Does this apply to screenplays as well?

Does this apply to screenplays as well?

I've seen this come up so much recently. Though I changed to one space (not as hard as I would've thought), I think it's a question of typography thus of more concern to publishers than writers. My ALA manual allows for one or two spaces (might be out of date though). I think many teachers require two spaces because it's a stronger signal of a sentence's close, making the countless papers they have to read a little breezier. For an easy fix, do a Find (. ) and Replace All(. ). Then a seperate function for question marks and exclaimation points. I don't know; if someone rejected my manuscript over this issue, I don't think I would see it as a missed opportunity. And since so many teachers still insist on or teach two spaces, you could just as easily run into a fussy reader on the other side of the fence.
Really enjoy your blog. I'm over on the West Side of NC.

I was taught two spaces, but quickly decided that it looked ridiculous and noticed that the books I read only had one space. Therefore, I changed to using once space and have not looked back since.

I blame my grade school writing instructors. I wrote with two spaces for years and nobody said anything. Not even my college writing instructors.

I was taught two spaces in grammar school but switched to one space over the years. However, I was always under the impression that in screenwriting it was a requirement to have two spaces.

Any format geeks out there? I know Trottier has two spaces in The Screenwriter's Bible.

Isn't two spaces the rule per... er... some writing manual? MLA? AP? Chicago style? I confess that I also learned it from teachers in grade school and just assumed it was the way. That is, until college when, while finessing margin sizes for papers (and screenplays) to condense page counts, I decided I'd single space when necessary.

I'm pretty certain that Courier, even though it's a monospace font, still has a weighted space after the period to keep it nice and pretty. At least, it looks like it does to me.

No, Courier is a mono-spaced font (each letter and character takes up the same amount of space), so it still requires two spaces after each period. This is also the rule in most screen-writing handbooks.

During my years as a journalist and tech-writer, I was taught that single spacing is the norm. When I started writing in TV I was asked by the writers' asst. to revert back to double spacing after a period because he was tired of adding spaces in my scripts. I think it definitely looks better in courier, and there's some back up for that perception in the Slate article:

The problem with typewriters was that they used monospaced type—that is, every character occupied an equal amount of horizontal space. This bucked a long tradition of proportional typesetting, in which skinny characters (like I or 1) were given less space than fat ones (like W or M). Monospaced type gives you text that looks "loose" and uneven; there's a lot of white space between characters and words, so it's more difficult to spot the spaces between sentences immediately. Hence the adoption of the two-space rule—on a typewriter, an extra space after a sentence makes text easier to read. Here's the thing, though: Monospaced fonts went out in the 1970s. First electric typewriters and then computers began to offer people ways to create text using proportional fonts. Today nearly every font on your PC is proportional. (Courier is the one major exception.) Because we've all switched to modern fonts, adding two spaces after a period no longer enhances readability, typographers say. It diminishes it.

Since Courier is a monospaced, and it still seems to be standard practice in the industry, I will continue double spacing after periods in scripts.

I'm a proud single-spacer.

Thanks for your feedback. Check out the update of the OP for where I'm landing re this issue.

I learned most of my writing skills by working for newspapers, so I ALWAYS use a single space.

I blame my teachers who taught me double-space. I believed this to be the absolute way to type until a few years ago when I read an article about it.

I guess, as mentioned above, two spaces was appropriate when using a typewriter, but not many caught on when writing software eliminated the need because fonts were already including the space after periods.

It did not take me long to adjust. I think secretly I always hated the double space but feared my teachers more.

I'd sooner type in Comic Sans than use two spaces after a period.

Even if Courier is a monospace font, it's still a question of aesthetics -- which one looks better?

For my money, two spaces after the period looks excessive. Particularly when all other forms of publication don't use it.

I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned the benefit of the single-space in a script is it can help with widows/orphans and tighten lines in longer graphs of action/description or even dialogue.

Having worked for a publisher where they made the call--it was in their general style guide to have only one space after the end of a sentence, I've been used to it. However, for a long time I'd written scripts with the double space because it was the software default. I really had to hunt to find how to change that to single-space in MM.

It came up in a class I took where the instructor was shocked that some of our scripts came in with the double-space.

I've always single-spaced. Heck, I do all my writing in Courier just because it's the font I'm most used to seeing. While I can understand the argument for double-spacing a mono font, I think it's also important to recognize that most screenplays are nothing like the dense documents that double-spacing was intended to aid the readability of.

While there are occasions in a screenplay where a chunk of description or dialogue may consist of a lengthy series of sentences, these are generally the exception rather than the rule.

Ultimately, it's probably a matter of personal taste, but I find myself clearly on the single-space side because, dagnabbit, I think my pages look better that way.

@januaryfire: I know you can tell MovieMagic Screenwriter how many spaces in a slugline, but where can you get it to always make it one-space at the end of scene description and dialogue sentences?

