Write a screenplay

1The Script asset

Script is its own kind of asset on FoundryInk, sitting right beside comics, books and the rest. Its whole job: "A screenplay, stage play, audio drama, or teleplay written in standard format." You write one document in proper industry format (scene headings, action, character cues, dialogue), then switch a format lens over it: Cinema, Stage, Audio, or TV. Same script, four kinds of read. When it is ready you publish it, and readers get it in clean, standard format they already know how to follow.

One thing to keep straight: this is not the panel-by-panel script tab that lives on a comic. This is a standalone screenplay document, its own asset. Same word, a different tool entirely.

2Start a Script

A Script is its own asset, so you start it the way you start any comic or book: open the create wizard and choose the Script kind. Because a screenplay is written rather than uploaded, the wizard skips the upload and preview steps. You move through the basics, set your pricing, and land straight in the editor with a blank document ready for your first slug line. There are no files to attach and no pages to lay out first. Give it a title, decide how you want it priced, and start writing. If you would rather import an existing Fountain file, you can do that later from inside the editor. Nothing needs to be imported just to begin. Choose Script, name it, price it, and go.

3One document, four lenses

The heart of the standalone Script asset is the format lens: one shared document you can view four ways. Cinema gives you screenplay for film, with INT./EXT. sluglines, action, and transitions. Stage reframes it as a stage play with acts and scenes, a cast list, and dialogue-forward stage directions. Audio is built for audio drama, treating SFX and sound cues as first-class elements alongside narration and dialogue. TV gives you the teleplay, act and teaser structure using the cinema element set. You are not locked into one form. Pick the lens for what you are actually writing, and the editor speaks that format's language, its vocabulary and its elements, over the very same underlying script.

4The building blocks

A screenplay in your standalone Script asset is built from typed elements, and once you think in elements the format stops being a chore. You add them from the Insert menu, and each one lands in industry-standard layout, so you write the words and the page handles the layout.

The core moves like a scene does. A Scene heading opens a scene and tells us where and when. Action describes what we see or hear. A Character cue names who speaks, Dialogue is what they say, and a Parenthetical is a small note on delivery. Round it out with Transition, Dual dialogue, SFX, Cast list, Act break and Centered.

5Write with the keyboard

The standalone Script asset is built so your hands never leave the keyboard. Once you are moving, two keys carry you: Enter and Tab each drop in the sensible next element for you. From a scene heading, you land in action. From action, Tab opens a character cue and Enter keeps you in action. From a character, you fall straight into dialogue. From dialogue, Tab starts the next character and Enter returns you to action. From a transition, the next scene heading opens. And Backspace on an empty element clears it away.

So try it: type a heading, Enter into action, Tab to a character, type the name, Enter into their line. You are writing a full scene without reaching for a menu.

6Scene headings

Every scene in your standalone Script asset opens on a Scene heading. In the Cinema and TV lenses it is called Scene heading; in the Stage and Audio lenses it is simply Scene. A film-style heading carries three parts you fill in: a prefix, a location, and a time, following the placeholder shape INT. LOCATION - TIME. The prefix is one of the standard four, INT., EXT., INT./EXT. or I/E., telling the reader inside or outside. The location names the place, the time sets the moment. In one glance the reader knows where we are and when. Keep locations spelled the same way every time so the same set reads as the same set throughout the script.

7Characters and dialogue

A spoken beat is two elements working together: a Character cue, then a Dialogue element under it. The character field autocompletes from names you have already used (placeholder CHARACTER NAME), so your cast stays spelled the same way every time. A brand new character is just a new name typed in, so consistent capitalisation is what keeps one person reading as one person across the whole script.

Let the dialogue carry the scene. Trust the cue rather than describing who speaks in the action. Reach for a Parenthetical (placeholder (wryly)) only for a genuine delivery note, kept short, never stage direction. When two people talk over each other, Dual dialogue sets them side by side.

8What each lens gives you

The lens changes both the words on the page and which elements the editor offers. Pick the one that matches your form and you get exactly the right tools, under the right names. Cinema is the classic film set: sluglines (INT./EXT. headings), action, and transitions. TV keeps that whole film element set and adds act and teaser structure. Stage renames action to Stage direction, hands you a Cast list and Act break, hides transitions, and leans dialogue-forward, so a play never raises camera cuts. Audio promotes SFX and sound cues to first-class elements, hides film action, and renames action to Narration, putting sound exactly where a radio drama needs it. This is the standalone Script asset, not a comic's panel script.

9The scene navigator

Down the side of the editor is a Scenes list: every scene heading in order, each shown as its location and time, so you can read the shape of the whole script at a glance. Click any scene to jump straight to it. Before you have written one, it simply reads No scenes yet. Below the list runs a live readout of your standalone Script asset: its page count, an estimated reading time in minutes, and how many characters (speakers) it holds. Treat the navigator as your outline view. It is the fastest way to move around a long script and to catch a saggy middle or a scene that runs too long. You do not build it by hand: write real scene headings and it fills itself in. Each heading also carries a Scene notes control, a comment thread anchored to that exact scene.

10Fountain in and out

Your screenplay is stored here, but it is not stuck here. This standalone Script asset speaks Fountain, the plain-text screenwriting standard, so your pages stay portable. Import (titled Import Fountain file) pulls a .fountain or .txt screenplay in, so an existing draft from another tool becomes a working document you can keep building. Export (titled Export as Fountain) writes your script back out as a Fountain file, ready to email, drop into version control, or open anywhere that reads the format. Because Fountain is just marked-up plain text, nothing about your work is locked to one app. Draft here, then hand your pages to any tool that speaks the same language.

11Standard format, ready to read

You are not writing in a toy format. A Script renders in true industry-standard screenplay format: Courier, 12 point, US Letter, with the correct margins, the same layout an agent or a table read expects. That matters the moment you hand it to anyone. What you type comes out looking like a real script, both on the page and in the reader.

When you publish a Script, readers get a clean paginated screenplay reader, and it shows a running {pages} pages, about {minutes} min, so a producer knows the runtime at a glance. The finished Script can also be produced as an industry-standard PDF in that exact same format. The PDF is how your script presents to the world, and Fountain is the portable working file you carry between tools.

12Saving, and who can write it

There is no Save button to hunt for. This standalone Script asset saves as you type: a small indicator reads Saving while it works, then Saved once it lands, or Unsaved if a save is still pending. So write freely, chase the scene, let the pages pile up. The document is keeping pace with you.

Editing a Script needs an author role or higher on the project, the same permission every other editor uses. Hand a teammate the link and they open it read-only, with the Insert and Import controls hidden, so they can read the whole screenplay without any risk of changing a line unless you give them the role. One safe link, and their notes stay their notes.

Questions screenwriters actually ask