Script Actioning
Actioning is the technique of assigning a transitive verb — to disarm, to corner, to seduce — to every speech in a scene, so each moment has an intention that lands on the other person. Off Book renders your script exactly as printed and lets you click any line of dialogue to action it.
Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing.
I do mean something else.
I thought so. In fact, I am never wrong.
A script tells you what is said, never what is being done. Actioning — the rehearsal technique popularised by Max Stafford-Clark and codified in Actions: The Actors’ Thesaurus — closes that gap by forcing a choice on every speech: what is my character doing to the other person, right now? The discipline of the transitive verb is the point. "To be angry" is a feeling you can fake; "to corner" is an action you can play.
Once a scene is actioned, you have what directors call a score: a beat-by-beat map of intention you can execute rather than a mood you have to summon. It makes performances repeatable — on the third take, at the second callback, in week six of a run — because you’re not chasing a feeling, you’re doing a thing.
In Off Book your verbs are a shadow layer over the script, keyed to each speech, never edited into the text. The screenplay renders exactly as printed — Courier, character cues, scene headings — and your actions hang in the margin beside each speech, like pencil notes in a rehearsal script. Stuck on a beat? The AI reads the surrounding context and suggests a playable transitive verb you can take, refine, or reject.
The scene renders as a true screenplay page. Your character’s speeches are highlighted — but you can action anyone’s lines.
Type any transitive verb — "to disarm", "to test", "to beg". It saves as you go.
One tap suggests a context-aware action for that specific speech. Take it or push against it — disagreeing with a suggestion is itself useful work.
Verbs hang beside each speech in the margin, or switch to a side column listing every speech in order — the same two views Units & Objectives offers.
It works with the rest of Off Book