Text messages have become a part of everyday life, which means they have also become a common occurrence in most contemporary-set screenplays. Characters flirt through texts, deliver crucial information, and sometimes the course of the entire plot can hinge on a single text.
While texting is second nature to billions of people around the world, for screenwriters, formatting text messages can be confusing. Do you use the dialogue section? Do you use the scene description section? Do you need to put texts in bold or italics?
The key answer is to always choose what is the most clear and easy-to-understand option. With that in mind, here is a simple breakdown on how to format text messages in your screenplays.
How Screenplays Format Text That Appears Onscreen
Before we get to the specific format needs of text messages, let’s cover the basics of how a screenplay should format text that is meant to be seen onscreen.
Dates, Times, Locations, Oh My!
What type of text appears onscreen? Beyond text messages, which we will discuss below, many different types of text appear onscreen in movies.
- Dates
- Times
- Locations
Sometimes scripts need to communicate certain dates, times, or locations. These elements are communicated by appearing onscreen.
Note: When the script requires the reader to read certain prop or set dressing signs, it’s good to communicate those the same way you would for text.
Don’t Use the Dialogue Section
First and foremost, avoid using the dialogue section of the screenplay to convey text. Screenwriters usually use that section when they don’t know where to communicate text that appears on the screen.
The dialogue section is for dialogue. When script readers read through scripts, their eyes are trained to scan through the various margin stipulations. When they see text in the middle of the screen, it’s dialogue. Their minds have been trained to register those margins for dialogue only, so it would be a mistake to put intended onscreen text in that section, even if you stipulate that it is text meant to be seen onscreen.
Use the Action Lines
The action lines, otherwise known as the scene description section under the scene heading, is where any onscreen text should go. This is at the lefthand margin.
“TEXT READS”
If you want to keep it simple, here is how you format how onscreen text should appear. You start by writing TEXT READS: in an action line. Then, in the next action line, you write what the text should be.
Example #1
TEXT READS:
February 8th, 1976
Example #2
TEXT READS:
On the coast of Oahu, Hawaii
If you want to differentiate the intended onscreen text from the scene description for more clarity, you can put all of that in bold, italics, or a combination of both.
It’s as simple as that. Anything else would be overcomplicated and unnecessary.
How to Format Text Messages
You know how to format onscreen text using TEXT READS: on its own action line, followed by the intended onscreen text on the next action line. Now just apply that to text messaging, with a little scene description to specify that the character in the scene (or whatever variance) is reading a text message on their device, and then specify that the text appearing on the screen is specifically a text message by writing TEXT MESSAGE READS: on its own action line, followed by the text message on the next action line.
Example #1
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Emma sits on her bed, face lit up by her phone. DING. She gets a text from Dylan.
TEXT MESSAGE READS:
Hey. You up?
Using bold or italics will help the script reader differentiate between scene description and text messages that should be seen onscreen.
After that, try to keep everything simple. Another variation could be:
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Emma sits on her bed, face lit up by her phone. DING. She gets a text from Dylan.
DYLAN’S TEXT READS:
Hey. You up?
Emma smiles and replies.
EMMA’S TEXT REPLY:
I’m asleep. Stop bothering me:)
She laughs playfully.
That’s all you need to do, or any slight variance you prefer.
Make the Text Message Format Consistent
The key thing beyond keeping the format as simple as possible is ensuring that however you format the text messages is always consistent throughout the script. If you use certain verbiage like the examples above, stick to it every time. If you have your own preferred variance, stick to it every time. The script reader will pick up on it and go with the flow. Their scanning eyes will pick up on those patterns and be able to track them with ease. However, if you’re not consistent, it will slow down the read.
Going for Style
If you watch movies today, you’ll see a variety of ways that text messages appear on screen.
- Creative fonts
- Text bubbles
As we mentioned above, there’s no strict rule on how to format a text message. There’s just the guideline of wanting to be able to avoid overly busy formatting.
- If you want to employ creative fonts, use those fonts within your screenwriting software or stipulate how you want those fonts to appear.
- If you want to take a stylistic approach and utilize text bubbles, utilize TEXT BUBBLE READS: for a clear and concise formatting communication.
As always, the key is to keep everything as simple as possible. You don’t need to go into detail explaining how and where the text messages should appear on the screen. Give a broadstroke format to communicate any style you want to inject if needed, but always remember that, in the end, it’s up to the filmmakers to decide how the text appears onscreen.
Using Dialogue Voiceover to Read the Text Messages
If you want the text message to be communicated by voiceover, then, and only then, should you use the dialogue section.
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Emma sits on her bed, face lit up by her phone. DING. She gets a text from Dylan.
DYLAN (V.O.)
Hey. You up?
Emma smiles and replies.
EMMA (V.O.)
I’m asleep. Stop bothering me.
She laughs playfully.
You can also use variances to help differentiate regular dialogue from text dialogue by using parentheticals within the dialogue, as well as using italics.
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Emma sits on her bed, face lit up by her phone. DING. She gets a text from Dylan.
DYLAN (V.O.)
(narrating the text)
Hey. You up?
Emma smiles and replies.
EMMA (V.O.)
(narrating the text)
I’m asleep. Stop bothering me.
She laughs playfully.
Or you can keep it even more simple.
INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT
Emma sits on her bed, face lit up by her phone. DING. She gets a text from Dylan.
DYLAN (V.O.)
Hey. You up?
Emma smiles and replies.
EMMA (V.O.)
I’m asleep. Stop bothering me.
She laughs playfully.
There are plenty of other variances, as far as using voiceover to read the text messages. But these examples are perfect compasses you can use to figure it out on your own.
Use Text Messaging Sparingly in Screenplays
Yes, we live in a world where most people prefer to communicate through text messaging. It may be the norm in real life, but it can be very, very boring onscreen.
Unless you’re using text messaging as a creative gimmick (characters in hiding that communicate only through text messages), it should be used few and far between in screenplays.
Keep it simple. Use it sparingly. And now enjoy the fact that the stigma of formatting text messages in your screenplays is gone. Happy onscreen texting!