18 Script Format and Style Guide Online Resources SCREENWRITERS HAVE AN ideal entrepreneurial opportunity if they think of themselves as the manufacturer of a product: take a ream of paper, available from any stationers, and turn it into a screenplay worth thousands by using just a few pennies' worth of ink, your time, and your mind. If you treat your writing like a business, then it follows that you are a professional, and certain rules apply to your profession as they do to any other profession. What follows is both a format and style guide which attempts to give you an idea of the different choices and strategies involved in the craft of screenwriting.