Support NeoGAF

[Memles]

First off, to clarify: No, I am not writing a screenplay under some delusion of grandeur and with hopes of huge success...I simply am interested in pursuing a set of characters further and want to challenge myself in the upcoming school year.

However, I honestly have no batshit idea how to format it, or work with it, or do little procedural stuff like that, and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with websites or anything like that. I could more or less halfass the thing but I really want to put together something complete, for the sake of actually accomplishing something tangible.

So, anyone have any good advice/websites? Experience? Anything would be great. Thanks.

 

[teiresias]

There are a couple of relatively good Word macros that can do formatting for you, just try google. Otherwise, you're stuck with doing it yourself or laying down the dough for one of the uber-expensive professional screenwriting packages.

I do more stage-play writing than screenwriting, just be warned - if you're anything like me, once you've spent any length of time doing scriptwriting your regular prose writing will go to pot afterwards until you get back into the swing of it. :lol I'll write a play and then decide something else is better off as a short story or something, but my first three pages are nothing but line after line of character dialogue because I've gotten used to conveying stuff that way rather than delving back into prose descriptive writing.

 

[Memles]

I do more stage-play writing than screenwriting, just be warned - if you're anything like me, once you've spent any length of time doing scriptwriting your regular prose writing will go to pot afterwards until you get back into the swing of it. :lol I'll write a play and then decide something else is better off as a short story or something, but my first three pages are nothing but line after line of character dialogue because I've gotten used to conveying stuff that way rather than delving back into prose descriptive writing.

I dread taking a creative writing course at some point, because I too am too used to writing plays. I haven't written a short story in a VERY long time, and I really don't know if I could write anything but a brutally sarcastic one at this stage...it will take some time to adapt, I assure you.

 

[Warm Machine]

http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/format.html

 

[MC Safety]

I recommend Final Draft. It's a good screenwriting program and has a bunch of formatting guides built-in.

 

[themadcowtipper]

I like Movie Magic Screenwriter

 

[mattx5]

RoughDraft is what I use, it works fairly well, give it a try, it's free.

 

[KingGondo]

Bah, I only used two separate macros in Word, and both of my scripts have turned out fine. All you need are dialogue and description indentation macros. Get the indentation lengths from any online guide, it's really pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

As for practice, start with a short (10-15 page) draft of whatever you feel like, but try to fit in all the different types of formatting--scene descriptions, dialogue, dialogue that crosses over pages, scene transitions, etc. You really don't need a screenwriting program to write a script. Once you get past the formatting issues, the real work begins: writing a validly entertaining, exciting, interesting script without committing any of the major sins of screenwriting.

I recommend How Not to Write a Screenplay by Denny Martin Finn. It's relatively thin and cheap--helped me a lot when I first started out. Good luck!