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Diffstat (limited to 'README.markdown')
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1 files changed, 68 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/README.markdown b/README.markdown index 18f09f6..1fea850 100644 --- a/README.markdown +++ b/README.markdown @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ About Screenplain ------------------ +================= You're a hacker. The command line is your home. You know tools like grep, sed and Git inside out. You have formed a symbiotic relationship with your text @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Thanks for the inspiration goes to: comments. Screenplain's format is very similar to Scrippets. Input format ------------- +============ The format of the text input is very much like how you would write a screenplay on and old typewriter, only that you don't have to worry about tab @@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ Here's an example: ARTHUR Whoa there! + SERVANT makes noises of horses halting, with a flourish. ARTHUR peers through the mist. CUT TO shot from over his shoulder: castle (e.g. Bodium) rising out of the mist. On the castle @@ -97,3 +98,68 @@ After Screenplain has digested it, it will appear correctly formatted like this: Camelot. King of all Britons, defeator of the Saxons, sovereign of all England! + +As you can see, you can write your screenplay without keeping formatting rules in your head. +As Screenplain is just a piece of software, and not a mind-reading robot, it does have rules, +but they are designed to be intuitive and shouldn't distract from the writing. + +Basically, what Screenplain does with your plain text file is to split it into paragraphs. +A paragraph is simply one or more lines of text. Paragraphs are separated by one or +more empty lines. The example above contains six paragraphs. + +After splitting the text into paragraphs, Screenplain decides what type each paragraph has. +It can be one of: + + * Slug line + * Dialogue + * Action + +The paragraph type decides how the paragraph will look in the output. See +below for how Screenplain figures out which one of these types each paragraph has. + +Slug lines +---------- + +If a paragraph contains *one single line* written in *capital letters*, Screenplain +assumes it is a slug line. + +A slug line is a line that starts a scene. An example of a slug line is `EXT. +EIFFEL TOWER - DAY`, but Screenplain does not care about the format. Screenplain +assumes `SOMEWHERE IN SPACE` is a slug line too. + +Dialogue +-------- + +If a paragraph consists of two or more lines, and the first line is written +only in *capital letters*, Screenplain assumes it is a piece of dialogue. The +first line should contain the name of the speaking character. The rest is +whatever that character says. Simple isn't it? Well, there is an exception: If +a line starts with an opening parenthesis, "(", it starts a parenthetical +block, which is a screenwriter's way of telling the actor how the line is to +be delivered (something that pisses directors off). Parentheticals are +formatted differently from the spoken lines. + +Action +------ + +Any paragraph that is not one of the other types contains descriptions about +what happens in the scene. + +TO DO +===== + + * Specify options on the command line. Duh. + + * Installation package. + + * Margins in PDF output. + + * Support for transitions. A `CUT TO:` line is interpreted as a slug line. + Fixing this should be simple: any single-line paragraph that starts with one + or more spaces and does not contain lower-case characters should be a + transition. Any pitfalls with that? What about left-aligned transitions like + `FADE IN:`? + + * Good support for national characters. It works on my system, but I'm not so + sure if it will work for everyone. Should we just support UTF-8, or allow + other encodings? |