As I’ve mentioned, some of the posts that I am writing I will use with my fiction and screenwriting students this fall as I endeavor to teach online.
This post regards formatting—specifically manually formatting—a screenplay or pages of screenwriting.
It is my belief that any screenwriters worth their salt should be able to manually format a screenplay, even if eventually they turn to screenwriting software that does the formatting for them. After all, how does one know the software is getting it right otherwise?
So, to begin:
First, one should open a Word document. Some quick changes need to be made. First, screenplays have their own font. In my case, I use Courier New (though Courier is considered official). Screenplays originally were written on typewriters, and Courier New comes closest to that font.
A page of screenplay equals (approximately) a minute of screen time… and Courier New comes the closest to approximating this.
Next, before you do anything, you’ll want to go to Line Spacing and set it to Single. Make certain it’s a true Single and not 1.15 or something like that.
Additionally, you’ll want to go to Line Spacing Options. Make sure it looks like this:
I put a circle around the important area. Just make certain that Before (but especially After) are set to 0 pt. Some word processing software is defaulted to automatically put space after you hit the Return key. If your After isn’t set to zero (but is set to 8 pt), then every time you hit Return (which is a lot in a screenplay) you’ll have unnecessary spacing in your screenplay. In short, it will be all messed up. Just make sure After is set to zero.
If you wanted, you can also find your AutoCap and shut that off. That’s going to keep your software from trying to capitalize words in your dialogue.
So, checklist: Open Word, Font to Courier New, Line Spacing Single, and make certain After is set to 0 pt in Line Spacing Options.
Ok, we are ready to begin.
The first aspect of screenwriting to understand is Scenes. Screenplays are written in scenes. New scenes are indicated by Scene Headings (or Slug Lines). One switches scenes ANY TIME there is a switch in Time or Location.
Movies happen in real time on the screen. You can’t have lines of scene description that say: A few minutes pass. What is the audience doing while those minutes pass? Instead, you deal with jumps in time (even small amounts of time) by orchestrating scene changes.
But, here are the basics.
A scene heading looks like this (notice they are flush to the left margin)
INT. CAR – DAY
First, scene headings are in all caps. They are either INT or EXT… interior [inside] shot or exterior [outside shot]. The scene heading is not the place for detailed description. You would not have:
INT. RUSTED TRANS AM – DAY
That would be too detailed for a scene heading. If you were to describe the car, that would be in Scene Description, which we will discuss in a moment.
Again, any time there is a change in location or time, you need a new scene heading.
Imagine police on a stakeout. You might have a scene where they start the stakeout, and a following scene where they’ve been on the stakeout for a few hours.
That might look like this:
INT. CAR – DAY
and next scene
INT. CAR – DAY or INT. CAR – HOURS LATER
Those two scenes back to back suggest that time has passed that was not experienced by the audience. In the scene description for the second scene, you might describe coffee cups on the dashboard, fast food bags, etc to also show visually that they’ve been there awhile.
Scene Headings aren’t super difficult. They are in all caps, you need one when you change location or time, and they aren’t heavy on description. Nobody is looking at your scene headings to get details about what to include on the set.
All of this will make more sense as the pieces of screenplay format come together.
Next up… Scene Description.
Short of dialogue, scene description pretty much handles what is seen and heard on the screen.
It, too, starts flush to the left margin. Because a movie feels like something you are watching happen now, the screenplay is written in present tense. If you look at a screenplay, you’ll see that there are no long paragraphs of description.
Lots of white space in a screenplay.
They almost should feel like they fall down the page rather than read left to right. General rule? Don’t go over four lines of scene description. I have a more nuanced post on how screenwriters should think like cinematographers, which can help you determine when to include white space in your screenplay description. Read it: here
You’ll find out screenplay description is almost more like technical writing than fiction writing. The language is not flowery: no similes or figurative language. Just sticks to the basics.
You give the gist of a scene rather than hyper describe it. It will be a set designer, actors, etc that actually bring the scene to life. Any time we go to a new location, describe it briefly. If we return to that location, you don’t need to describe it again (unless something significant changes)
Let’s go with an example.
INT. BAR – NIGHT
Terry walks into the bar. He stands near the doorway, crosses his arms, and surveys the crowd.
A regular neighborhood bar. Jukebox. Pool table. Most people sit along the bar itself. A few tables are occupied. A man sleeps with his head down on the bar.
