Screenplays

Choose File > New Project… and choose Screenplay. Scenes in the screenplay are written in Fountain, the plain-text screenplay format, and laid out on screen as they'll appear on the page.

Write without formatting

Press Return and Tab, and Five Rooms chooses the next element for you.

Scene headings, character names and transitions are capitalised as you type. A name in capitals followed by Return becomes a character cue.

On iPad and iPhone, use Next element and the Element menu above the keyboard.

The line under the page shows the current element and the page count. A page runs about a minute of screen time.

Stage plays

Choose File > New Project… and choose Stage play, then US manuscript format or UK manuscript format (UK is chosen for you in Britain and Ireland). A play is written the same way as a screenplay, without scene headings: each act is a folder and each scene a document inside it.

The page shows the play in its format as you write: in US format, names in capitals at the centre of the page, speeches across it, and directions indented, with their brackets drawn for you (don't type them; brackets you type aren't doubled); in UK format, names in bold at the margin with their speeches beside them, and directions in italics. A play's keys:

Typing a character's name offers the names of your cast and the names already in the play: press Return or choose one to fill it in (on iPad and iPhone, above the keyboard).

A play has its own pages in Publishing: Cast of Characters and Setting in Front Matter, and Development History (readings, workshops and productions) in Submission.

In the Publish room, choose Play, then a version: for a US play US Letter, A4, Word or Fountain; for a UK play A4, Word or Fountain. The other format's versions are under More Formats. A US play's PDF is in US manuscript format: names in capitals over their speeches, dialogue across the page, directions indented in brackets, and every act and scene starting a new page under its heading (ACT I, SCENE 2; an act of one scene has no scene heading). Pages are numbered act, scene and page (I-2-14), counting on through the play; a play without acts is numbered plainly. A direction that starts Setting: or At rise: is set with its label at the margin. When the same character speaks again after a direction, their name is repeated with (Continued), as it is when a speech runs onto the next page. END OF ACT ONE and END OF PLAY are added for you.

A UK play is set in Times New Roman on A4: act and scene on one line, each name in bold at the margin with a colon and its speech beside it, directions in italics, and parentheticals in italics within the speech. When the same character speaks again after a direction, the speech goes on without the name. Pages are numbered plainly from the play's first page, and the play ends where you write CURTAIN.

The Word versions have the same pages, each element a paragraph style of its own (Character, Dialogue, Stage Direction and so on), so a theatre can edit and reflow them.

Before the play come a title page (the title, A Play in Two Acts, and your name, with your contact details at the foot), the cast of characters and the setting. Leave Cast of Characters empty and it's made from everyone who speaks, most lines first, with each character's role from Cast & Places; write it yourself (one character to a line, the name, a colon and a description) to choose the order and add notes about doubling. Write the Title Page document yourself and its lines replace the generated page.

Doubling

Theatres care how many actors a play needs. In Plan ▸ Story ▸ Cast & Places, choose Doubling… under Characters: it works out the fewest actors who could play your characters, one actor taking roles that are never on stage in the same scene (a character is on stage where they speak, or where you've set them on stage). It also lists quick changes, where one actor would go straight from one role into the next scene as another. Choose Copy to paste the doubling under your Cast of Characters.

Statistics shows a play's running time, at about a page a minute, and each character's speeches and words.

Sending a play out

Theatres and competitions usually ask for a synopsis, a cover letter, a character breakdown, the first ten pages and the play's development history. In the Publish room, Submission pack builds them together and saves them in one folder:

• Synopsis, Cover letter (the Query Letter document), Pitch and Logline from Publishing ▸ Submission, each left out while it's empty.
• Characters: the Cast of Characters as a Word document. Left empty, it's made from everyone who speaks.
• Ten-page sample: the title page and the first ten pages of the play, ending with the last speech or direction that ends on page ten, never part-way through one. It's also under More Formats on its own.
• Development history: readings, workshops, productions and awards, from Publishing ▸ Submission.

Before it's built, the Publish room estimates the running time at a page a minute, and mentions it when a short play runs past the ten pages most ten-minute play festivals allow.

To start a sample at a later scene, customise the Ten-page sample format and set sample: { pages: 10, from: "Scene title" } under screenplay.

To change a script's format, choose Project ▸ Script Format (on iPad and iPhone, Script Format in the ⋯ menu): Screenplay, Sitcom (Multi-Camera), Stage Play (US), Stage Play (UK) or Radio Play (BBC). The text stays as it is. A script that becomes a play or a radio play gets that kind's pages; nothing is removed if you change it back.

Musicals, sitcoms and radio plays

Choose File > New Project… and choose Musical, Sitcom or Radio play.

• Musical: a stage play with songs, in US or UK manuscript format. It starts with Act One ▸ Scene One and a Song: line to name the first song. Its Front Matter has a Musical Numbers page after the cast. To make an existing play a musical, choose Musical under Project ▸ Script Format.
• Sitcom: a multi-camera episode: Cold Open, Act One, Act Two and Tag, each a folder of scenes lettered A, B, C. The manuscript is called Episode.
• Radio play: numbered scenes for the BBC's scene style, with a Cast of Characters page.

