When is the right time to CAPITALIZE?

Capping...

Cap the name of characters the first time (and only the first time) they're introduced into the story.

If someone yells or screams their dialogue, ("I HATE YOUR BLOODY GUTS!") all caps is fine...but do it sparingly.

If you have a piece of action/description you want to emphasis ("The car EXPLODES"), that's fine too...but again, sparingly.

Just don't make the mistake so many newbie writers make: "Joe picks up the PHONE and DIALS. He waits as the phone RINGS. HE TAPS his FINGERS on the DESK." Please...don't do that. Just don't.

Hope this helps. Check out my website for more "Fatal Flaws." The link is in my signature below.

Just remember that there are few things in the world of scriptwriting that are written in stone. There is no ABSOLUTE format.

So you can do things on your own, as long as you can justify them.

Yes, but...

True, there aren’t many absolute rules, but you do need to adhere to a certain “correctness” to your format and overall feel of the script.

It all boils down to the words you place on the page. Most novice screenwriters tend to stick to those so-called rules, but the words they’re slapping down aren’t worth the paper they’re writing on.

Here are a couple of posts from my blog that will better explain my point...

http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/search?q=Michael+Mann

http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2007/10/theres-more-to-good-script-than.html

MrJayVee said:

True, there aren’t many absolute rules, but you do need to adhere to a certain “correctness” to your format and overall feel of the script.

It all boils down to the words you place on the page. Most novice screenwriters tend to stick to those so-called rules, but the words they’re slapping down aren’t worth the paper they’re writing on.

Here are a couple of posts from my blog that will better explain my point...

http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/search?q=Michael+Mann

http://theworkingscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2007/10/theres-more-to-good-script-than.html

Click to expand...

Great read, and useful site. Thanks man!