All-Capping for EMPHASIS

If you read produced scripts, you will notice that some words or sounds are capitalized. Not characters, mind you, but a RAINDROP or a WINDOW or a STILETTO.

Why is this? There is no hard and fast rule, but sometimes writers capitalize a word simply to place emphasis on it. It weights the word so that attention is drawn to it.

Say your character, DICK SWEATSALOT has his face pressed to the shag rug of the run-down motel he just burst into. As he’s held down by a THUG, he notices, in his line of vision, a STILETTO lying under the bed. If we go back two pages, we remember that the woman he had dinner with half an hour ago was wearing stilettos. Where is she? Was she here? Is she here now? It’s a big, juicy clue and so we draw attention to it for the reader.

Sometimes, writers newer to the craft will get confused and all-cap random words thinking that there is some kind of artistic significance. So maybe it’s raining outside and Dick Sweatsalot notices a RAINDROP on the window. Well, okay. There's some sad symbolism, seeing as Dick is in a pretty tight spot. But it’s way more fun if Dick, from his shag-rug vantage point might notice the STILETTO and a slick POOL OF BLOOD. So rather than an oblique symbolic image or just something the writer thought was cool, my attention has been drawn to something I really need to know. Many is the time that I have been left wondering what the importance of the CORVETTE or GREEN LAMPSHADE was in the scene. All-cap on a need-to-know basis not because Corvette's are bitchin'.

As a screenwriter, you want your pages to read smoothly and quickly. Punctuating action lines with an occasional all-capped or italicized word is fine if it brings attention to something you need emphasized.

Some writers capitalize sounds for emphasis so that as Dick stares at the STILETTO he suddenly hears a CLICK. Is the door opening? Is it a gun being cocked? Use capped sounds to make your read interesting and kinetic.

Suddenly, Dick rolls over and leaps to his feet to face his tormentor when – POW! A fist connects with his face. And Dick is back down on the carpet. Be judicious when choosing which words to emphasize. An overuse will have the opposite effect; your reader will simply become annoyed. But a well-placed all-capped word can direct the attention in the scene exactly where you want it. Imagine that the capped word provides a dramatic pause. Or imagine that it causes the reader to jump a little bit because WHAM! – they didn’t see it coming.

Like a very powerful spice, you only need a little bit. Too much ruins the pot. All-capping words is a sneaky way of mini-directing the scene. Not just the words we choose, but the way we use our words can make things feel rushed, scary, funny or startling. Use every single trick in the book, Rouge Wavers, to make your read not just entertaining but EFFING entertaining.

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