"Formatting Cheats" -- are the following "cheats" okay??

Plot Device · May 19, 2007

All right. I have been doing THREE sneaky formatting tricks. And right now I wanna ask if they are okay to get away with. (And all three are the kind of cheats that make the script SHORTER not LONGER.)

1) The "space before" cheat on slug-lines, only when the slug-lines appear at the top of a page or the bottom of a page.

When you enter a new slug-line for a new scene, it is supposed to have two (2) blank lines prior to it instead of just one (1). In Final Draft it's called "space before" in the "Formatting" menu. For example:

Tom gets in the boat and heaves off.

Mary stands and weeps, watching him row away.

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.

So, the slug-line for the "Volcano Summit" has two (2) blank lines before it instead of just one (1).

That's all well and good when the slug-line happens mid-way down a page. But Final Draft wants to insert that additional "space-before" thingy even if the slug-line falls at the very TOP if a page! And that's an entire frigging hard-return right there! Here's an illustration of what I mean. The line is the top of the page.

___________________________________________

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.

So, I have been manually correcting that by reformatting any such top-of-the-page slug-lines so that instead of "Scene Heading" they are "Action" elements. And that eliminates the extra hard-return.

___________________________________________

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.

The down-side is that it messes up your "Note Cards" (for anyone here who uses the "Note Card" feature in Final Draft).

It also happens at the BOTTOM of a page. And that's even MORE infuriating because that can add up to MULITPLE hard returns. Here's the way Final Draft wants to format it with loads and loads of white-space at the bottom of the page, doing absolutely NOTHING:

Tom gets in the boat and heaves off.

Mary stands and weeps, watching him row away.

__________________________________________

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.

But here's how I fix it:

Tom gets in the boat and heaves off.

Mary stands and weeps, watching him row away.

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

__________________________________________

Mary throws herself in.

So, I save a lot of negative space that way-- save two (2) or three (3) or more (!) hard-returns. I once again have to re-cast the slug-line as an "Action" instead of a "Scene Heading." And then I have to manually reset the "space before" attribute for that "Action" line as two (2) spaces before instead of just one (1). But .... it that "okay"??? Is it "okay" to have a lonely slug-line at the bottom of a page and nothing after it?

2) The "hyphenating-words" cheat.

Sometimes (especially in dialog paragraphs) I'll have an excrutiatingly long word that takes up an excrutiatingly wide swath of space. And I wind up with a dialog paragraph three (3) lines long.

....................TOM
..........This word is just too
..........excrutiatingly long. It needs
..........some help!

And so I hyphenate it to get it down to just two (2).

....................TOM
..........This word is just too excruciat-
..........ingly long. It needs some help!
..........

Is that bad???

3) The "invisible periods" cheat.

And sometimes, at the bottom of a page, a sentence runs on and Final Draft doesn't want sentence fragments. So it bumps the whole sentence onto the following page. And I again have all that wasted space.

....................MARY
..........I can't take it any loger, Tom!
..........We've been here for two years and
..........all we eat is coconuts and fish!

_______________________________________________________

...Just onJust once I'd like to go out to a
..........nice restaurant with a band and a
..........maitre de and linen table cloths
..........and a wine list and powder room and
..........-- and -- and I wanna see a show!
..........That's right! I said a show!

So, here's how I fix it. I hide an invisible "period" mid-way into a sentence to trick Final Draft into thinking I have a complete sentence. And that way I fill out the remaining negtive space all the way to the bottom. (My period here is in RED, but I either cast it white or shrink it down to just 1 point)

....................MARY
..........I can't take it any loger, Tom!
..........We've been here for two years and
..........all we eat is coconuts and fish!
...Just onJust once I'd like to go out to a
..........nice restaurant with a band and a
..........maitre de and linen table cloths
..........and a wine list and powder room and.

______________________________________________________

..........-- and -- and I wanna see a show!
..........That's right! I said a show!

Is THAT bad???

dpaterso · May 19, 2007

Hmm.

