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Craft, process, and what we're learning. Posts about screenwriting, about building tools for writers, and sometimes about the decisions behind Arqo. No launch announcements, just what we're thinking about.
From 'import mostly works' to 'export is production-safe': the parser fights, the PDF fights, and the one Final Draft quirk that ate a Thursday.
Six outline shapes (beat sheet, index cards, sequences, treatment, mini-movie, eight-sequence) and when each one helps. Free .arq + .fdx + PDF pack at the bottom.
The logline is not a marketing exercise. It's a structural test. If you can't write yours, the script has a hole.
Fifteen beats, page by page, with what each one is actually doing: plus where Snyder is wrong and why working writers still use it.
What each registration actually protects, what it costs, and which one you want. (Hint: it's not the one most beginners pick.)
The asterisk gutter, the coloured-page rotation, the locked scene number. A complete reference for production-ready revisions.
When to use (MORE), when to use (CONT'D), what your software is doing automatically, and the one rule that's actually contested.
INT. / EXT., DAY / NIGHT, secondary headers, sub-sluglines, and the mini-slug that working writers actually use to control pace.
Three structural jobs of a teaser, and how the openings of Breaking Bad, The West Wing, and Whiplash do them in under three pages.
Acts, teasers, tags, double-spaced scenes, half-hour vs hour, single-cam vs multi-cam. The format differences that matter and the ones that don't.
Margins, fonts, sluglines, action, dialogue, transitions, page numbers: every rule in industry-standard screenplay format, with examples.