  Drama
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| Is it me, or is format what makes or breaks a piece of writing? Well, at least with scripts, format is crucial, but how much is known about it? |
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Well, it's that time of year again. No, it's not Christmas. It's finals time! Yay. Well, for the past few weeks in my university courses, my professors have discussed the formats of our final exams with us so we don't walk into the test completely clueless as to what our exams look like and what's expected when we answer the test questions. All this chatter about the final exam formats made me think about formats in general. After a bizarre sequence of synapse firings, I started thinking about script format and wondered How many people are aware of the proper script format?
As someone who has made mistakes in this field, I can tell you what is not part of the script format. For example, the text is not left justified; instead, the text is centered, and the character names are double spaced from the character's lines. If you don't have a script writing program on your computer, you can set the justification to center, and when posting to here, you can use the handy centering tags ({center}, {/center}). Second, with dialogue, the character's name (in all capital letters) acts as a header above the dialogue, and no tag lines are used. Finally, all stage directions are enclosed in brackets (these marks []).
Most exposure many of us have had to plays was in school, and the books from which we read plays reformat scripts to save space, as scripts in their original form take up a greater amount of space when in print. I recall when I was in the school's production of the musical Annie. When I got my reprint of the script so I could learn my lines, my packet was about ten pages, and this was for one scene in a seventeen scene production. The scene itself lasted only five minutes, but because the lines require so much space, more paper was used to contain the total dialogue of one scene. When publishers reformat plays, they often justify the text to the left, and, depending on the play and the publishing house, remove some of the brackets. However, they tend to keep the characters' names capitalized, and they place a good deal of space between the character's name and his or her dialogue to simulate the space that would normally exist between the two components without taking up a large portion of the page. I have seen similar left justification in scripts posted on the site as well, although I suspect some members format it in this manner to make it easier for readers to follow since the font is much smaller online than it would be on a typical page.
So, the next time you sit down to type a script, remember to capitalize, center and bracket! I'll be back next month with a look at the scripts we tend to be visually interpreted more often: the screen script.
Until next time,
(sig courtesy of 👼intueyLet Your Light Shine  and Charmin  ) |
Found a few more scripts for you to peruse!
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All things considered, I should be thankful that the mailbox has been a tad slow for me. So now, a few comments on scriptwriting from my previous newsletter. 
From phil1861: As a playwrite, I've found writing scenes with stage direction and the character dialogue very freeing as opposed to prose writing where each and every scenery detail, emotions, and dialogue have to be crafted to tell a story. In a play, the dialogue tells the story and the actors then have to fill those roles out in thier own peculiar way. I love the fact that everything is communicated via dialogue with secenery and props there to ice the cake. I use something called RoughDraft, a Visual C++ program written in England and very affordable.
Yeah, not having to worry about details for the scenery and props allows you to concentrate on dialogue more. Of course, a few playwrights dabbled with some details, Henrik Ibsen among them. The line between giving the stage manager guidance in creating scenery and being a control freak in your script writing, though, is a fine line to walk, especially when writing the stage directions.
For anyone else interested in the RoughDraft program, this link might be helpful.
http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd.htm
From Trisha : When I was in high school, I used to write plays a lot as I was in theatre and that sort of thing. I don't know where most of those are, but remember winning third place for one. I think I loved the way dialogue drove the plot. And the magic the stage can bring. The biggest challenge is the limit of the stage itself. You an only do so much on a block of wood. But that is also where the creative genius lies--in overcoming the stage's limits and turning the stage into the universe and beyond.
~Trisha
I tried to write scripts in high school, but I did most of my writing during class. Therefore most of my work from that time was handwriting (and handwriting scripts is a royal pain!). Still, when I could get myself to write even a scene, it made the time go by much faster.
Your comment about the limit of the stage being the biggest challenge intrigued me. When I read it, I recalled an interview with Scott Underwood (the drummer of the band Train) who compared the craft of rock music percussion to haiku (which has strict parameters). As a jazz drummer, he had a lot of room to create complicated rhythms, but he found rock percussion to be more rewarding due to the increased parameters for rock rhythms. I call this concept beauty within boundaries, and it can be applied for any form of art, stage writing included. I'm glad you brought that up because I love exploring all possible situations where parameters enable greater creativity for the writer.
From ezseeker: Dear Elisa,
I wish to tell you that I enjoyed your newsletter very much. Thanks a lot!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
For my next newsletter, I'll be covering screen scripts (scripts for movies and television). Feel free to send me your comments and questions on this topic!
And if you happen to miss or misplace a newsletter, feel free to stop by "The Drama Box" [13+]. |
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Drama: April 26, 2006 Issue [#1007]
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