The terms of the trade, in plain English — screenwriting format, story structure, and the industry vocabulary around them. Each entry links to related terms and to the guides that use them.
The cue extension marking that a character's speech continues across an interruption or page break.
The turn between acts — in TV, the cliffhanger before the commercial.
Present-tense description of what the camera sees and the audience hears — the screenplay's prose.
The force organized against the protagonist's goal — a person, an institution, or the flaw within.
The secondary thread — often a relationship — that carries the theme while the A story carries the plot.
The smallest unit of story movement — one shift in a scene, a character, or the plot's direction.
A story's structural skeleton — its landmark moments listed in order, before or alongside drafting.
The capitalized character name above a line of dialogue, telling the reader who speaks.
The story's decisive confrontation — where the dramatic question is finally answered.
A scene that starts the episode before the titles — hooking the audience before any setup.
Recent, successful works a project resembles — shorthand for its audience, tone, and market position.
The spoken words, set in a narrower centered column beneath the character cue.
Two characters speaking simultaneously, formatted side by side in two columns.
Information the audience needs — backstory, rules, context — and the craft of hiding its delivery.
Final Draft's file format — the industry's de-facto standard for exchanging screenplay files.
A plain-text screenplay format — human-readable markup that any tool can import and export.
The event that disturbs the status quo and sets the story's engine running.
A device for cutting between two or more locations within one continuous scene — classically, a phone call.
Your story in one or two sentences: who wants what, what stands in the way, and what's at stake.
The story's center hinge — a reversal or revelation that changes the game rather than marking time.
A sequence of brief shots compressing time or gathering meaning — the training sequence, the falling-in-love spin.
The sibling of O.S. — a speaker in the scene but out of frame, preferred in animation and multi-camera TV.
Dialogue from a character present in the scene but outside the camera frame.
Dialogue that states exactly what a character feels or means — subtext with the cover off.
The rule of thumb that a properly formatted screenplay page runs about a minute on screen.
A brief note between cue and dialogue — (dry), (in Spanish) — steering delivery or context.
The character whose pursuit and transformation the story is built around.
The one-page letter that asks an agent or producer to read your work — hook, story, credentials.
The story's landing — the brief 'after' picture showing how the world has changed.
The capitalized line that opens every scene: INT. or EXT., the location, and the time of day.
Production numbering beside each scene heading, used for scheduling and call sheets.
A reader's standardized evaluation of a screenplay — synopsis, comments, and a Pass / Consider / Recommend verdict.
The production draft — numbered scenes, locked pages, and revisions tracked on colored pages.
Render meaning through action and behavior instead of announcing it in narration or dialogue.
A screenplay written 'on speculation' — unpaid, uncommissioned, hoping to sell or serve as a sample.
What's lost if the protagonist fails — the reason the audience leans in.
A condensed summary of the full story — including the ending — for readers, contests, and queries.
The script read aloud, parts assigned, no staging — where dialogue proves or embarrasses itself.
The argument under the plot — what the story believes about how life works.
The oldest storytelling map: setup, confrontation, resolution — roughly 25/50/25.
A right-aligned editing instruction — CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO: — between scenes.
A prose telling of the whole story — present tense, no dialogue formatting — used to develop or pitch.
Dialogue heard over the scene from a speaker not present in it — narration, phone calls, letters.
The unwritten part of the page — short paragraphs and lean lines that make a script read fast.
Want the longer treatment? The Writing Guides cover loglines, coverage, formatting, and 20+ story frameworks beat by beat.
