If you’ve done your research about screenwriting, you’ve likely read a lot of rules that many say can’t and shouldn’t be broken.
- Don’t direct on the page.
- Don’t use camera angles.
- Don’t write what we can’t see.
- Don’t create a difficult structure to follow.
- Don’t go against standard screenplay format.
These examples only scratch the surface of rules everyone says you shouldn’t break.
Here’s the thing — almost every screenwriting rule has been broken (or extremely bent) successfully. But it’s usually by a screenwriter who knew exactly what rules they were breaking — and why.
You can break established screenwriting rules… as long as you understand why the rules exist, and how sometimes breaking them can actually enhance the way you’re telling your cinematic story.
Here we’ll dive into rules that shouldn’t be broken — accompanied by rules that can be broken successfully, and what you can learn from them.
You Shouldn’t Break Master Scene Screenplay Format Element Rules
General screenplay format exists for one very specific reason — clarity. Screenwriting is a collaborative medium. Screenplays are visual blueprints for an eventual film. For a film to come to life, it only starts with the written word in a screenplay. Those words have to be interpreted by a number of people in different professions.
- Development Executives
- Producers
- Directors
- Actors
- Cinematographers
- Editors
- Sound Designers
- Prop Makers
Because of this, there needs to be complete clarity in format so that everyone can interpret the same elements in the same way, with as much ease as possible.
This is accomplished by the established Master Scene Screenplay Format, which has six primary elements:
- Scene Heading
- Scene Description
- Character Name
- Parentheticals
- Dialogue
- Transitions
These elements are essential formatting rules that every screenwriter must follow.
Scene Heading
Scene headings must clearly state:
- Whether the scene is indoors (INT.) or outdoors (EXT.)
- The location
- The time of day — usually DAY or NIGHT.
These aren’t just formatting preferences — these are essential instructions for executives, producers, cast, and crew members across departments.
The INT./EXT., location, and time of day directly affect everything from scheduling and lighting to set construction and budgeting.
You can bend the DAY/NIGHT element slightly with terms like DUSK, DAWN, or MORNING, but only when necessary to convey specific lighting conditions. The core structure of these elements must remain intact.
This formatting also applies to scene description, character names, dialogue, and transitions. Standard formatting ensures that everyone — from readers and producers to directors and department heads — can visualize the story clearly and consistently. Without it, a screenplay would be harder to interpret, produce, and even enjoy.
For script readers, proper scene heading format instantly signals where the scene takes place and when, helping them build the film in their imagination — line by line, beat by beat.
Scene Description
The scene description immediately follows the scene heading. We need to know more details about what is being seen within the scene. Scene description is also always written in present tense to convey that the events being seen are unfolding as the script reader is reading and visualizing the images being described.
Character Name
The character name tells the script reader who is saying the dialogue.
Dialogue
The dialogue is formatted in different margins to differentiate from the scene description, making it much easier to identify when a character is speaking, and when the screenwriter is describing what a script reader should be seeing.
Parentheticals
Although used sparingly to avoid overly busy formatting and overly directing actors, parentheticals are formatted right below character names to showcase additional nuances and action to be accompanied by the dialogue being spoken — when needed.
Dialogue
Dialogue is what the characters are saying. Fairly straight forward. There also exist variances where you can use the dialogue area to communicate inner thoughts (in the form of voiceover) and narration for characters on or off the screen.
Transitions
Transitions are used to convey visually stylistic segues between scenes (DISSOLVE TO: and SMASH CUT TO:).
However, they should be used sparingly.
Note: CUT TO: should not be used as a transition these days because it’s now common knowledge that whenever the script shifts to a different scene heading and location, a cut is made. You’ll see this prevalent in scripts 30-40 years old, and especially beyond. But it’s now a dated transition.
Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Nightcrawler'
","img":{"alt":"Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler","height":475,"src":"https://200838.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/200838/Jake%20Gyllenhaal%20in%20Nightcrawler.png","width":840},"link_url":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":true,"rel":"noopener","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":null,"href":"https://assets.scriptslug.com/live/pdf/scripts/nightcrawler-2014.pdf?v=1729114962","href_with_scheme":"https://assets.scriptslug.com/live/pdf/scripts/nightcrawler-2014.pdf?v=1729114962","type":"EXTERNAL"},"user_generated_content":false}}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}Never Break Master Scene Screenplay Format Element Rules
These elements are essential to the screenplay reading experience, allowing anyone who reads the script to instantly interpret what is to be seen, heard, and visualized.
If you try to introduce a new style of screenplay format, it will be an instant red flag for the reader. It will also halt the natural pacing of the read, which won’t help your script make it too far up the Hollywood ladder.
If there are any rules that absolutely shouldn’t be broken, these are those rules.
Yes. There are some successful scripts out there that have broken these rules.
If you read the Nightcrawler script by Dan Gilroy, you’ll notice that it breaks the rule of using scene headings. It instead uses slug lines and scene descriptions to tell us where we are in the script. This is a stylistic choice by a very established screenwriter. While the choice is very effective within the script, it’s one of those cases where you don’t want to give Hollywood an excuse to pass on a newcomer.
In the end, the shooting script of Nightcrawler was reformatted for the production purposes of needing the master scene screenplay format elements to budget and break down shooting schedules.
Okay, enough about the rules that can’t be broken. Let’s get to the fun stuff and tell you which rules you can break.
Adam Sandler in 'Uncut Gems'
","img":{"alt":"Adam Sandler sits in a jewelry store, an assortment of women's necklaces in the background in Uncut Gems","height":475,"src":"https://200838.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/200838/Adam%20Sandler%20in%20Uncut%20Gems.png","width":840},"link_url":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":true,"rel":"noopener","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":null,"href":"https://scriptpdf.com/uncut-gems-script-pdf/","href_with_scheme":"https://scriptpdf.com/uncut-gems-script-pdf/","type":"EXTERNAL"},"user_generated_content":false}}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}You (Sometimes) Can Direct on the Page
Beginner screenwriters are told time and time again:
“Don’t write camera angles. Don’t write ‘We See.’ Don’t direct where the camera goes and how it goes there.”
Why has this been a long-established rule? Because you’re the writer, not the director. It’s not your job to direct how the camera is moving and what types of camera angles should be used.
However, you can break this rule under one condition — when the direction you write clarifies the visual experience and is necessary for the story, the pacing, and the visceral impact on the script reader during their visualization.
In some cases, a subtle and strategic camera cue can create a clear and immediate moment of emphasis.
In the script for Uncut Gems by Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, camera direction is used for visual effect:
The camera zooms into the GEM. Again, we see a kaleidoscope of color, light, and swirling abstract shapes. A psychedelic trip. Hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizing.
This isn’t directing — it’s intentional storytelling to enhance the moment.
If a specific visual emphasis makes a beat scarier, funnier, resonant, or more emotionally powerful, feel free to break that rule. Just don’t overdo it. Don’t storyboard the movie in your script. Use this as a visual tool to emphasize important story and visual elements.
Kristen Stewart in 'Underwater'
","img":{"alt":"Kristen Stewart sits wearing an astronaut suit in 'Underwater'","height":475,"src":"https://200838.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/200838/Kristen%20Stewart%20in%20Underwater.png","width":840},"link_url":{"no_follow":false,"open_in_new_tab":true,"rel":"noopener","sponsored":false,"url":{"content_id":null,"href":"https://blog.finaldraft.com/write-on-with-spontaneous-writer-director-brian-duffield","href_with_scheme":"https://blog.finaldraft.com/write-on-with-spontaneous-writer-director-brian-duffield","type":"EXTERNAL"},"user_generated_content":false}}]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_objects" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}[]{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "smart_type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"NOT_SMART"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "type" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"module"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% module_attribute "wrap_field_tag" is_json="true" %}{% raw %}"div"{% endraw %}{% end_module_attribute %}{% end_module_block %}You (Sometimes) Can Write What We Can’t See
Long-standing screenwriting advice tells us that we shouldn’t:
- Write internal thoughts or feelings.