Songs

A song begins where a direction starts Song: and names it: Song: The River's High, or Song: The River's High (Reprise). In a musical the line is centred and bold, and lyrics (~) show in capitals in either format. On an empty line, Tab steps through Character, Stage Direction, Song and Blackout or Curtain; ⌘7 (Format > Play Element > Song) makes the line a song.

When you compile, each song is numbered through the show and printed as its heading ("#3 — THE RIVER'S HIGH"); lyrics and music cues (Music:, Dance:, Underscore) print in capitals. The Musical Numbers page lists each act's songs with who sings them: the characters with lyrics before the next song or blackout. Write your own on the page and it's printed instead.

Before it's built, Publish gives the running time as the book's pages (a page a minute) plus three and a half minutes a song. Its submission pack has the play's documents and the Musical Numbers as a Word document of their own; theatres usually ask for demo recordings of the songs too, which you'll send yourself. Statistics ▸ Speeches by character adds Songs by character.

For the title page's credits, open Publish ▸ Co-authors and choose who wrote the book, the music and the lyrics: "Book by A", "Music and Lyrics by B". With none chosen, it reads "by" and the names.

Sitcoms

A sitcom is written as a screenplay: scene headings, action, characters and dialogue, with the same keys. Its action shows in capitals with enters and exits underlined, and its dialogue is double-spaced, as a multi-camera script prints them; the text keeps its own case.

Publish ▸ Episode builds it in multi-camera format: each act and scene on a new page, the act's name (from its folder: Cold Open, Act One, Tag) and the scene's letter centred and underlined, then the scene heading and who's in the scene. Scenes are lettered A, B, C through the episode. Each act whose name starts "Act" ends with END OF ACT, and the episode with END OF SHOW. To put the scene's letter under the page number, customise the format and set sceneLetterInHeader: true under screenplay.

Publish times an episode at about thirty seconds a page, and mentions it when it runs outside the 38 to 55 pages of a half-hour.

A Final Draft file made from a multi-camera template (action in capitals, dialogue double-spaced) imports as a sitcom.

Radio plays

A radio play is written as a play: names, speeches and directions, no scene headings. Each document is a scene. Its directions are technical directions, the sound and music cues (FX:, Music:, Grams:, Atmos:) as well as the action, shown in capitals and underlined; names sit at the margin with their speeches beside them. Return after a speech or direction waits for a name; on an empty line Tab steps through Character, Technical Direction and Transition, and ⌘1 to ⌘6 choose an element (Format > Play Element).

Publish ▸ Radio play builds it in the BBC's scene style: Arial 12 on A4, scenes numbered through the play ("SCENE 3."), voice directions in capitals inside the speech, END. at the end, pages numbered at the foot, after a title page and a cast list. The studio version numbers the speeches from 1 on each page. There's also a Word version and Fountain. Cast & Places offers Doubling…, as radio companies double heavily.

Publish times a radio play at a page a minute and mentions it when that's far from the usual slots (14, 28, 45, 60 or 90 minutes). Its submission pack is the synopsis, a covering letter, the cast list and the script.

A Scrivener project in the BBC Radio Scene Style imports as a radio play; its scene numbers and END. are left out, since compile adds them.

Import a script

Choose File ▸ Import ▸ Screenplay (Fountain, Final Draft)… (on iPad and iPhone, Import in the Library's menu) and choose a .fountain or .fdx file. It becomes a new screenplay project: a document for each scene, named by its heading, and a folder for each act (a Fountain # Act One section, or Final Draft's acts). The title page stays at the top of the first scene. Final Draft's script notes become Fountain notes, and its bold, italic and underlining are kept.

A Scrivener project written in script mode imports as a screenplay too. Scrivener doesn't name the elements, so they're read from its paragraph formats: check the first few scenes after importing.

A project made from Scrivener's Stage Play (US) or Stage Play (UK) template imports as a play in that format. Its act and scene headings are left out, since the binder already holds the acts and scenes and compile numbers them, and its directions lose the brackets the play's layout adds. Its Characters and Setting pages become the play's cast list and setting. A Fountain file whose acts and scenes are sections (# ACT ONE, ## Scene Two) and which has no INT./EXT. headings imports as a play too.

Title page

Put Fountain title-page lines, such as Title:, Credit: and Author:, at the very start of the first scene. If there are none, a title page is made from the project's title and your name.

Compile

In the Publish room, choose Screenplay, then a Version. The preview shows the opening pages as they'll be set; Check against a market… checks the script against a market's rules (see Storyteller Workbench).

In Fountain output, top-level folders such as acts become sections. Pages break as screenwriting software breaks them: a scene heading stays with what follows it, and speeches split across pages with (MORE) and (CONT'D). A screenplay's Publishing arrangement has the Submission folder only (see Front Matter, Back Matter and Submissions).