Terry walks up to the bar. The bartender, muscular and wearing a handlebar mustache, steps over to him. This is BUTCH McCLAINE.
There’s a loud CRASH of glasses falling to the floor.
Other patrons jump, startled. Terry does not flinch and stays focused on Butch.
That’s some of the basics of screenplay description. Notice it’s pretty stripped down. Someone else (a Costume Designer) will decide what Terry and Butch are wearing more specifically. Someone else (a Set Designer) will flesh out the details of the bar. Scene description is pretty basic, giving the gist, not so much the specifics.
Couple things: Notice when a new character is introduced, his or her name is all in caps. After that, it’s lower case again (like with Terry). Even notice when Butch is mentioned again, his name is back to capitalized first letter, but the rest lower case.
Also, as we see above, very prominent sounds are often capitalized.
So scene description is light on details and more follows the basic actions of the characters.
Some other things. Screenplays don’t get into the characters’ heads. We can’t know what they are thinking.
Terry thinks the place is a dump. Or Terry is certain he won’t get any answers here.
Those are no-nos. A movie audience has no way of knowing exactly what Terry is thinking.
I mean, he could react, which could imply his thinking:
Terry surveys the room, nostril arched, a slow shaking back and forth of his head.
This could suggest that he’s disgusted with the place and doesn’t think much of the crowd. But, you can’t tell us directly what he’s thinking.
Also, there is no summarized or paraphrased dialogue in a screenplay. You can’t write:
Terry greets Butch.
or
Terry and Butch exchange small talk.
We’d need to hear the first one in dialogue. Notice how the second one is even worse because it implies time is passing. What is this small talk? How long?
Nope… if it’s spoken, it’s handled in Dialogue, which we’ll get to in a moment.
It is with Dialogue that we get into some of the more technical aspects of manually formatting a screenplay.
Ok, so all dialogue is written out. No summarized or paraphrased.
What does dialogue look like then in a screenplay? Well, it comes down to indicating speaker and what’s said… (and sometimes how it is said)
The speaker in dialogue almost looks like their name is centered, but it isn’t. Instead, to get the name to where you need it to be, hit TAB six times. Dialogue indicators are ALWAYS in all caps.
BUTCH
You can also use parentheticals to suggest how a line is being delivered. Do this sparingly because in a way it will seem like you are trying to direct the movie/actors. Ultimately, it will be the director and actors who decide how a line is delivered. But, if you do use a parenthetical, you TAB it five times. Like so…
BUTCH
(gruffly)
Finally, what comes next is the dialogue itself. There are no quotation marks. The formatting makes it clear that these lines are being spoken, so you don’t need the quotation marks that separate dialogue from narration in fiction.
Dialogue is TABBED in three times. For manually formatting, just hit return when the dialogue is about even on either side of the name. Then TAB three times again.
BUTCH
(gruffly)
What do you need? It’s a private party
in here tonight, so make it quick.
Dialogue does not go all the way to the right margin. Manually formatting, you actually need to hit Return when the dialogue is about “even” on either side of the name. Once you hit return, you’ll need to hit TAB three times again to get the second line of dialogue in the right place. This is where shutting off AUTOCAP helps because Word will want to capitalize the word “in” because it looks like a new sentence.
So, here's what that would look like:
INT. BAR – NIGHT
Terry walks into the bar. He stands near the doorway, crosses his arms, and surveys the crowd.
A regular neighborhood bar. Jukebox. Pool table. Most people sit along the bar itself. A few tables are occupied. A man sleeps with his head down on the bar.
Terry walks up to the bar. The bartender, muscular and wearing a handlebar mustache, steps over to him. This is BUTCH McCLAINE.
BUTCH
(gruffly)
What do you need? It’s a private party
in here tonight, so make it quick.
Terry looks around the room.
TERRY
(smirking)
Yeah, looks like quite the party.
BUTCH
Funny. Now what do you need?
Notice how a parenthetical can also include a brief description (i.e. Terry’s smirking). Again, use parentheticals sparingly. You could write an entire feature-length script and never use a parenthetical. They often come too close to directing, and that could make your screenplay look like you don’t know what you’re doing... like an amateur.
