There is a reason why Hollywood is such a driving force in the world — a majority of the world’s population loves movies and television. The enjoyment of the stories we see on the big or small screen comes in many different ways.

• Pure entertainment in the form of making us laugh or cheer. 
• Perfect escapism to forget some of life’s hardships, stress, and anxiety. 
• Educational experiences learning about different cultures, historical figures, and different walks of life.
• Inspiration that we can apply to your own life stories. 
• Catharsis to help process our own struggles and triumphs in life.

• What is screenwriting?
• What is a screenplay?
• How are screenplays written?

Firstly, let’s tackle the title question. 

What Is Screenwriting?

We’re not going to go directly to the Webster Dictionary meaning yet, or any other similar variant. Let’s dive deeper, first exploring what screenwriting isn’t, and then set our sights on what screenwriting really is, and how you can go about attempting it. 

There are a lot of different types of writing in the world. 

Prose Writing

Prose writing is the oldest form of writing. It can be utilized in fiction and non-fiction by way of written and spoken language with a natural flow of speech that is void of structured rhythm or meter. This type of writing is written in complete sentences (and fragments) that form paragraphs. Prose can be formal or informal, descriptive or analytical, all depending on the purpose and style of the writer. You can find prose writing in fictional novels and short stories, or in non-fiction factual essays, biographies, and speeches. 

It’s important to note that prose writing is meant for a reader to consume the prose by reading it on paper (or, these days, often on a device screen like a smartphone, tablet, computer, or laptop). The reader is then tasked with processing the factual information for non-fiction prose, or using their own imagination to envision fictional prose that tells stories of characters and the conflict they are dealing with within the confines of the story and concept. 

Poetry or Verse Writing

Unlike prose, poetry and verse writing focuses on rhythm, meter, and sound to evoke emotions or convey ideas and perspectives in a more condensed and artistic manner. These types of writing are written in lines and stanzas rather than sentences and fragments found within prose writing. You can find poetry and verse writing in:

• Poems
• Songs
• Haikus
• Limericks
• Scripture

The lines, stanzas, and words (often in the form of rhyming) used in these kinds of writing are specifically structured and formatted to follow a certain beat or creative structure. 

Screenwriting

Okay, we’re finally here. We’ve covered what other types of writing exist. Now let’s tackle the title question head-on — What Is Screenwriting?

Screenwriting is a cinematic variation of prose, meant specifically to tell a cinematic story by way of acting as a blueprint for future collaborators to bring the words to life on either the big screen in movie theaters, or the small screen on televisions and screen devices. 

If you scroll back up to our description of prose writing, you’ll see the mention of prose writing asking readers to use their own imagination to envision fictional prose that tells stories of characters and the conflict they are dealing with within the confines of the story and concept.

Here’s where screenwriting differs vastly from prose writing like short stories, novels, memoirs, and biographies — screenwriting is not meant for the masses to read and interpret using their own imagination and visualization. Instead, screenwriting is meant to tell filmmakers, actors, cinematographers, and editors (and many other filmmaking professionals) how a story should be conveyed on the screen for an audience to see, using their talents in their fields to make the words come to life. 

How does screenwriting accomplish this? By way of a screenplay. 

What Is a Screenplay?  

Prose writing has short stories, novels, memoirs, and biographies. Screenwriting has screenplays and teleplays (more on that later). 

Note: “Screenplay” vs. “Script” — the terms screenplay and script are interchangeable. 

A screenplay is part manuscript and part blueprint. 

The manuscript aspect of a screenplay is present as it conveys a story from beginning, middle, and end — which is the general three act structure of any story you find on the page and screen, or told through verbal storytelling (jokes, anecdotes, and tales). 

The blueprint aspect of a screenplay is the fact that it exists as a blueprint for filmmakers and actors to interpret the story by way of their specialized craft (directing, cinematography, editing, production design, wardrobe, musical score, acting, etc.). These professionals in their respective fields will use a screenplay as a collaborative reference to bring its story to life, no different than how construction crews use blueprints to build a structure. 

