Wondering what goes into writing SCREENPLAYS? Here are the basics – Software, Format & Approach.

What’s the first image that pops up when you hear ‘script’ or ‘screenplay’? Maybe a big-fat 120-page white document with credits mentioned on the cover page, in a typewriter font. This perception is aesthetically true, but the soul of the screenplay lies in the basic emotion you intend to narrate through your visuals – though on a paper, looking a very flattish approach. Let’s jump onto the basics of screenplay.

Software

Be it India or the West, the most used software by the industry remains ‘Final Draft’. Though ‘Celtx’ has been making its strong grounds for quite some time, but Final Draft has been a prominent leader for long and continues to woo the screenwriters. Though you can always rely upon Microsoft Word for drafting your scenes, still, it is always favorable for writers to use a professional tool which takes care of the entire formatting – enabling the writers to focus on nurturing their tale.

Here’s the software interface:

Courtesy: screenplayreaders.com

Format

The aforementioned scenes are a slice of the screenplay that was written by me for a national pencil brand to create a social media commercial on Father’s Day.

As presented in the image, the basic sections of screenplay’s format are highlighted – Scene Heading, Action, Character, Parenthetical, Dialogue, and Transition. To start-off with writing screenplays, it is crucial to know these sections for the writer to present the scene in the most understandable manner and maintain consistency throughout. Even from the viewpoint of approaching the producers, it is always appreciable, notable for a script to be formatted excellently – as per the industry standards.

APPROACH

Storytelling is a very personal thing – a medium for an individual to scream his/her ‘say’ out to the world, through a story. And when this story is exciting enough for you to pen it down into visuals, screenwriting pitches in. Obviously, there are no stories that aren’t driven by characters – so, the foremost aspect of setting yourself up to tell a story, is letting your conscience live that character’s life – along with the impacts of the conflicts you are thinking of leveraging for your story; and when you’re completely soaked-in, let the journey begin, don’t plan the scenes but follow the character’s path, focus on the internal transformations, realistic and believable twists, some pinch of spirituality will always help, and most importantly – stay as much honest as you can, because if it isn’t exciting you, don’t expect audience to get excited.