Script-style Fanfics

From UnknowableWiki

Script-style fanfics are fics that do not follow standard prose format, using instead only characters' names and their lines; occasionally, actions and settings are indicated between brackets.

This style is often mocked and considered a form of badfic due to the fact that many of the key elements of the story are underdeveloped, for obvious reasons. The Script-Style form of writing is an easy way out for moving a plot forward, with minimal character growth and development, description, complexity and depth, and usually rooted in well-established fanon clichés. Its entire reliance on dialogue is often poorly executed and unable to add interesting elements to the story.

Because of the unfortunate popularity of this format, many authors use it to write parodies, such as the one quoted in the excerpt below (from elvencherry07's Clichéness).

DUMBLEDORE: [clears his throat loudly] AS I WAS SAYING, I regret to inform you that all your parents are dead. 
All except Peter's, because in the third book his mother gets a piece of his finger.

All stare at Peter's hand.

SIRIUS: Was it the middle finger? (...)

REMUS: So... how did they die anyway?

DUMBLEDORE: Voldemort.  The usual.

OC2: (dubiously) And you expect us to believe that they all died at the very same time?

DIRECTOR: Um...they were all at a meeting of Project Graduation and they got ambushed?

JAMES: [sniffles] So everybody's Mummy and Daddy are dead? 

DIRECTOR: Yeah, basically.  Except, you know, the deatheater ones because their parents were doing the killing.

JAMES: Yay!  Stupid Amos Diggory's parents are dead!  Haha!

Everyone arches an eyebrow, except Peter, who can't and raises both instead.

JAMES: (defensively) Well, I don't like him.

REMUS: [nods] Yup, he's jealous.