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Quick start

To start a screenplay in Scenaloom, open New, describe your idea or import a script, and begin typing on the first line; Enter and Tab choose each next element for you. This walk-through takes you from an empty account to a formatted, exported first scene in about ten minutes.

1. Create a project

  1. Sign in and open New from the sidebar.
  2. Choose the project type in the composer: Script, Novel or Video.
  3. Type an idea — a premise, a character, a moment you can already see — and press Enter. Shift+Enter adds a line instead.
  4. Stuck for a first line? The chips under the composer open ready-made prompts. For a script they are Format, Idea, Writing, Plot and Character; Format includes "Turn the text I paste into a properly formatted screenplay" for pages you wrote somewhere else.
  5. Already have a script? Choose Import script and pick a Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain (.fountain) or PDF file.

The Free plan holds 2 screenplay, 2 film and 2 novel projects, with up to 400 lines per script.

2. Write the first scene

  1. Type a scene heading such as INT. KITCHEN - DAY. A picker offers INT./EXT., your locations and the time of day; Tab moves to the next part of the heading and Enter chooses or adds a location.
  2. Press Enter for an action line and describe what we see.
  3. Press Tab on the empty line below to make it a character cue, type the name, then press Enter for dialogue. A name typed in capitals on an action line also becomes a cue.
  4. Type ( on an empty speech line to start a parenthetical. Enter after dialogue returns you to action.
  5. Use Mod+1 to Mod+7 to jump straight to scene heading, action, character, parenthetical, dialogue, transition or shot. Mod is ⌘ on a Mac and Ctrl elsewhere.

Your work saves as you type. The format bar shows the page you are on and what Enter and Tab will make from the current line, and the ? button in the header lists every shortcut.

3. Plan with the outline and beats

Open Outline for the episode. Story holds the outline for the whole project, This episode holds the current episode's outline and Beats opens the beat board. On the beat board, open Start from a structure and choose Three-act structure, Fifteen-beat sheet or Hero's journey. Each beat lands on its usual page for a 110-page script, and you can change the target length. Beats then show on the story map above the script.

4. Invite a collaborator

Choose Share in the script header, enter an email address and pick a role: Viewer, Editor or Admin. Collaborators edit the same draft in real time and you can see who is here now. For a quick read, set general access so people with the link can read it.

5. Export your script

Open Export from the Writing panel or the project menu. Choose PDF, keep Title page and Page numbers on, and press Save as PDF… — your browser's print dialog saves the file, and its pages match the editor's pages. The same page writes Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain, Word (.docx), plain text and Markdown.

Bring in help when you want it

Select words in a line of action or dialogue and choose Rewrite, Describe or Ask AI from the menu over the selection, or open Scenaloom AI to talk about the scene. Each suggestion arrives as a writing card, and nothing changes in the script until you apply it.