1) If you click on a Scene Heading (so the cursor is on the line) and select Format / Spacing Before you can choose 1 instead of 2, which is a local cheat for just that element. Or so it appears -- I just tried this and it seems to work. Re having a Scene Heading as the last line on the page, without action following directly, you're deliberately orphaning elements and it just doesn't look right.

2) If it pleases you then do it, but it's just cosmetic, you're the only person who cares about this.

If you or anyone else edits the dialogue in future, you/they will have to watch out for this.

3) Have you tried Document / Page Layout / Options tab / untick Break dialogue and action at sentences? Although if this works, and you're deliberately breaking up sentences when going over the page, this isn't going to make for an easy read. Edit: not sure about this one... the theory's there but the entire action block keeps moving onto the next page despite unticking... Further edit: stupid me, this option is to allow breaking of action blocks, it can't break in mid-sentence.

-Derek

icerose · May 19, 2007

Have you tried looking at the story itself and leave the formatting alone?

From what I read in the SYW your story needs a LOT of cutting and tightening. For real though, not monkeying around with the formatting.

Nip and tuck your script, make the story tighter, make the dialog punchier. It will become more gripping if you do. You want quick pages, which means lots of white space. You want almost as much white space as you do black space. Go read a script, one from your favorite movie. Pay attention to how it looks, pay attention to how it feels. Study the action, study the dialog, and compare it to your own. Take into consideration that each writer has their own style which is why you should read several scripts.

zeprosnepsid · May 19, 2007

The hyphenated word looks downright strange to me.

But yeah, I'd stick to regular formatting whenever possible.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

Nobody has said if it will merit a rejection.

dpaterso · May 20, 2007

Plot Device said:
Nobody has said if it will merit a rejection.

If what will merit a rejection? A deleted blank line? A hyphen? :Huh:

-Derek

nmstevens · May 20, 2007

Plot Device said:
All right. I have been doing THREE sneaky formatting tricks. And right now I wanna ask if they are okay to get away with. (And all three are the kind of cheats that make the script SHORTER not LONGER.)

1) The "space before" cheat on slug-lines, only when the slug-lines appear at the top of a page or the bottom of a page.

When you enter a new slug-line for a new scene, it is supposed to have two (2) blank lines prior to it instead of just one (1). In Final Draft it's called "space before" in the "Formatting" menu. For example:
Tom gets in the boat and heaves off.

Mary stands and weeps, watching him row away.

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.
So, the slug-line for the "Volcano Summit" has two (2) blank lines before it instead of just one (1).

That's all well and good when the slug-line happens mid-way down a page. But Final Draft wants to insert that additional "space-before" thingy even if the slug-line falls at the very TOP if a page! And that's an entire frigging hard-return right there! Here's an illustration of what I mean. The line is the top of the page.

___________________________________________

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.
So, I have been manually correcting that by reformatting any such top-of-the-page slug-lines so that instead of "Scene Heading" they are "Action" elements. And that eliminates the extra hard-return.

___________________________________________

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.
The down-side is that it messes up your "Note Cards" (for anyone here who uses the "Note Card" feature in Final Draft).

It also happens at the BOTTOM of a page. And that's even MORE infuriating because that can add up to MULITPLE hard returns. Here's the way Final Draft wants to format it with loads and loads of white-space at the bottom of the page, doing absolutely NOTHING:
Tom gets in the boat and heaves off.

Mary stands and weeps, watching him row away.

__________________________________________

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

Mary throws herself in.

But here's how I fix it:

Tom gets in the boat and heaves off.

Mary stands and weeps, watching him row away.

EXT. VOLCANO SUMMIT - LATER

__________________________________________

Mary throws herself in.
So, I save a lot of negative space that way-- save two (2) or three (3) or more (!) hard-returns. I once again have to re-cast the slug-line as an "Action" instead of a "Scene Heading." And then I have to manually reset the "space before" attribute for that "Action" line as two (2) spaces before instead of just one (1). But .... it that "okay"??? Is it "okay" to have a lonely slug-line at the bottom of a page and nothing after it?

2) The "hyphenating-words" cheat.

Sometimes (especially in dialog paragraphs) I'll have an excrutiatingly long word that takes up an excrutiatingly wide swath of space. And I wind up with a dialog paragraph three (3) lines long.