Do any Final Draft users know if you can have it default to one- or two-spaces?

I've always used single space.

Double space looks better imo.

As the other James also points out, it helps make the read breezier.

Also --

"Over Thanksgiving dinner last year, I asked people what they considered to be the "correct" number of spaces between sentences."

Aren't you the fun one to invite to Turkey Day. Now gtfo.

Never ever crossed my mind to have two spaces after a period.

Honestly, it looks like the following text has slid away on the paper. Ugly. Really, really ugly.

I tried switching to single spaces on my last script, mainly to help the line/page count.

I hated the way it looked so much that after writing an entire act that way, I went back and changed everything to two spaces. I could see switching to two spaces for most purposes, but for screenwriting, I think the extra white space is easy on the eyes.

this is blowing my mind

arghhh I read this a week ago and it's been messing with my mind and I'm going to go on with a run on sentence for this comment so that I don't have to deal with it!

where in wnc? I'm in Asheville.

Recently read "Your Screenplay Sucks" by William m. akers. He spends a chapter on formatting and doesn't mention the dreaded double space after period. Mentions about every other possible mistake you can make with considerable humor. Recommend. From now on I am SS single spacer.

Sorry folks, but here's the ugly truth: It doesn't really matter. Do what works for you. Now it's obvious that the original writer of the article would riddle me with virtual bullets if he read that, but I'll pick up my virtual corpse and explain why. First, in terms of what the "rules" are: Regardless of what the official "rules" are, if 50% or more of the people do it with 2 spaces, that's the de-facto rule. You can't tell everyone they're wrong and you're right because the rule says so - that's dogma, not writing. (And since Trottier's rule of 2 spaces contradicts the supposed 1 space rule from ancient type setters, there's obviously more than 1 rule involved anyway). In terms of what looks best, as is obvious from the comments, some people think 2 spaces looks horrible, others think 1 space looks horrible. So it's clearly a matter of personal preference. In terms of what "rule" the reader is going to expect, as is also obvious from the comments, some people "know" 1 space is the rule because they've been in publishing and others "know" 2 spaces is the rule because everyone learned it in grade school. The only real consideration for a screenplay is if some Hollywood reader will reject your script (or get a bad taste in their mouth about it) because it doesn't use the spacing they expect. But you can't do anything at all about that, for 2 reasons: 1. In terms of rules and how it looks, some readers will think 2 spaces is ugly, and some will think 1 space is ugly - just like the split in this group. And some readers will think 2 spaces is the rule and others will think 1 space is the rule - just like this group. So if you're relying on the reader to like your spacing, you're hit or miss no matter what you do. You can flip a coin - or just do what works for you and keep pitching your story until you find your star-crossed reader that agrees with you. 2. If the reader is going to reject your screenplay because they don't like the spacing you use after a period, you probably don't need to worry - they'll find some other reason to reject your screenplay anyway. You better just write a story that rocks so hard they don't notice the spacing. In fact, if your story doesn't rock that hard, you probably don't need to worry about formatting anyway - they'll never get past the first 10 pages even if your formatting is perfect. (oh no, I used 2 blank lines - did I break a rule?!?!?) The writer of the original article is so fixated on "rules" and being "right" (i.e. dogma), that he misses the point - our goal is to communicate something, and how we put it on the page works as long as we have something compelling to communicate, and the reader receives it in the way we intended. Write a great story. Make sure it "looks like a script" (which is a comment from multiple producers about what they expect from the formatting). If you're worried the reader will reject your script because of the formatting - make the story so good they don't notice the formatting. Cheers!

I'm currently developing an app for Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter and Celtx that will offer an option to use 1.5 spaces. This horrible chapter of human history filled with animosity and pointless discussions will soon be over.

i see i'm late by a few years posting a comment here, but i had another quick question for any pro screenwriters who might take a gander at this eventually. lately, i've been reading a few articles about how double-spacing after a period is pointless and unnecessary. i've never double-spaced, or was ever had to learn it. I figured it was taught during an era of typewriters and something only baby boomers did. and since boomers are stubborn and have always refused to learn anything new -- even if the old ways are obsolete -- they simply continued the practice based on ignorance and assuming their ways were the end all/be all... in everything. however, i have a friend that works in the movie industry -- mostly as a director's or producer's assistant. many script have passed through his hands and he's had to routinely format them. the other day he jotted down a few lines in a script i'm writing and i noticed he double-spaced after each sentence. i questioned him about it -- even argued it was wrong. he told me that if you don't double-space then you're cheating the producers and they can't accurately time or budget a script accordingly. often a producer will reject a script if not written in said format -- as if you're trying to bulk it up and make it cost more than it should to shoot. so for the pros or anyone with insight, is this true? or is this something old-school producers were taught and it's still irrelevant in this day and age?