What I’m covering here are the basic of screenplay formatting, not all of the nuances. More than anything, I want you to be able to manually format a screenplay in Word. Here is an example of what your pages will start to look like:
INT. BAR – NIGHT
Terry walks into the bar. He stands near the doorway, crosses his arms, and surveys the crowd.
A regular neighborhood bar. Jukebox. Pool table. Most people sit along the bar itself. A few tables are occupied. A man sleeps with his head down on the bar.
Terry walks up to the bar. The bartender, muscular and wearing a handlebar mustache, steps over to him. This is BUTCH McCLAINE.
There’s a loud CRASH of glasses falling to the floor.
Other patrons jump, startled. Terry does not flinch and stays focused on Butch.
BUTCH
(gruffly)
What do you need? It’s a private party
in here tonight, so make it quick.
Terry looks around.
TERRY
Festive.
BUTCH
Come on.
TERRY
I’m looking for Johnny Sloan.
The men seated on either side of Terry stand up and face him.
BUTCH
Get out or get thrown out.
Terry raises his hands in surrender.
TERRY
Ok. Ok. I’ll show myself out.
Terry starts toward the entrance.
INT. APARTMENT – NIGHT
Terry walks into a dingy apartment. It’s an efficiency with a small table and chair in the dining area. There’s a futon couch/bed near the window.
Terry takes his coat off and drapes it over the chair.
An obese cat rubs against his leg. Terry bends down and picks it up.
TERRY
Well, Jinxy, looks like you have
everyone’s tongue. Nobody’s talking
about our Mr. Sloan.
He sets the cat on the table, walks to a cupboard, opens it, and takes down a box of cat food.
He shakes it. It’s nearly empty.
TERRY
(sighing)
I’ll be right back, fatty.
INT. GROCERY STORE – NIGHT
Terry stands in an aisle of pet supplies. He holds a small box of cat food. He sets it back and takes a larger bag from a lower shelf.
When he rises, a MAN in blue jeans and a flannel shirt stands next to him.
MAN
You were in Ray’s tonight… looking
for Johnny Sloan.
Terry looks the man over.
TERRY
Maybe. What’s that to you?
MAN
You ain’t going to find Sloan without
shelling out some dough.
TERRY
We’ll see.
MAN
Or you’ll wind up dead.
TERRY
So, you’re threatening me.
MAN
No. I’m warning you, and trying to
help you… and help myself too. Wallet
is a little light lately.
Terry looks him over again.
TERRY
I’m here for cat food, but I might
linger in the parking lot for a minute.
MAN
(nodding)
I’ll see you out there.
The man turns and walks away.
Terry stands for a moment. He puts the large bag of cat food back and grabs the small box again.
Real quick. Notice how when a scene ends, you actually hit Return twice before starting the next scene heading. So, two lines of single space white space between scenes.
Some other nuances.
You shouldn't write:
Terry goes to the cupboard for cat food.
This is pretty minor, but it does imply thinking. It implies that we know what’s on Terry’s mind when he goes to the cupboard. It will feel more like a movie scene if you write:
Terry steps to the cupboard. He opens it and pulls out a box of cat food.
We will continue to flesh out other aspects of screenplay formatting. These are just the basics to get you started manually formatting your screenplay in Word.
Biggest thing to remember is that eyeballing of dialogue.
BUTCH
What do you want? We’re having a private party in here tonight.
This is wrong. Dialogue does not go flush to the right margin. And, while manually formatting a screenplay, it’s up to you to hit Return at a spot where the dialogue looks to be around even on either side of Butch’s name. In the instance above, I would hit Return after the “private”.
BUTCH
What do you want? We’re having a private
party in here tonight.
Recap:
1. Open Word doc.
2. Set Font to Courier New 12 pt.
3. Set to Single Space
4. Make sure After is set to 0 pt.
5. Scene Headings… All caps
6. Switch scenes when either Time or Location changes
7. All caps for character introduction in scene description
8. Scene description should not go over for lines without white space
9. Description is written in present tense
10. To format dialogue name: Hit TAB six times.
11. Parenthetical? Hit TAB five times.
12. Start of actual dialogue? Hit TAB three times.
That should be enough to get you started, especially as you compare your screenplay pages to the examples above… and examples you find on the Internet.
If you find my blog posts instructive, please consider purchasing a copy of my new book of short stories, The Neighborhood Division, as a donated payment for the "class."
From the Publisher (preferred): here
From Amazon: here
Book Trailer: here
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