....................TOM
..........This word is just too
..........excrutiatingly long. It needs
..........some help!

And so I hyphenate it to get it down to just two (2).

....................TOM
..........This word is just too excruciat-
..........ingly long. It needs some help!
..........

Is that bad???

3) The "invisible periods" cheat.

And sometimes, at the bottom of a page, a sentence runs on and Final Draft doesn't want sentence fragments. So it bumps the whole sentence onto the following page. And I again have all that wasted space.

....................MARY
..........I can't take it any loger, Tom!
..........We've been here for two years and
..........all we eat is coconuts and fish!

_______________________________________________________

...Just onJust once I'd like to go out to a
..........nice restaurant with a band and a
..........maitre de and linen table cloths
..........and a wine list and powder room and
..........-- and -- and I wanna see a show!
..........That's right! I said a show!

So, here's how I fix it. I hide an invisible "period" mid-way into a sentence to trick Final Draft into thinking I have a complete sentence. And that way I fill out the remaining negtive space all the way to the bottom. (My period here is in RED, but I either cast it white or shrink it down to just 1 point)

....................MARY
..........I can't take it any loger, Tom!
..........We've been here for two years and
..........all we eat is coconuts and fish!
...Just onJust once I'd like to go out to a
..........nice restaurant with a band and a
..........maitre de and linen table cloths
..........and a wine list and powder room and.

______________________________________________________

..........-- and -- and I wanna see a show!
..........That's right! I said a show!

Is THAT bad???

I just don't use the double space after the slug lines. I haven't done it in twenty years of screenwriting. It isn't a strict formatting requirement so it isn't cheating not to do it. The problem with removing it at the tops and bottoms of pages as you suggest is that every single time you edit your script those orphaned removals are going to move around, which means that you'll have, here and there throughout the script, sluglines with single spaces mixed in amidst the sluglines followed by double spaces, which you'll have to go through by eye, track down and fix -- every time you add or subtract so much as a single line, which, if you have any experience with Final Draft, can sometimes have that odd "cascading" effect -- it bumps text from one page, which then bumps text to the next page, and the next and the next and the next.

We've all seen the result of adding a couple lines in just the right place -- and suddenly the entire script is half a page longer -- or conversely removing a couple lines in just the right place and the script shrinks a half a page.

Regarding splitting words -- it's generally not done, even though I agree it may look aesthetically pleasing. These things are meant for actors to read, primarily, and splitting words in that way makes it harder.

Also, leaving a slug line as an orphan at the bottom of the page is also not considered acceptable. Slug lines are the equivalent of titles. It would be the same as putting "CHAPTER TEN" as the last line at the bottom of the page and starting the chapter at the top of the next page.

However -- that business of putting invisible periods in the middle of the dialogue to help more effectively split it up to keep from having great big chunks of white space -- that's not such a bad idea.

NMS

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

dpaterso said:
If what will merit a rejection? A deleted blank line? A hyphen?

-Derek

The whole point of this thread is "What can I get away with?"

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

nmstevens said:
I just don't use the double space after the slug lines. I haven't done it in twenty years of screenwriting. It isn't a strict formatting requirement so it isn't cheating not to do it.

Double-space before or double-space after???

nmstevens said:
The problem with removing it at the tops and bottoms of pages as you suggest is that every single time you edit your script those orphaned removals are going to move around, which means that you'll have, here and there throughout the script, sluglines with single spaces mixed in amidst the sluglines followed by double spaces, which you'll have to go through by eye, track down and fix -- every time you add or subtract so much as a single line, which, if you have any experience with Final Draft, can sometimes have that odd "cascading" effect -- it bumps text from one page, which then bumps text to the next page, and the next and the next and the next.

We've all seen the result of adding a couple lines in just the right place -- and suddenly the entire script is half a page longer -- or conversely removing a couple lines in just the right place and the script shrinks a half a page.

I have been coloring all my "doctored" scene headings red. So when they slide around, I find them later and set them straight again.

nmstevens said:
Regarding splitting words -- it's generally not done, even though I agree it may look aesthetically pleasing. These things are meant for actors to read, primarily, and splitting words in that way makes it harder.

