First things first, I think it's important to note that 99% of what you'll find in the screentour will not help improve your story's plot whatsoever.

Whatsoever

It will merely teach you the best way to style and present your screenplay. Not how to pen Pulp Fiction.Furthermore, this tour will not be covering formatting constants such as margins or spacing.

If you don't already have a screenwriting software that does those things for you, I suggest you purchase one before continuing.

I use Arc Studio Pro, but tons of people use Final Draft.

Note: if you're not looking to spend any money yet, there are some free softwares (as well as free versions of paid softwares) you can find with a quick Google search.

My point here is it's 2022. You should not be spacing your own screenplays unless you enjoy a good torture session.

Lastly, you will see many "rules" on this tour.

The quotes are there because in truth art doesn't really have any rules. You can do whatever you want and it'll sometimes work.

The key word is sometimes

The reality is no professional will read your script if the margins are off or if you use the wrong type of font. That's just a fact.

So, it sometimes pays to follow the "rules", you know?

I'm a software engineer who enjoys screenwriting. I made this website both as a project, but also as a way to give back to the screenwriting community.

To give a little background, I started writing screenplays a while back and found it difficult to learn the tricks of the trade by myself.

How do I write music cues? Should I write music cues? What are music cues? Lots of questions and not a lot of cohesive answers.

Don't get me wrong, there's a plenty of good stuff out there in the ether, but it was very unorganized. My goal is that this website will help unite the screenwriting community. Connect pros with rooks. A Qs, and so on.

Also, some of the terms found in the glossary, or in a section's local gloss', were invented by me.

Not that the concepts didn't already exist, just that I have given names to those that were nameless. For posterity. And because it was fun.

Anyways. Without further adieu. Let's start the tour. See: arrow on the screentour header.p.s.: the min-width for screenplay example pictures is about 350px (to fit content), so if the device you're using is smaller than that, I suggest you wait until you're by a larger screen for a better learning experience. 690px and above is preferable

p.p.s: feel free to contact me with any comments or questions at screenplayrules@gmail.com.

p.s.³ (well not really cubed, but you get the point): these rules are not set in stone. As I mature as a writer so will the rules. Reason will prevail!