Writing guide
Screenplay format basics: the rules that make a script readable
Sluglines, action, dialogue, parentheticals: industry format explained in one pass - and why every rule exists.
A screenplay is not prose. It is a working document read under time pressure by agents, readers, actors and crew - and format is how it earns a fair reading.
Format is readability. Readers process thousands of pages. Industry format is a shared interface: when it is right, nobody notices; when it is wrong, the script reads as amateur before the story gets a chance. Every rule below exists for speed and clarity, not tradition alone.
The slugline. Each new scene opens with a line in caps: INT. or EXT., the location, then DAY or NIGHT - INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT. It tells the unit where and when they are shooting before a single action line is read. A new location or time means a new slugline.
Action lines. Present tense, only what the camera sees and the microphone hears. Paragraphs stay short - one to four lines. “We hear” and “we see” are usually cuttable; so are camera directions, unless you are directing your own script. White space is a feature: readers trust pages that breathe.
Dialogue and parentheticals. The character’s name in caps, the speech beneath it. Parentheticals - a short bracketed direction under the name - exist for a beat of HOW, not a mood board: (quietly), not (furiously stabbing the air). When the dialogue itself says it, delete the parenthetical.
Transitions, pages and the one-minute rule. CUT TO: is mostly implied by the next slugline - spend transitions only where the cut itself is the point. The trade’s rule of thumb is one page of properly formatted script to roughly one minute of screen time - approximate, not a stopwatch, but it is how everyone estimates. Twelve-point Courier remains the industry default typeface.
Let the tools do the margins. Free and paid screenwriting software handles indentation, pagination and character spacing automatically; Fountain-style plain text does the same for writers who live in text editors. Use one. Format never makes a script good - but wrong format can stop it being read at all. The beat sheet shows you what to type once the margins are handled.