Make singing look different from speech
A reader should know a line is sung before reading it. Italics or all caps, with each sung line on its own line, both do that; the choice matters less than keeping one convention for every song in the script.
Common choiceSources reviewed
How to format song lyrics in a screenplay
Set sung lines apart from speech — italics or all caps, one lyric line per line — and quote only the lyrics the scene actually needs.
Direct answer
Put the singer's character cue above the song and give each sung line its own line so it reads as verse, not prose. Set singing apart from speech with italics or all caps, use one convention for every song, and add a (singing) parenthetical the first time. Quote only the lyrics the scene needs; for a song playing in the background, describe it in action instead.
On the page
Rendered example
INT. HARBOR BAR - NIGHT
Mara steps up to the microphone. The room keeps talking.
MARA
(singing)
The last ferry's leaving,
and I'm still on the pier.
The room goes quiet.
Evidence weight
What current practice favors
Where reasonable writers disagree
There is no single correct form: produced musicals have marked lyrics with italics, with all caps, and even with color. Readers do agree on two things — sung and spoken lines must not look the same, and the convention adopted for the first song should still hold for the last.
Not one rigid template
Accepted variations
Italic lyrics
Italics under the singer's cue keep the page quiet and read clearly as song. Produced musical screenplays have used this form.
Common choice
All-caps lyrics
All caps, one sung line per line, is the other long-standing convention. It stands out more on a busy page and survives any typeface.
MARA
(singing)
THE LAST FERRY'S LEAVING,
AND I'M STILL ON THE PIER.
Context dependent
Reference the song instead of printing it
When the music already exists or plays under a scene, name the song or describe it in action. Some musicals written alongside recorded demos refer to tracks rather than printing every lyric.
INT. HARBOR BAR - NIGHT
The jukebox plays an old sea shanty. Eli mouths every word, badly. Mara pretends not to know him.
Reader and handoff friction
Mistakes to avoid
- Running lyrics together as a prose paragraph, which hides their rhythm and line breaks.
- Switching between italics and all caps from one song to the next.
- Printing an entire existing song where its title and one sentence of description would do.
- Leaving the reader to discover a line is sung only several lines into the song.
Choose for the recipient
Submission versus production
Submission or reading draft
Outside a musical, keep songs short on the page. A reader needs the song's dramatic job, not every verse, and a one-line description often serves a spec better than printed lyrics.
Production draft
Any existing song a production uses has to be cleared, which is the production's job rather than the draft's. Original lyrics are often settled with the music team, so revise them through the script's normal revision process like any other dialogue.
Working in Plot
In Plot, put the singer's Character cue above the song and use the Lyric element for each sung line; Plot sets lyrics in italics on the page and in the PDF so they read as song, not speech. Lyrics come in from Final Draft as lyrics and go back out to FDX the same way.
Asked next
Questions writers ask
Should song lyrics be in italics or all caps?
Either is accepted. Italics read quieter; all caps stand out more on a busy page. Choose one and use it for every song in the script, because consistency is what tells a reader a line is sung.
Do I write out the full lyrics of an existing song?
Usually not. Name the song and describe what it does in the scene. Printing an existing song adds pages without adding story, and any song a production uses has to be cleared anyway.
How do I write a song that plays in the background?
In action. Describe what plays and when it matters — a jukebox starts an old ballad — and quote a lyric only when the words themselves land a story beat.
Defined in the glossary
Character cue
The speaker’s name above a dialogue block, conventionally in uppercase — the label that tells the reader who is talking.
Parenthetical
A short note in parentheses under a character's name, above the line it changes, such as (quietly) or (to Maria). It says how a line is delivered, who it is aimed at, or a small action during it. In grammar, a parenthetical is an aside set off from the rest of a sentence.
Dialogue
The words characters speak in a story, play or film. In a screenplay each speech sits under the speaker's name in a narrow centered column; in Plot, a dialogue pass proposes tighter lines you accept or reject one at a time.
Diegetic sound
Diegetic means part of the story's world. Diegetic sound is sound the characters hear, like dialogue or a car radio. The score is non-diegetic: only we hear it.
Where to go next
Related formatting situations
Browse the screenplay formatting reference
Rendered examples and accepted variations for common screenplay situations
Dual & overlapping dialogue
Format two characters speaking at once, create dual dialogue in Inkwell Plot or Final Draft, and decide when an interruption works better as stacked dialogue.
Montage
Start the montage, write each visual beat, and end it where scenes resume. Five page examples, from a one-line montage to one over a voice-over.
Pre-laps & sound bridges
When the next scene's sound arrives before its picture, write it just above the scene it belongs to: a (PRE-LAP) cue for a line of dialogue, a PRE-LAP line in action for a sound.