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Manuscript Formats

1. General: formatting applicable to all audio drama MS styles

2. Front matter: cover, fly page, dramatis personæ

3. Spec MS

4. Production MS

5. Multi-scene MS

6. Other MS Styles

The instructions below should prove useful in the U.S., in Canada, and for independent producers anywhere.

General

Type scripts to facilitate production. Punctuate to aid sight-reading. For instance, actors find periods, dashes (—) and ellipses (. . .) more useful than colons and semi-colons. Uses dashes for sudden transitions and ellipses for  brief pauses. Em (long) dashes should be used for transitions and en (short) dashes for hyphens.

When using a PC use only Windows system fonts. Doing so guards against troubles that otherwise could arise when using electronic mail.

Justify left margins, leave right margins ragged.

Do not change typeface or size except as noted below.

Use good quality, opaque bond paper for spec scripts, and, if available, a soft, "silent," opaque paper for production.

Type only on one side of the paper, never on both.

Place page numbers are in the upper right corner of the page.

Place line numbers are 1" from the left edge of the paper.

Align cues are 1½" from the left edge of the paper.

Place dialogue and descriptions 3½" from the left edge of the paper.

Enclose dialogue directions in parentheses, and include within dialogue.

Notes to actors — e.g., (quietly), (fading up) — should be lower case. Technical notes — e.g., (FILTER), (ECHO) should be upper case. When tech and interpretive indications appear together, enclose them in one set of parentheses and separate them by a semi-colon: (FILTER; expectantly).

Keep interpretive indications to a bare minimum.

Type indications to actors that affect more than one character upper case, enclose in parentheses and set them off on their own lines.

Leave two letter spaces between sentences.

Do not split a word at the end of a line.

Never bind with a permanent device, such as staples or plastic spine. Actors have difficulty turning bound pages silently at the mic.

Be aware that few producers will bother to read:

a hand written script,

a script typed on a manual typewriter,

a bad photocopy,

a carbon, mimeograph, or ditto copy,

or anything other than a neat, clean original or crisp photocopy.

The final page of a script should be blank. The blank page protects the final page of body copy.

Sound, Music, and Interpretive Indications

Keep these terse and functional. If a character has to open a door, so indicate. But, even if you hear in your mind characters shifting in a chair or scratching as they talks, leave those actions out. Sound cues in scripts are strictly utilitarian. If a sound is not needed to advance the plot, set the scene or clarify action, leave it out of the script.

The producer decides when to introduce mood music under a scene; you need only show bridges and source music. Generally, the producer determines the decorative and complementary uses of sound and music; the writer indicates only the functional occurrences. When your play requires a special handling of effects or music, discuss your preferences in an introductory paragraph or two of notes on a separate page.

Be stingy with parenthetical directions to the actors, and confine them to the briefest words and phrases. Directorial remarks interrupt speeches and interfere with smooth delivery. You can help actors with their line readings more with typographical cues: punctuation, underscoring, capitalization, etc.

Except for familiar contractions, avoid typing dialect phonetically unless a particular effect depends on pronunciation.

Telescope sound, music, and interpretive indications by using a few common terms. The Audio Dramatists' Lexicon explains:

back	beat	bridge	cross	crossfade	cut to	echo
ext.	fade	fade out	fade up	filter	hot on mike	int.
jump to	off mike	on mike	out	reverb	sting	top

After a musical bridge, you don’t need a separate indication to take out all the atmospheres of the previous scene. It is assumed that the bridge wipes them all out.

Transitional indications (crosses and fades) should appear after the cue every time movement occurs. The stopping point should be shown if there’s any chance of confusion.

LUCRECIA: (crossing slowly to him) You wouldn’t do that to me.

BRENDA: Don’t come any closer!

LUCRECIA: (still crossing) Have a heart. . . .

BRENDA: You heard me!

LUCRECIA: (stopping) Okay. You win.

Indications for static conditions (back, echo, filter, hot on mike, off mike, quietly, reverb, etc.) are assumed to continue until otherwise noted. You need only make the indication at the first pertinent line.

GLENN: Hello?

GRISWOLD: (FILTER) Is that you, Glenn?

GLENN: Who is this?

GRISWOLD: It’s me, your nemesis . . .

Volume changes not resulting from changes in mike position, as when scenes end or begin are indicated by one of the fade cues. Volume changes caused by physical actions are best indicated by phrases such as "entering," "leaving," "moving closer," "backing away," etc.

SVETLANA: This is too loud.

MUSIC: FADE SLIGHTLY.

IGOR: Leave my TV alone!

SVETLANA: (bustling out) It’ll wake the kids.

