: Re: How to describe a seemingly-random doodle/symbol, whose details are significant? In my Crime/Mystery/Drama screenplay, there’s a seemingly random doodle at the bottom of a mysterious note. The

@Kevin153

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Since this is a script, not a novel or a story, go ahead and describe it from a functional standpoint when it first appears:

In the bottom right corner is the Chinese character for "danger", but scrawled in such a way that it looks more like a child's stick figure.

That description is for the director and/or whoever else reads the scripts; it isn't available either to the characters or the final audience. When writing scripts you have to keep in mind you have two audiences, the filmmakers and the final audience. Their needs and wants are different, as is what they will have in front of them.

You generally want to provide the info necessary to film the script as you go along. You should assume that whoever is reading the script is playing it out as a movie in their minds. They don't need (or want) to know exactly what a given element looks like, but they do need to know its function in the plot. Similarly, you don't need to outline your forthcoming plot twists, but you do need to give a usable description of what's actually onscreen.

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