John August

QandA

Formatting and software

Formatting, QandA

This is going to sound like a lazy question. What’s the easiest way to handle all of the tabs, centering, capitalization, and formatting required in a screenplay?


I know there are a lot of programs out there that supposedly “handle” all of this for the screenwriter, but there had to have been an easier procedure twenty years ago when these programs weren’t available.

–T. Baker

Update 2025: over the years, we’ve developed Highland Pro which is my preferred screenwriting software. Discover the journey from pdf utility app in 2013 to Highland Pro in 2025!

Yes. It was called a typist, a script services department, or your kind-hearted mother. Because the fact is, formatting scripts has historically been a nightmare. Even computers didn’t help much. Back when I started in 1993, the best way to format a script was through homemade style sheets in Microsoft Word. Every time I finished a script, I would need to go through page by page and check to make sure dialogue wasn’t dangling off pages. It was a giant pain in the ass.

Today we live in a Golden Age for script formatting. Since GO, I’ve been using Final Draft for the Macintosh, which not only handles all the formatting details, but also keeps track of scene numbering and production changes should you be so lucky as to need them. Like all programs, it has its quirks – it can be too helpful at times – but most of my friends seem to be using Final Draft as well.

Although I haven’t experimented with them as much, Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 and Scriptware have their fans. All three programs are available for both Mac and PC, and all three have downloadable demos. Definitely try them out.

To answer your natural follow-up questions: why are these programs so expensive, and why do they have copy-protection? Probably because there’s a limited market of screenwriters (thus the high price), and being largely broke, screenwriters tend to pirate a lot (thus the copy protection). I’m not saying it’s right or true or fair, but I understand why it is this way.

Learn more about standard screenplay formatting here!

Story first, then characters

QandA, Story and Plot

I often find myself writing
half of a screenplay, and then throwing it on the scrapheap because my characters
have totally lost their direction. How do I build on my characters to help
me, by taking the story in their own direction?

–Colin

In your case, I would urge you to really figure out the end of your story
before you begin writing. Otherwise, it’s very easy to keep writing scene after
scene and end up with interesting characters in a mess of a story.

One trap that many beginning writers encounter – especially those who’ve read
some of the more notorious screenwriting books – is taking the truism "character-driven
story" too literally. Yes, the most successful and engaging movies are
those where the characters seem to be in control of their own destiny, where
every turn of the plot seems to derive from an element of their personality.

But it’s naïve to think that all a writer has to do is come up with amazing
characters and watch them go to work. The truth is, great characters are useless
unless we see them doing interesting things – and coming up with those things
is the screenwriter’s job. Don’t start writing until you know both who your
characters are and what they’ll be doing.

Voice-overs

Formatting, QandA

I have noticed that many films seem to depend on voice-overs,
especially films adapted from novels, I worry about overusing voice over in
my own script writing
because it seems like a kind of compensation when one can’t write the action
of a scene, or translate a character’s thoughts into a compelling visual. What
guidelines would you suggest for writing voice-overs?

–CIM

Voice-overs have a bad reputation for exactly the reasons you cite. Often,
one senses that that writer didn’t do a good job finding visuals and dialogue
to tell the story, and thus fell back on the voice-over as a crutch. And it’s
an especially pervasive problem with movies based on books, because the voice-over
is often the easiest way to translate prose to the screen.

My advice – nothing revolutionary – is to do everything you can to plan out
your story without using any voice-over at all. That means creating scenes that give the important information while moving the story forward, and using
images and moments in place of explanation.

But there are some instances where a voice-over is appropriate. BIG FISH,
which I adapted from a novel by Daniel Wallace, uses voice-over extensively,
because the movie is about unraveling the elaborate stories that a man tells.
Since storytelling is at the center of the movie, it makes sense that characters
will be narrating these tales, both on-camera and off.

What’s important is that voice-over should never replace actual scenes, nor
should it be redundant to what we do see. If a character opens a box and finds
a gun inside, the voice-over shouldn’t say, "When I opened the box, I
found a gun inside." That voice-over adds nothing, except an explanation
for the blind. But if the voice-over had said, "My uncle had many ways
of keeping us in check," then you would have changed the dynamic of the
scene in an interesting way.

Another important factor is which character is doing the voice-over. Whoever
you pick will automatically get elevated to Most Important Character status
unless you deliberately state otherwise (such as THE PRINCESS BRIDE, which
is narrated by a character outside of the world). Just make sure that whoever
gets voice-over power is worth the investment.

Finally, a pet peeve. In my opinion, movies should either use voice-over throughout
or not at all. If a movie starts with a voice-over, then never uses it again,
I get frustrated waiting for it to come back. Similarly, a voice-over that
just kicks in at the end is bewildering, because it seems to break the rules
of the movie I just watched.

Where to find scripts

Education, QandA

How can I get my hands on the screenplays to movies I like (that aren’t mega-blockbusters)?

–Andrea

There are a few good sources online, such as Script-O-Rama,
which can point you to other places to check out. Most of these sites have
scripts you can download for free –
which is technically a violation of copyright, but is largely overlooked. These
sites do lean more towards blockbuster or science-fiction movies, however,
so if you’re looking for OUT OF AFRICA, you may be Out of Luck.

If you happen to be visiting Los Angeles, you can visit the Margaret Herrick
Library on La Cienega. It’s run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(the Oscar people), and has an amazing screenplay collection. You’ll have to
read the scripts on-premises, however, and the whole place has disquieting
feel to it, like an occult bookstore run by the Swiss.

For award-winning or indie-favorite movies, it’s worth trying Amazon or one
of the other on-line bookstores to see if the script has been published. Often,
you’ll find that even if the book version hasn’t come out in the U.S., it has
in the U.K.

Finally, if you’re considering working in Hollywood, you should know that
all the agencies and most producers have pretty extensive script libraries,
so an added bonus of an internship is the chance to read a bunch of great material.
USC’s film school has a great script library, but you have to be a student
there.

Incidentally, whatever script you do get your hands on, make sure you know
exactly what kind of script you’re reading. Generally, you’ll find three types:
the original spec script, which is what the writer wrote before it was produced;
the final continuity script, which reflects all the changes made during production;
and a transcript, which is simply a write-up of the movie, often made by an
overzealous fan.

Of the three types, the spec script is generally the most useful for a writer
to read, because it best reflects the intention and craft of the original screenwriter.
The final continuity script – which you can recognize because it has scene
numbers in the margins and odd breaks halfway down the page – is often something
of a Frankenstein monster, with hastily written descriptions by the script
supervisor of what the actors actually did in a scene, or lines they improvised.
And a transcript is more or less useless except as a quick reference, or a
typing exercise.