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How important is formatting...?
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Jiillii View Drop Down
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    Posted: 05 Mar 2025 at 3:54am
First time screenwriting entrant. Read all the guidance, sample scripts. Life happened and only had a day to really write. Had a nightmare with free software so ended up using a Word template. 

I think it was ok but maybe a few niggles. Are the judges going to be super-annoyed if the formatting's not perfect? Beating myself up and worrying I have ruined my chances!


Edited by Jiillii - 05 Mar 2025 at 3:54am
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Formatting is part of the judging, not that big a part. Some judges will just look past it as this a contest and there will be many new people entering. If you look in the rules it will tell you what percentage can be used for it. I would not worry greatly.
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Originally posted by Suave Suave wrote:

Formatting is part of the judging, not that big a part. Some judges will just look past it as this a contest and there will be many new people entering. If you look in the rules it will tell you what percentage can be used for it. I would not worry greatly.

Thank you! I did my best. Probably just the usual second-guessing after submission, haha. Will see what they say.


Edited by Jiillii - 05 Mar 2025 at 4:10am
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Not trying to stress you, but I have heard of someone being dq for formatting. I remember her saying she tried to format it herself, but I didn’t see it so have no idea what kind of shape it was in or what specifically caused the DQ
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format is 15% of the total judging criteria, spelling and grammar is 5 and the screenplay itself is 80% so even if you lose all the format points there's still 85% up for grabs and you could easily advance.

I think it would be really really rare to dq someone solely for formatting, and probably more to do with the end product being in a readable file format (e.g. a proprietary script file like .fdx, mmx, scw that you need the specific software to read) or I think some people have had trouble in the past with Writer Duet only converting part of their screenplays. I guess if you couldn't tell dialogue from action, maybe, but it would have to be pretty illegible to get a full disqualification.
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It's important in that, if your margins aren't industry standard you can fit more words on the page and so, build an advantage against others (same with using different fonts to those listed). If you only missed off the title page or log line you would get a small deduction but not much I think.
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Originally posted by swilki swilki wrote:

format is 15% of the total judging criteria, spelling and grammar is 5 and the screenplay itself is 80% so even if you lose all the format points there's still 85% up for grabs and you could easily advance.

I think it would be really really rare to dq someone solely for formatting, and probably more to do with the end product being in a readable file format (e.g. a proprietary script file like .fdx, mmx, scw that you need the specific software to read) or I think some people have had trouble in the past with Writer Duet only converting part of their screenplays. I guess if you couldn't tell dialogue from action, maybe, but it would have to be pretty illegible to get a full disqualification.

I have to agree. Though, I did get a beta read this time that I really had a hard time reading, finally gave up and contacted the sender. She took a look and was speechless, lol. She had sent it in docx from Cerbx, or whatever, and it did not do well in the transfer of info. She did not think to check it, haha, that won't happen again. Anyway, she figured it all out and sent me a perfectly formatted script and apologized profusely. 

So, it can happen that the formatting is so garbled that a judge is not going to try and sort it out and if that is the case can't really blame them.

I did have a shorty story in WB that was just one big cube of story, no breaks of any kind, the line separation was barely there. I was able to read it, but it really detracted from the experience, haha.
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Originally posted by Suave Suave wrote:

Formatting is part of the judging, not that big a part. Some judges will just look past it as this a contest and there will be many new people entering. If you look in the rules it will tell you what percentage can be used for it. I would not worry greatly.

Formatting is 15% and what’s detailed as “formatting” in the rules (per section 17) is more about submission guidelines and less about traditional screenwriting format, style, and structure. 5% is grammar, and 80% is story.

That said, the winner’s scripts, the ones they post on the website, from my glance at those scripts, all of them are technically perfect, so that could mean the competition is so fierce to where that 20% becomes really important.
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Originally posted by Aporia Aporia wrote:

Originally posted by Suave Suave wrote:

Formatting is part of the judging, not that big a part. Some judges will just look past it as this a contest and there will be many new people entering. If you look in the rules it will tell you what percentage can be used for it. I would not worry greatly.

Formatting is 15% and what’s detailed as “formatting” in the rules (per section 17) is more about submission guidelines and less about traditional screenwriting format, style, and structure. 5% is grammar, and 80% is story.

That said, the winner’s scripts, the ones they post on the website, from my glance at those scripts, all of them are technically perfect, so that could mean the competition is so fierce to where that 20% becomes really important.

There is that, haha. But I think there is more to it than just the format. It is the way the story is laid out, the way any dialogue is done. The format is just the way to put all that on a page so people can read it. The real art is what is put into the format on the page.
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I think as long as your margins are close to what’s allowable and your script looks and reads like a script, you’re probably fine. As someone noted here, if you have narrow margins, you’ll then be able to cram in more story which puts you at an advantage, which would be frowned upon by the judges. Every time we enter these contests, we learn something new about our writing and writing process. In the end of the day, it’s always best practice to try to leave minimal up for debate with the judges! Good luck!
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