Sound positions are assumed to be on-mike unless otherwise noted. Indicate the on-mike position only to show that an off-mike or transitional position has changed. Even then, most of the time, the transition will be clear without your specifically indicating that someone has come on-mike.

MERYL: Where are you?

JERQUOIS: (off-mike) In the kitchen.

MERYL: Can you come here a minute?

JERQUOIS: (entering) What’s the matter?

MERYL: Take a look at this.

JERQU0IS: The Schleppenese ceramic vase? Seems perfectly normal to me.

When you’ve indicated that characters have moved, you need not also introduce a separate sound indication, and vice-versa. In general, indicate character movement in the line unless the sound of the movement is important. You may do this:

TITANIA: (entering) It’s raining cats and dogs!

ALONZO: Don’t drip on the carpet!

. . . or . . .

SOUND: TITANIA’S SQUISHY FOOTFALLS.

TITANIA: It’s raining cats and dogs!

ALONZO: Don’t drip on the carpet!

. . . but the following is unnecessary.

SOUND: TITANIA’S SQUISHY FOOTFALLS.

TITANIA: (entering) It’s raining cats and dogs!

ALONZO: Don’t drip on the carpet!

Dialogue

In dialogue, avoid using colons and semi-colons. Instead a dash (-- or —) indicates an abrupt transition.

Why, thank y — Say! What did you mean by that?

A dash at the end of a speech means that the speaker trails off without finishing a thought.

You mean —?

Ellipses indicate a brief pause or interruption. Type ellipses as three dots and a space, or as the final punctuation at ends of sentences, four dots (or ! three dots, or ? three dots) and a space.

Well... what now?

Hello?... This is she.... No thanks.

Ellipses at the beginning of a line indicates that the speaker is continuing a previous speech.

... and that’s when I punched him.

Ellipses at the end of a speech indicate that the speaker has been interrupted.

FRANK: What I meant was...

JOAN: I don’t care what you meant!

When a character talks over or ignores an interruption, ellipses appear on both sides of the interruption.

BILL: And that’s why I say...

ARNOLD: Don’t listen to him!

BILL: ... Arnold should be drawn and quartered.

Emphasized words or phrases should be indicated by underlining or upper case. Avoid italics, except as indicated below in the Production Manuscript section.

Treat numbers in dialogue as text. Spell them out the way you want actors to pronounce them.

June 2 = June Second or the Second of June

$100 = a hundred dollars

.5 million = five-hundred thousand or half a million

-30º = minus thirty degrees or thirty below zero

253.25 = two-hundred and fifty-three and twenty-five one-hundredths or two-hundred fifty-three point twenty-five

Handle poetry appropriately to save page room and make for easy sight reading:

You ought to make | Your page look terse | And type like this | Short bits of verse.

. . . or . . .

Whate’er the style of manuscript you use,
You ought to type like this on sep’rate lines
Your longish passages of poesy.

Front Matter

Type front matter for spec scripts (see below) using a non-proportional (12 point) serifed font (Courier on most PCs). For other MS styles, readable 12 point proportional type faces are acceptable.

Cover and Fly (Title) Pages

cover page	fly  page
click on images to enlarge

Center title upper case about a third of the way down the page.

Skip four spaces then double space the author information.

Skip about 30 spaces (or on PC's treat as a footer) and type the author’s, agent’s or production organization’s name and address at a 1½" margin. A copyright notice isn’t necessary, but if you feel safer with it, place it here. If you have not registered the script with the Library of Congress, do not use a date.

copyright Inspyrd Beithuh Myoosuz
© The Saiwutt Radio Theater
copyright © KPTZ

The same distance down near the right-hand margin, production companies may have reason to add the date and the draft number. Individuals need not do so when preparing an audio play for submission to a producer.

 When you prepare a script for production, you may wish to get a little fancy with the title page. For instance, when preparing a series or serial, you can print the series title with fancy lettering and/or a logo. Doing this with taste helps show off your professionalism to everyone who sees the script. Every little bit helps.

I recommend full copyright information on the title page of a production script. A lot of people will see copies and have opportunities to plagiarize.

When you register the produced program, the script will automatically be registered. You only need to copyright the script if the production is to be copyrighted by someone else. Even then, it is not always necessary.

In the example shown of a production script title page, a standard copyright warning is used, as well as the notice. In addition, the series’ episode number appears in large letters for easy identification.

Cast of Characters Page

Should appear immediately after the title page.

Should appear immediately after the title page.

Margins: Left 1½", all others 1".

No page numbers or header.

List may be single (long list) or double (short list) spaced.

