Just a quick one – it drives me crazy to see all the billions of people out there insisting you have to format your screenplay in such and such a way, on so-and-so paper, punched here and there, margins specified down to the last nth of a millimetre in all directions.
Look, it really really isn’t that big a deal. Obviously you want your thing to more or less look like a pro script, but every pro I know uses either Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter, which does it all for you.
If you can’t afford either of those yet, then try CeltX. That’s free.
Please, please believe me. No-one is ever going to see you are half an inch off on your margins and despise you forever, or think, hmm, they’ve used one hole binding and therefore this script is clearly rubbish. Seriously. It just doesn’t work like that. Save your time, effort and pain, and direct it towards your writing. That’s where it counts.
How To Write A Screenplay
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Hi Frankk. Congratulations on your new e-book. I can’t wait to read it! … Take care and good luck with all that you do.
Sincerely,
Doug
interested in format for TV movies or MOW’s
Hi Joan,
Really I can’t think of anything else to add that isn’t in the link above – when you are approaching these shows, my experience is that the readers are vastly more interested in what you have to say rather than whether you have formatted your stuff precisely the way they want it. The standard layout in the link really should get you read most places.
Thanks for commenting
Frankk
Thanks for the advice. I simply can’t afford expensive screenplay software and use Microsoft Word and because of that, I obsess over things like making sure that the dialogue is 3 inches long and have even rewritten the conversation to fit it exactly at 3 inches which caused me to give it up for about a week. Not an inspirational story but I’ll take your advice and not worry that badly about things that the eye would never notice.
Hello,
I’m Startrelle and new to to this forum. I’ve been writing since 2001. I am so grateful to have Final Draft on my computer after years of writing using Microsoft Word. However, I recently discovered a scriptwriting software that’s similar to FD. Go to http://www.zhura.com. It works just as good and looks a lot like FD and the best part of it all is it’s free!
P.S. By the way, I was once told by a well-known TV writer who immediately noticed that my script was written in MS Word and told me that it is not an acceptable format!
Hi and thanks, this is article is really helpful for me and every other beginner!!!
Christine
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