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"The bible" is the book of scripts directors and stage crew use during show prep. This formatting guide is for the bible, is not required for posting sketch ideas on the wiki, though the effort is welcomed! Here is where the author introduces their script. Anything that will aid in the direction the script writing should be mentioned here, optimally with a hyperlink to any relevant external information or videos. Here is how to format titles. All these kind of notes should be before the script. Alternate endings etc. should be able to explain themselves. Song parodies are formatted in a different way to scripts, but both should use the size 10 verdana font and avoid bold and underline. Italics for emphasis should be kept to a minimum.
TITLE OF SKETCH Stage directions are usually given in italics to differentiate them clearly from the dialogue. If you need to use stage directions during the middle of a characters dialogue then place it within circular brackets [change this rule?]. Notes that are for writing the sketch, and will be later removed should be placed in square brackets. That way you can see what needs removing by simply pressing crtl+f. It’s a good idea to keep stage directions to a minimum. Directors and actors need the space to put their own interpretations on what you have written. So forget about directions like ‘CHARACTER 1 is a hippy’ or ‘she picks up a glass of wine’ or ‘he smiles sadly’ unless it is integral to the action of the play. For the same reasons ellipses should be treated like stage directions and kept to a minimum. If it helps you write, put them in brackets [...] so they can be removed later. Stage directions should generally be 1 paragraph, much shorter than this one. VOICE OVER: If your characters names aren’t mentioned in the dialogue, give them names anyway. Don’t bold the character’s names.
CHARACTER 1: Dialogue is written in sentence case. Character names are given in upper case – again to differentiate them clearly from the spoken dialogue. CHARACTER 2: It’s a good idea to set a second-line tab so that dialogue always begins on the same vertical line. This makes it clearer and easier for actors to read. Sadly we can’t do this on the wiki, but we’ll do it for the printed scripts.
CHARACTER 1: Dialogue is usually double-space between each character’s speech, but single-spaced within a character’s speech. This again makes it easier for the actors to differentiate between characters. CHARACTER 2: While we are using a sans serif font here for easy readability on the computer [article], scripts should be printed out in size 12 times new roman. PauseCHARACTER 2: If you need to write in a pause, it should go in italics, the same as other stage directions. Use as much spacing as required, we’re don’t need to save paper, we need scripts that are easy to read. CHARACTER 1: (to herself) Brief stage directions that specifically apply to one character can be put in the dialogue like this. CHARACTER 3 enters CHARACTER 1: If a character that isn’t talking has an action, it gets its own line. CHARACTER 3: When you receive scripts, write your name on them. (stage direction integral to the script) Stage directions in the brackets should start with a lower case. And if you can’t think of a punchline, then end the sketch with “[NEEDS PUNCHLINE]” instead of what follows this sentence. THE END
ALTERNATE ENDING 1
CHARACTER 2: While we are using a sans serif font here for easy readability on the computer [article], scripts should be printed out in size 12 times new roman. Pause An example of an action that involves 2 or more characters, it takes its own line, stage actions do not use full stops
CHARACTER 1: There should generally be no more than 1, max 2 alternate endings. There is generally a clearly funnier ending.
CHARACTER 2: If you have another ending it’s probably better to leave your idea in the comments, otherwise it will be removed in liu of more interesting endings. If you remove someone else’s ending, post it in the comments so it’s not lost. Happy script writing! THE END |
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