Names in caps.

List in order of appearance.

Character descriptions are not required, but sometimes desirable to assist actors and director. Type lower case after the character’s name. Separate from the name with a comma.

After all the speaking roles, list the walla (crowd noises).

JIM, 30, a nude model or A nude model
MARCIA, 20, a detective or A detective
FLORESTAN, 50, a Ruritanian spy or A Ruritanian...

Townsfolk, Martian invaders, members of Congress

Some producers also like to see a list of sound and music requirements on this page, but I don't find that practical. As a producer, I add those and other notes on separate pages that follow this page.

The guts of the script, or "body copy," can take one of several forms. Click where indicated below for samples and instructions.

Spec Scripts

"Spec" is short for "Speculation." Writers use this MS style when making submissions to producers and competitions for consideration. The below file of instructions is a PDF file. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, which you need to read PDF files, you can download it free by clicking on the logo.

SPEC MS INSTRUCTIONS

The Production Script

There is no prescribed style for use in the studio. If you choose, you can use spec MS. However, the following style is much more practical. The idea is to fit as much on one page as possible while remaining readable and while still leaving room for actors’ marginal notes. The style reduces the number of times actors must turn pages as they read. Every turn of the page is potentially an unwanted noise. For this reason, I sometimes use legal-size paper. However, the actors find the larger paper awkward.

PRODUCTION MS INSTRUCTIONS

Copy on soft (i.e., quiet) three-hole punch paper, if possible. Bind talent’s copies with brass fasteners. I use only one fastener at the top left. By no means allow talent to staple their pages. They will have more difficulty turning stapled pages silently than loose pages. They can remove brads before coming to the mike. Copies for the producer, director, P.A., and engineer(s) should go into three-ring binders. Include the charts for stereo blocking and other notes in the producer’s, foley walker’s, and engineer’s copies.

The Multi-scene Script

When you have a long script with many scenes and characters, you may find this multi-scene format  helpful. It can facilitate taping and post-production. Actors like it, too. Use the production MS formatting with the additions and exceptions shown in the sample.

MULTI-SCENE INSTRUCTIONS

Everyone can easily see which actors are needed for each scene. When making a taping schedule, you can easily group scenes by cast, ganging all pages requiring similar groups of actors in the same production period. You can easily pull pages to make sides. When you finish taping one scene, your P.A. can see at a glance who’s needed for the next one and herd them in from the waiting area.

Other Alternatives

IMHO, the formats discussed above are the most professional and practical. The producer can refine them for personal taste. Be that as it may, many producers have their own house preferences. One veteran writer uses a style more appropriate for publishing than production. Another uses a variation of A/V style, in which sfx and music appear in a left-hand column and dialogue on the right.  Below are other more common formats.

Scripting Software

Commercially available computer software made especially for scripting (e.g., Final Draft, Scriptware, etc.) ignores audio drama. Writers who like using this software adapt television and film formats to audio, as shown at left. One page roughly equals a minute of playing time. The main benefit is typing speed, because formatting and certain repetitive tasks are accomplished more or less automatically. You can probably automate similar key strokes on a PC using macros. For the producer, no particular benefit derives from using TV/film formats as far as I can tell.

The BBC currently has free radio script template software on-line that works with Microsoft Word. Remember, though, that British page dimensions differ from the standard American 8½" x 11". 

BBC Style for Freelance Writers

Back in the early 1980s, when I visited London a couple of times a year, the BBC had its own house style, which varied somewhat with the preference of the producer and quirks of the typist. Except for timings, the title page gave a complete production log, and showed the P.A.’s contact information. Below left is the page from a play I directed in London with my scribbles on it. Next to it is a partial page example of body copy.

click to enlarge

The Beeb's own guidelines differ markedly from the scripts I saw when I was haunting her halls. Margins are about 1" all around. No header.  Page number centered at the bottom of the page.

The Beeb's on-line guidelines show a sans-serif face, similar to Helvetica or Ariel. Lines have extra leading (i.e., spacing between lines) for readability. Two spaces between cues. Dialogue starts 3" from left edge of the page. No line or paragraph numbers. Sound and music indications indented ½-inch at right and left. Typed uppercase and underlined. When a line spills over to a second page, the character’s name appears in a continue message at the bottom of the 1st page, flushed right as follows:

SMYTHE CONTINUED.........

Sentences are never split at the end of a page, nor words at the end of a line.

contents • Intro • Gimme a break! • Overview • Management • The P.A. • The Text • MS Formats • Mike Acting • Casting • Stereo • Directing • Production • Foley • Appendices • Author's Bio •  NATF home page