The screenplay tells the cinematic story from beginning to end using visual description to tell what is to be seen on the screen, accompanied by dialogue to be spoken by actors populating the screen. 

Screenplays also go into broad detail of what locations will be needed, what type of casting should be applied to the character roles, and what the overall scope of the eventual production will be. 

Here is where screenplays differ most from short stories and novels — everything written in a screenplay can only be something that is seen or heard on screen. Beyond cinematic techniques like voice over, there’s no place for inner thoughts of characters like you’d find in a work of prose fiction. Screenplays won’t delve into backstories or inner voices of characters, unless those elements are to be conveyed on screen. 

What Elements Are Found Within Screenplays?

It’s fairly simple. Where prose has no direct rhythm, meter, or stanza to follow, screenplays are somewhat similar to poetry and verse writing, as far as having a particular type of structure and format that need to be followed. This also points to the blueprint dynamics of screenplays as well. 

The elements of a script consist primarily of three main elements:

• Location/Scene Heading
• Scene Description
• Dialogue  

These are the three core elements of a screenplay. The screenplay needs to tell us where we are (location), what we are seeing (scene description), and what characters are saying (dialogue). 

Location/Scene Heading

A scene heading tells us what location we are in within the story, whether that location is indoors (interior/INT.) or outdoors (exterior/EXT.), accompanied by the visual cue of whether the scene takes place during daylight or nighttime. 

Examples:

INT. HOUSE – DAY

EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT

Again, screenplays are blueprints for filmmakers. The scene heading tells the producers and filmmakers what is needed for production. 

• Are scenes to be shot during the day, or at night?
• What locations does the location manager need to find?
• Can the crew build a set if the scene takes place inside?
• If a set can’t be built, is there an interior location the production can find?

These various elements of the scene heading will determine production schedules, budgets, and the need for location shooting. 

Scene Description 

After the initial scene heading comes scene description which describes to the person reading the screenplay what is happening. 

Example: 

JOHN walks into the house covered in mud. He’s panting, short of breath, and clearly paranoid as he slams the door shut and locks it quickly behind him. 

Okay, we know who the character is. The first time you mention a character in scene description, you always put their name in CAPS. After that, anytime you mention that character in scene description throughout the screenplay, you write in without CAPS. 

The above description tells us what is happening. It also gives the filmmakers, crew, and actor cast as John a visual of what is happening. He’s covered in mud. He’s out of breath. He’s panicked and paranoid. Within two sentences of scene description, we know something is wrong, and from a production side of things, we know what is needed to make that scene come to life. 

Scene description never tells us anything beyond what is to be seen or heard on screen. The screenplay isn’t a novel or short story. There’s no time to go into backstory and inner thoughts. This is a cinematic blueprint, not a prose manuscript. So it is important to remember that all scene description should be kept to a minimum. It should be short, sweet, and to the point without going into too much detail. 

The screenplay doesn’t need to tell us smells (that doesn’t transfer to the screen), go into details about description of sets or wardrobe (that is the job for the production designer and wardrobe manager), or tell us why the characters are the way they are. 

The best way to learn how to write screenplays is by reading screenplays, which you can find pretty much anywhere online these days. 

Dialogue

Dialogue is what we are to hear the characters saying. While we could (and will) write a whole article breaking down how dialogue should be written, here are some simple thoughts to consider:

• Less is more. 
• Don’t rely on the dialogue to tell the story. Show us more than you tell us.

The Simple Screenplay Definition

All of what we’ve detailed above best offers what the screenplay definition is — a manuscript for a film or television show that includes dialogue, scene description, and character actions that serve as a blueprint for production.  

How Long Should a Script Be?

A script should generally be between 90-115 pages for a feature length movie. There are many variances though. If you research and read produced screenplays you find online, you’ll see that those page counts can go well past 115 pages. This is partly due to the changing format expectations over the past few decades. 

A great barometer to follow is the page-to-screen-minute comparison. An industry standard train of thought is that one script page equals one minute of screen time. While this is a vast generalization, it is actually a reliable frame of reference. 