Will a reader who is NOT an actor care? Or even notice?

nmstevens said:
Also, leaving a slug line as an orphan at the bottom of the page is also not considered acceptable. Slug lines are the equivalent of titles. It would be the same as putting "CHAPTER TEN" as the last line at the bottom of the page and starting the chapter at the top of the next page.

Okay. I can fix that.

nmstevens said:
However -- that business of putting invisible periods in the middle of the dialogue to help more effectively split it up to keep from having great big chunks of white space -- that's not such a bad idea.

NikeeGoddess · May 20, 2007

Nobody has said if it will merit a rejection.

you still asking this ridiculous question? we are not the people who will make those decisions. however, ANYTHING can and probably will merit a rejection. especially long winded and boring speeches in a script.

the only thing that won't merit a rejection is a great and well written story, and then it must be in the write hands. and finding those write hands is no easy marketing task.

Nobody has said if it will merit a rejection.

when you print your script FD will run a formatting error and point them all out for you to fix before you print. if it will do it on your computer then it will do it on a producer's computer as well.

cheating is the lazy way. work on your story and forget about cheating. remember, you (and the rest of us) are competing with thousands of other writers... seasoned writers who've already figured out how to write a winning script, have won contests, have had scripts optioned and/or produced. we all have to work harder then them because they already have a foot in the door. they can get a read.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

NikeeGoddess said:
you still asking this ridiculous question?

This is why.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

icerose said:
Have you tried looking at the story itself and leave the formatting alone?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .... lets' see ... I think I have made no less than five posts here at these forums where I have stated that three weeks ago the script was originally 270 pages and has since been reduced to ~~240~~ ~~220~~ ~~180~~ ~~160~~ ~~144~~ 132.

Yes. I have edited the story.

icerose said:
From what I read in the SYW your story needs a LOT of cutting and tightening. For real though, not monkeying around with the formatting.

I have.

icerose said:
Nip and tuck your script, make the story tighter, make the dialog punchier.

I have.

But these "cheats" I am itemizing here in this thread have halped me shed about three entire pages. If a script at 123 isn't acceptable but 120 is, then I'm gonna do these cheats. Unless someone here can tell me from experience: "YES! IT WILL GET REJECTED!"

Joe Calabrese · May 20, 2007

Plot Device said:
But these "cheats" I am itemizing here in this thread have halped me shed about three entire pages. If a script at 123 isn't acceptable but 120 is, then I'm gonna do these cheats. Unless someone here can tell me from experience: "YES! IT WILL GET REJECTED!"

No person here or anywhere can tell you what will get rejected or not. Even producers will tell you different things. Some producers could care less about grammar, some swear by it as the mark of a good writer.

Finding Forester won Nichol even though it was poorly spelled and has lots of typos. Kangaroo Jack as bad as it was (on sooo many levels), was made into a film. One producer's trash is another's treasure. No one can tell you what is acceptable. It's personal taste.

The initial reader has power and some scripts get rejected for far less than cheating pages and some really badly formatted scripts get all the way up the ladder to greenlit status.

It all depends on the reader, his or her mood when reading, his or her experience and knowledge, and what has been told to them by their boss for what to look for.

It also depends on the strength of your story and characters.

Most important-- it depends on whether it is the right story for that producer at that particular point in time. A great story may get passed if the producer has no budget for it. It may get passed if they already have three or more scripts recently optioned or bought, it may get passed it the producer doesn't do that particular genre or era or character types.

And yes, it may get passed if you cheat the pages.

The point is to write your script as best as it can be with the greatest economy or words. Eliminate as many "pass" elements as possible and market it to the right producer at the right time.

Elf was shopped around with no success for over ten years, until the writer got notoriety as a Disney Fellow and then sold it based on the fact that he was now an up-and-comer. Same script, just different circumstances and eyes that read it with a new perspective.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

Okay Joe, you're saying "maybe." You're also suggesting that it's only one possibile reason for a rejection on a broad landscape of possibilities. And that some readers don't give a rip while others do. And so luck plays a factor.

Okay. I can deal with that.

