💻⌨️ Scriptwriting apps and software ⌨️💻

Many of you have been asking about software/apps for scriptwriting. So, I thought I'd pop a quick little guide in here for you. Let me know if I've missed anything out!

You can write a basic script using any word processor - Word, Google Docs, Pages etc.

But if you want to get serious about scriptwriting, and if you want to share your work with actors at your local theatre, or agents, or film producers, at some point you’re going to want to use an app or software package to create scripts in industry-recognised formats. (and you’re also probably going to get a bit fed up of using the tab button/spending ages formatting each part of your document at some point).

And yep, you did read that correctly - formats. Plural. Because each branch of the industry has its own specific format(s) - radio, TV, film, theatre - and there are even some regional variations. But, honestly, until you’re in production with something where there are very specific formatting needs, for now, you just need something to do the most common types - screen and stage.

The word you’re going to see me use a lot here is ‘elements’. By this, I mean the different parts of a script. Not scenes or acts. I mean what each bit of a script within each scene tells us.

These are basically the following:

Scene heading - in theatre, usually the scene number, sometimes a title for each scene.
Character - the name of the character who is speaking, or performing some kind of action (‘MARK walks into a room’, for instance)
Dialogue - the words a character says, either out loud within the actual scene, off camera/offstage, or as a voiceover (like a narrator in a film)
Action - anything that can be seen or heard in a scene, other than the dialogue.
(Parentheticals) - usually within dialogue to explain how something is delivered - shouting, whispered, to another specific character - or a pause.
Transition - at the end of a scene, how it ends - e.g. blackout in theatre, fade or ‘cut to’ on screen

Why is all this important? Because these formats speak in the language used by people in the industry - a director, actor, designer, stage manager, can look at a script and know what is what just by the way it is arranged and formatted.

As I said, you can make versions of scripts which are completely readable and usable in non-industry programmes/apps, but if you’re ready, or just want to, step up into the serious stuff, here are some of the apps/software I’ve used:

Final Draft - https://www.finaldraft.com/

This is the big one. The product most writers I know/know of use, from TV writers here in the UK, to writers of huge international blockbusters. It’s sometimes frustrating, often not very intuitive, and can put the clunk into clunky… but, once you’ve used it and got used to it, I think it’s difficult to use anything else. It’s also pricey, although there’s now a subscription option, which is worth a look at. I always use this for anything destined for the screen, as it’s the programme most of the industry uses (and there are several format options for stage/screen/radio etc. built in), but for theatre, I use…

Scrivener - https://www.literatureandlatte.com/store/scrivener

About a ⅓ or the price of Final Draft, this is mainly (I think) aimed at writers of prose. But the scriptwriting offering is very good, especially for stage. I really like all the options to have your research and planning docs in one place. But it can be really annoying too - sometimes you have to hit the tab button several times to get to the correct ‘element’ (Dialogue/Character>Action, for instance).

Google Docs + Extension

Something I didn’t know about until fairly recently - and which has been really useful whilst co-writing with someone miles away - is that you can add basic scriptwriting extensions to a Google Doc, essentially letting you toggle between different elements. There are several, and many are free to use (or very cheap)

Software/apps I haven’t used, don’t know much/anything about, but have heard people talking about (and understand more and more professionals are using)

Celtx: https://www.celtx.com/

Highland Pro - https://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland-pro/

Fade In: https://www.fadeinpro.com/

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Most of these packages offer free trails, so why not try a few out and see which works best for you?

Happy writing!

M 🙂

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