- Waste space by sharing backstory not present on the screen.
This is common knowledge in screenwriting — and wise knowledge at that. Why? Because screenwriting is a visual medium. A screenplay is a blueprint for what is to be seen and heard on the screen as it happens.
If you’re interested in writing internal thoughts or emotions, you’re better off writing a novel.
However, you can break this rule — as long as you’re doing so with purpose. Yes, screenplays are blueprints. But as you try to break into the industry, you’re also writing for development executives, directors, producers, and script readers. You need them to feel something. You need them to get invested into the story and characters.
Sometimes it’s okay to throw in an internal thought, feeling, or backstory nugget.
Let’s go back to Nightcrawler. Dan Gilroy’s captivating screenplay gives us chilling insight into Lou Bloom’s sociopathic mindset. The script accomplishes this by breaking this otherwise well-intentioned rule through internal beats:
LOU’S 30 ... pure primal id ... if there’s music it’s in his head ... disconnected ... feral ... driven
by dollar signs and a dream of some imagined Eden
We don’t see that last line in the scene description. But we understand it. We feel it. And it deepens the character in ways a purely visual description wouldn’t. Even better, this is accomplished with a simple short but sweet block of internal beat description/explanation.
In the script Underwater by Brian Duffield, we’re given scene description that isn’t necessarily describing action we’re seeing on the screen. Instead, the script is almost breaking the fourth wall by describing the general vibe and atmosphere of the upcoming sequence directly to whoever is reading the script:
This is what you need to know about the bottom of the ocean
in the middle of the night.
It is nightmare dark.
All of the sounds are muffled and awful.
You can’t run.
You are walking with the weight of the entire world on your
shoulders.
You can’t see the Roebuck Station.
You can barely see the station you just left.
Your lights get you about ten feet ahead.
The ocean floor is rock and sand.
There is nowhere to hide. You are out in the open.
And at the same time, you will never feel more claustrophobic
in your life.
But this is what they are trained for.
These are visuals that we attach to the eventual scene description and action within the script — but they aren’t exactly what we are seeing at the time we’re reading the explanation.
You (Sometimes) Can Break Structural Rules
Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. You can also argue that every story, because of that truth, is a three-act structure. However, some of the most compelling screenplays deviate drastically from the three-act structure.
Here’s the thing, though. Most established screenwriters who break structural rules know that three-act structure backwards, forwards, and inside out, allowing them to play with structure in ways many didn’t know possible. When they veer away from a “normal” story path, the story they are telling in vastly different ways still make sense from a traditional beginning, middle, and end standpoint.
Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), and Christopher Nolan (Memento) — and their respective non-linear films — are perfect examples of ways that screenwriters can play with traditional screenplay structure.
Structure is a framework. If you’re going to break it, do so with intention.
- Want to start in the middle of the story and loop back? Fine.
- Want to tell bounce back and forth between different timelines? Go for it.
The key is always ensuring that you’re telling a story that makes sense in the end with purposeful creative choices.
Only Break Screenwriting Rules for Purposeful Deviation and Affect
Don’t just do it to stand out. Have a purpose for deviating established rules, guidelines, and expectations.
If you’re doing it for the sole purpose of being different and flashy, it’s not worth it — especially as a newcomer. Hollywood has the unfortunate — and necessary — habit of looking for reasons to say no. It is a filtration process required to get through the thousands upon thousands of screenplays out there in the spec market.
When you are an established name with some great credits that have proven your talent and success, readers will look past any major deviations. Dan Gilroy was one of the top tier screenwriters in Hollywood when he wrote Nightcrawler.
So, choose your deviations well. Make those deviations few and far between so that those creative choices don’t define your script — your concept, story, and characters do.