And at this point, I'm keeping all of the above-mentioned cheats EXECPT for the "orphan scene headings" at the page bottoms that nmstevens warned against.

nmstevens · May 20, 2007

3) The "invisible periods" cheat.

And sometimes, at the bottom of a page, a sentence runs on and Final Draft doesn't want sentence fragments. So it bumps the whole sentence onto the following page. And I again have all that wasted space.

....................MARY
..........I can't take it any loger, Tom!
..........We've been here for two years and
..........all we eat is coconuts and fish!

_______________________________________________________

...Just onJust once I'd like to go out to a
..........nice restaurant with a band and a
..........maitre de and linen table cloths
..........and a wine list and powder room and
..........-- and -- and I wanna see a show!
..........That's right! I said a show!

So, here's how I fix it. I hide an invisible "period" mid-way into a sentence to trick Final Draft into thinking I have a complete sentence. And that way I fill out the remaining negtive space all the way to the bottom. (My period here is in RED, but I either cast it white or shrink it down to just 1 point)

....................MARY
..........I can't take it any loger, Tom!
..........We've been here for two years and
..........all we eat is coconuts and fish!
...Just onJust once I'd like to go out to a
..........nice restaurant with a band and a
..........maitre de and linen table cloths
..........and a wine list and powder room and.

______________________________________________________

..........-- and -- and I wanna see a show!
..........That's right! I said a show!

Is THAT bad???[/quote]

Regarding this last one -- it just occured to me that Final Draft allows you to reset the default so that it won't break either dialogue or text at sentence stops. I know that this default always bothers me, not because of its effect on page count but because, in reading it, it sometimes causes confusion as to whether a particular character has stopped talking and another character has started.

That is, when you're reading the script and it reads like this.

JOE
Let's get going.
(cont'd)

And on the next page:

JOE (CONT'D)
We've got to get to the hospital and see if
Marcy is all right.

If you're reading fast, it's easy to jump over it and think that you're reading dialogue from two characters rather than one.

Whereas, if it reads:

JOE
Let's get going. We've got to get to the

(cont'd)

And on the next page:

JOE (CONT'D)
hospital and see if Marcy is all right.

Then it's instantly obvious that the dialogue continues across the page break.

Of course, it also has the effect of saving you some space, but this is not a formatting cheat as, so far as I know, nobody explicitly requires the page break on the end of a sentence.

Some may prefer it, because it makes it a bit easier when you're doing A and B pages, but that's really not your problem.

NMS

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

nmstevens said:
Regarding this last one -- it just occured to me that Final Draft allows you to reset the default so that it won't break either dialogue or text at sentence stops. I know that this default always bothers me, not because of its effect on page count but because, in reading it, it sometimes causes confusion as to whether a particular character has stopped talking and another character has started.

That is, when you're reading the script and it reads like this.

JOE
Let's get going.
(cont'd)

And on the next page:

JOE (CONT'D)
We've got to get to the hospital and see if
Marcy is all right.

If you're reading fast, it's easy to jump over it and think that you're reading dialogue from two characters rather than one.

Whereas, if it reads:

JOE
Let's get going. We've got to get to the

(cont'd)

And on the next page:

JOE (CONT'D)
hospital and see if Marcy is all right.

Then it's instantly obvious that the dialogue continues across the page break.

Of course, it also has the effect of saving you some space, but this is not a formatting cheat as, so far as I know, nobody explicitly requires the page break on the end of a sentence.

Some may prefer it, because it makes it a bit easier when you're doing A and B pages, but that's really not your problem.

NMS

I think depaterso said the same thing. So I need to find that functionality in the formatting menu. That'll save me a lot of manual work-arounds.

Thanks.

Bartholomew · May 20, 2007

Don't obsess over formatting. Write a damn good manuscript, and then follow a formatting guide later on.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

Bartholomew said:
Don't obsess over formatting. Write a damn good manuscript, and then follow a formatting guide later on.

I already wrote a complete movie script. Now I need to shorten that script down to an acceptable length. And part of making it shorter can include the choices I make in formatting it.

jonpiper · May 20, 2007

Plot, you sound like a contractor who's trying to build a house that's too big for the lot.