• 90 pages equals an hour and a half of screen time
• 100 pages equals an hour and forty minutes of screen time
• 115 pages equals nearly two hours of screen time

While many of our greatest movies can go into the three hour mark and beyond, Hollywood prefers to produce movies that range from 90 minutes to 115 minutes. The shorter the movie, the more screenings they can pack into the theater. The shorter the movie, the more likely an average streaming customer will click on the movie for an easy and doable watch, time-wise. 

What About Teleplays?

When you’re talking about television, the script count takes on a whole different meaning. Teleplays (screenplays written specifically for episodic television) are a different beast. With episodic television, you generally have more time constraints when it comes to 30-minute or 60-minute time slots for network television, which actually break down to 22 minutes or 42-44 minutes of actual content-time after commercial breaks. Teleplays for streaming shows with no commercial breaks don’t have to worry about that. 

Once again, it’s best to use the page-to-screen minute comparison.  

How Many Scenes Are in a Screenplay?

The number of scenes in a script varies, so there’s no single correct answer we can offer here. Some screenplays have multiple scenes — up to or beyond 80-100 depending on the scope of the story and script — while others may only have a dozen or so if the story and script are more contained (fewer locations and scenes). 

Keep in mind that the more scenes a screenplay has, the higher the budget and scope of the production will be. 

The best screenplays only use what is necessary to tell a compelling cinematic story.

Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta in 'Pulp Fiction'

Who Writes a Screenplay?

Unless the credited writer is an auteur (auteur meaning someone who both writes and directs a film) like Quentin Tarantino, the person who writes a screenplay is the screenwriter (also known as the script writer). 

The screenwriter is either the one who originated the concept/story/characters of the screenplay, or they are hired to take someone else’s concept/story/characters and bring them to life by writing on assignment. 

Screenplays can also have multiple people as credited — and sometimes uncredited — screenwriters on any given project.

You could sell a script to a production company or studio and be replaced during the rewrite phase, or the powers that be could bring additional screenwriters in to utilize their own proven talents to enhance the script. 

What Is the Best Screenwriting Software? 

Because screenplays work as blueprints for hundreds of collaborators per script (development executives, producers, directors, crews, actors), there is a need for a standard in formatting, which involves elements like particular font, margins, headers, page numbers, etc. Adhering to screenplay format used to be a daunting task for newcomers. Thankfully, for the past thirty-plus decades, digital software has helped screenwriters stay true to the standard formatting expectations. Screenwriters no longer even need to worry about setting fonts, margins, headers, and page numbers! Software does it all for you. 

While many different screenwriting software packages are available for screenwriters, the industry standard used by 95% of the film and television industry is Final Draft software. Sure, others offer similar means to the formatting end. However, Final Draft is one to consider above all of the rest because once you do make it as a professional screenwriter, you’re going to need to be familiar with Final Draft anyway since almost all production companies, studios, streamers, and their writers use it. 

Final Draft helps you to not have to worry about the technical aspects of formatting. You can instead put full focus on telling your cinematic story while the top screenwriting software in the film and television industry — Final Draft — does all of that other stuff for you. 

Is the Screenwriting Journey for You? 

Now that you know more about screenwriting and how screenplays are written, you can ask yourself, “Is Screenwriting for Me?” 

If you have a passion for cinematic storytelling, and have cinematic stories of your own brewing in your mind, maybe it’s time to give it a try! 

The best screenwriting education is to read screenplays — preferably those being produced by Hollywood and independent filmmakers. If you want to become a pro screenwriter, what better way to learn than reading scripts from movies you love and from the type of movies you want to write? 

After you’ve done that, start developing concepts, get some software, and start writing. When you’ve got that first script done, you can test the waters by entering it into major screenwriting contests like Final Draft’s own Big Break Contest. As you hone your skills with more scripts, you can continue on your screenwriting journey as you try to sell your own screenplays to Hollywood, or use them as calling cards to get coveted writing assignments. 

You’ve taken the first step on your journey already by reading about what screenwriting is. Best of luck on the next step of exploring your imagination and making your stories come to life on the page with hopes of seeing your cinematic blueprint brought to life on the screen.