E.S. Raye

Most people are familiar with prose (even if they aren’t familiar with the name), but screenplays aren’t general seen by the movie going audience. So, as someone interested in writing one, the other, or both, the differences can be a little mystifying at first.

But, as a writer that has found himself experiencing the earliest glimmer of something that might later resemble success in both prose and screenwriting, I think I might be in a decent position to explain the similarities and differences.

Let’s start by defining our terms.

Prose

Prose is simply written or spoken language. In the context of a story, the words on the page are the story, and reading them is how the story is intended to be consumed. There is no rhythm, as you might find in poetry, and no specific format. By that, I simply mean anyone can sit down and write a story in a notebook, one sentence after the other, and it can be read and understood. Margins and indentations and quotation marks and the like are there to help us, and are certainly important if you want the story to be published, but they are not critical to the telling of the story.

It’s probable that every book you’ve ever read was simple prose.

Screenwriting

Screenwriting is different in that the words on the page are not how the story is meant to be consumed. Instead, the words are a map, or an instruction manual, for others to create the story for an audience. The script not only informs the actors, but the director, the costume designer, the casting director, the lighting and special effects technicians, etc., etc., etc.

3 Major Differences

Format

The first big difference between writing prose and screenwriting is the format.

Let’s assume you are trying to get your short story published. With that in mind, it’s important to adhere to the publication’s guidelines. They tend to be fairly standard, and include things like margins, fonts, font sizes, paragraphs, indentations, proper grammar, etc.

But none of these things dictate how you tell the story, and in certain circumstances, can be ignored for artistic purposes.

Screenwriting, however, requires that you stick to a very rigid format. That means scene headings (called “sluglines”) describing the location, if it’s inside or out, and time of day before every scene. It means centering dialogue and using new lines for actions. Sometimes it even means making use of specific transitions and cuts.

Because a screenplay is not the final product, and is instead a guidebook on how to make the movie, the formatting is necessary so every person that has a hand in the filmmaking process can easily identify their responsibilities.

For that reason, most directors and producers won’t even look at a screenplay that isn’t properly formatted.

Tense and POV

When writing prose, you have the artistic license to write in whatever tense or point of view you want. Second-person future tense may get a little weird, but if it fits your story, go for it!

But when it comes to screenwriting, you get one option only: third-person present tense. It’s always “Janet walks into the room,” and never “I walked into the room.”

This, of course, goes back to the fact that the screenplay is a guide and not meant for the audience to read. When writing prose, you can do clever things with tense and POV to surprise and delight your audience. But doing that in a screenplay will only confuse the people who are trying to put it on screen.

Furthermore, when writing prose you can choose how much of your character’s internal thoughts you want to share with the reader. But, unless you include a narration (which many films do use), there is no way to know what’s the character is thinking. Internal thoughts written on the page may not come across clearly on the screen. They need to be shown.

Descriptions

One of the more difficult differences for me to master was how descriptions are treated. When writing prose, no one will ever see what you are describing except for in their own mind’s eye. You can be as stingy or generous with the descriptions are you like. You can get down to the minute detail of people, places, or objects, if they’re important to your story.

But, once again because it’s a guidebook, you can’t really do that with a screenplay. You don’t want to get too specific with describing characters, because casting directors need to find people to play them. You can’t get too specific with describing the actions those characters take, because actors need to be able to interpret the scene and act accordingly. You can’t get too specific with the visuals you want to achieve, because the director will have their own ideas and vision (unless you are the director, in which case, do what you want!). And depending on genre, especially fantasy and science fiction, you can’t get too specific about locations, because they’ll either need to be found or built. And a director is probably going to want a say in how they end up looking on screen, anyway. This goes for costumes and props too.

It’s best to think of screenwriting as a group project. As the writer, it’s your job to tell everyone else the story. Put in the details that are necessary for the story to advance, leave the rest for everyone else to do their part.

Which Do I Prefer?

That’s a tough question.

When I was starting out with screenwriting, I really didn’t like the format or the style. It felt obtuse and bulky, and like it was slowing me down. I really struggled with the both the format and the fact that I couldn’t describe everything as I saw it in my head. Not to mention, writing in present tense felt awkward.

But I’ve since written much more and it feels more natural to me now. I sometimes feel I write prose faster, but when I’m really cooking can get about the same number of words per day in either format.

When it comes down to it, I hope I never have to choose, and I can have a successful career in both!