The city has height and set back restrictions and you want to push the limits, want to build right up to the limits rather than redesign it. Cut out a room, make the rooms a little smaller, the roof flatter, add a basement, etc.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

jonpiper said:
Plot, you sound like a contractor who's trying to build a house that's too big for the lot.

The city has height and set back restrictions and you want to push the limits, want to build right up to the limits rather than redesign it. Cut out a room, make the rooms a little smaller, the roof flatter, add a basement, etc.

[insert appropriate curse word here]

I have!!!!! Why will no one give me credit for having eliminated an entire 138 pages????

Jamesaritchie · May 20, 2007

Format

The thing is, you're still trying to hide excess length, rather than finding a way to cut the excess length.

There simply is no reason to take a chance. Cut the excess length, and you won't have to worry about finding cheats on format. My guess is that the time spent looking for cheats could be why you still have cut enough.

The thing is this. You need to forget all about how much you've already cut. It's gone, so it's meaningless. You have a script that's only a few pages too long now, and these extra pages can be cut without harming the script.

Joe Calabrese · May 20, 2007

I'll give you credit.

Way to go!

Now keep cutting and when you get it to 119 and a half pages, brag about how great a story it is, not how many pages you cut out of it.

scripter1 · May 20, 2007

Here is my take

on point number 3, Invisible period.

Why don't you 1) tighten up the DIALOG!!

Take out any extra words, or nonvital thoughts. Anything that the audience/characters allready know OR can infer from the scene.

I can't take it any loger, Tom!
..........We've been here for two years and
..........all we eat is coconuts and fish!

I'm done Tom!
Two years of coconuts
and fish! I wanna go
to a restaurant, eat
on a tablecloth, have
some wine.

2) Add in an action break to bridge the cap between the break in the dialog.

_________________________________________________ _____

Mary chucks a rock into the water, then wheels on Tom.

MARY
I wanna see a show!

and powder room and
..........-- and -- and I wanna see a show!
..........That's right! I said a show!

If you've set up the context of the scene and the characters well enough then you won't need to say as much in the dialog. A writer ends up with lengthy dialog blocks because they are trying to give us all the info just with speaking lines.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

Joe Calabrese said:
I'll give you credit.

Way to go!

Now keep cutting and when you get it to 119 and a half pages, brag about how great a story it is, not how many pages you cut out of it.

Plot Device · May 20, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
The thing is, you're still trying to hide excess length, rather than finding a way to cut the excess length.

There simply is no reason to take a chance. Cut the excess length, and you won't have to worry about finding cheats on format. My guess is that the time spent looking for cheats could be why you still have cut enough.

The thing is this. You need to forget all about how much you've already cut. It's gone, so it's meaningless. You have a script that's only a few pages too long now, and these extra pages can be cut without harming the script.

I guess I'm looking at my script like this:

I have THREE suitcases to pack for my flight. Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3, and all three of those suitcases turned out to be smaller than I thought.

I have already packed the suitcase labeled "Act 1" as tightly as I can. It's 29 pages and there's not one molecule of airspace left in that suitcase. It's as dense as a diamond. So I have to concentrate on the other two now. I have thrown out a lot. And I'm squashing down the lids, trying to close both suitcases, trying to get them to shut, and I'm VERY close now. SOOOOO close.

So I'm asking about these tiny shortcuts. These very small cheats.

I'm just a little pissed off at people not giving me credit for what I've accomplished so far. And how quickly I accomplished it.

But you're saying I should NOT take a chance at all here. You're also very confident that I can get it down to 119 WITHOUT the cheats. Okay. I can deal with that.

I guess the best I can say is that I think your confidence is very encouraging.

"Formatting Cheats" -- are the following "cheats" okay??

A woman said to write like a man.

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

Lost in School Work

A woman said to write like a man.

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

What happened?

A woman said to write like a man.

A woman said to write like a man.

A woman said to write like a man.

A woman said to write like a man.

A woman said to write like a man.

What happened?

A woman said to write like a man.

Comic guy

A woman said to write like a man.

A woman said to write like a man.

Article Queen

A woman said to write like a man.

A woman said to write like a man.