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The Scriptwriter Blog

Articles on the craft of stage play writing — formatting, structure, tools, and the small decisions that make a script work.

Published
How to write a stage play: a beginner's guide
From a one-line premise to a finished first draft — structure, format, dialogue, stage directions, cues, and a practical workflow that gets the words on the page.
Free alternatives to Final Draft (2026)
Seven free or pay-what-you-want editors compared honestly. What each one does well, where it falls short, and how to pick the right one for the way you actually write.
Coming soon
Stage play vs screenplay: the format differences that matter
Why scene headings, scene direction, and even the way characters speak are different on stage and on screen — and how to switch between them without your script feeling lost in translation.
What is Fountain? The plain-text screenplay format, explained
Fountain is the open format quietly powering most modern script editors. A walkthrough of the syntax, why writers love it, and how to use it as your portable, future-proof source of truth.
Tracking entrances and exits in your stage play
Direction cues are the most-missed detail in amateur scripts. How to use entrance and exit cues to keep your stage geography honest and your dialogue continuous.
Why we built a stage play editor that works offline
A short essay on cloud fatigue, local-first software, and what writing tools owe their writers. Plus the technical story of shipping The Scriptwriter as a single-file PWA.