mom's is better? Let me tell
you, this is a hundred year old family
recipe and I'll be damned if you're going
to feed that crap to Jack...

JACK drops his toy audibly in the doorway.

... both of which were self evident to me when I read them.

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