I'm guilty of this lil problem and I'm really working to try to fix it...have been told time and time again to write tighter.

It just looks cleaner besides tightening up writing.

I didn't even know this was an issue, but good to know. Thanks!

Quoted from kingcooky555 I didn't even know this was an issue

Have you learnt nothing from Dreamscale?  

Quoted from kingcooky555 I didn't even know this was an issue, but good to know. Thanks!

King, just to be clear here...

If you've got a 100 page script, and you have 1 orphan on every 10 pages, absolutely no problem, as you have an extra 10 lines, or 1/5 of an extra page.

OK?

But, if you have 5 orphans on every page (which, BTW, isn't that shocking, and I've seen it many times), you have an additional 10 pages of nothing but wasted space and lines.

It doesn't change the quality of your story, but it sure can inflate a script, and if you're prone to overwriting, and your script is already running long, you're fucked.

White space may be something some look for, but please don't ever think of an orphan as a positive, as they're definitely not.

OK, class is now dismissed.     RECESS!!!!

See what I mean..?

Gotta love him though

I had never heard of an orphan before joining SS and reading feedback on other scripts. (Thanks Jeff)

But it's certainly something I try to avoid now,  although I'm not stressed if I have one and it's affective in the story telling. It's a good tip in saving space which some people have already pointed out.

Quoted from Pale Yellow Gotta love him though

Wouldn't go that far!

Quoted from CoopBazinga Wouldn't go that far!

Gotta not hate him????  

I think the Chicago Manual of Style is more geared towards writers who write editorials and articles which have a size limit. All papers and magazines are very conscious of their page count and want the writing nice and trim. Less pages, less cost to publish.

I think the practice of eliminating orphans is a good one if you're writing for a contest that has a page limit or a film maker who gave you a max number of pages to write a script.

Other than that, a few here and there certainly aren't a deal breaker if the story is good. I am aware of them as I write, but still leave some anyways if I like the way the sentence reads. I highly doubt there's very many film makers or producers that even know what an orphan is...

James

All of us here, in one way or another, are
orphans.

Quoted from stevie All of us here, in one way or another, are orphans.

That's so sad, stevie.  

Quoted from Dreamscale Gotta not hate him????

Of course! I can't believe that anybody would hate you, Jeff.

Hey Bill,

I have a bit o' philosophy to share on orphans...

While it's true they can provide white space on the page...
I feel they're a transparent way of getting that oft desired breathing room.
If a reader senses that kind of manufactured device, it diminishes the read IMHO.

So, I obliterate those orphans and challenge myself to write better descriptions.
Over time, that challenge became an ingrained strategy for me.
Now, I automatically wipe the little buggers out before they can take root.

I look at orphans as another potential reason someone may put down my script.
And I'm all about minimizing the reasons for a colleague to say no!

Regards,
E.D.

Quoted from stevie All of us here, in one way or another, are orphans.

This here is a blatant ploy to create white
space.



E.D.

You know, for the life of me, I never even gave this subjest a thought until I started working with Jeff on some script work a while back.

He pointed out to me what they were and I still didnt give them a thought when I wrote. If my paragraph had a dangly, so be it.

Even now, when I write "raw" those things would only slow me down. Before anyone ask, "raw" means to me writing without structure being at the forefront.

But I do apperciate Jeff teaching me this and several other facets of writing that would not have otherwise known.

Shawn.....><