Screenwriting tools

Inkbreaker has two tools for screenplays: the Scene Header Linter, which checks every scene header in your script against the rules a reader expects, and the Page Count Estimator, which turns your draft into a page count and lays it against your act structure. Both are Pro tools. Both read your draft and leave it exactly as you wrote it.

You can open either one two ways:

• On its own page, from Tools then Screenwriting.
• Inside the editor, from the tools panel, when your piece’s writing type is Screenwriting.

In the editor panel both tools work on your live draft, so you can check the sequence you just wrote without saving first. On its own page you can type or paste a script straight in, or load one of your saved pieces.

Scene Header Linter

A scene header, or slugline, is the line that opens a scene: INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT. It carries three pieces of information in a fixed order, and a script that gets them wrong is harder to break down, budget, and shoot. The linter reads every scene header in your draft and tells you which ones are off and why.

Paste your script (or load a piece) and select Lint. Findings come back at three levels:

• Errors are headers that break the form. A reader would mark these.
• Flags are patterns worth a second look. They are not wrong, but they are often a mistake.
• Notes are context, not corrections.

The linter checks eight rules:

• Prefix. The header opens with INT., EXT., INT./EXT., or I/E.
• Location. There is a location after the prefix.
• Separator. A spaced hyphen divides the location from the time of day.
• Time of day. The header ends with one, and it reads as a real time.
• Capitals. The whole header is in capitals.
• Repeated locations. The same location written two ways (“APARTMENT” in one scene, “APT” in another).
• Back-to-back headers. Two scene headers with no scene between them, which usually means a stray line.
• Scene count. How many scenes the draft holds.

Every error comes with the corrected header, so you can see the fix rather than decode the rule.

Four things the linter is deliberate about, because a checker that cries wolf gets turned off:

• Sub-locations survive. The time of day is whatever follows the last spaced hyphen, so INT. HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT keeps its kitchen instead of being read as a broken header.
• Hyphenated locations survive. INT. WELL-LIT BASEMENT is a location with a hyphen in it, not a location and a time of day.
• Unusual times pass. LATER THAT NIGHT, PRE-DAWN, and DUSK (CONTINUOUS) are all accepted. The linter only questions a time that is clearly not one, like ON A BOAT, and even then only as a note.
• Numbered locations are not duplicates. ROOM 1 and ROOM 2, or APARTMENT 4A and 4B, are different places and are left alone.

Transitions and shot directions (CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, MONTAGE - VARIOUS) are not scene headers, so the linter skips them instead of reporting them as malformed.

Page Count Estimator

Screenplays are measured in pages, and a page is roughly a minute of screen time. The estimator converts your draft to pages at 55 words per page, the standard approximation, then shows you how those pages fall across your acts. The 55 figure is fixed and not adjustable, so two writers reading the same report are reading the same thing.

Pick the structure you are writing to and the estimator sets the target for each act:

• Two acts: 50 / 50.
• Three acts: 25 / 50 / 25.
• Four acts: 20 / 30 / 30 / 20.
• Five acts: 20 each.

Each act comes back with its target page range, its actual page count, and one of three readings. Within 10 percent of target is on target. Between 10 and 20 percent out is a mild warning. Past 20 percent is flagged. A second act running long is the most common finding, and the most useful one to catch at draft stage rather than after a table read.

The report also breaks the script down scene by scene, using your scene headers as the boundaries, so you can see which scene is carrying more weight than you thought.

Treat the page count as an approximation, because that is what it is. Dialogue with short speeches runs longer on the page than the word count suggests, and dense action runs shorter. The estimator is for the shape of your script, not for a page count you would put on a title page.

What these tools do not do

Neither tool writes, rewrites, or grades your script, and nothing is sent to an AI. The linter parses your scene headers against fixed rules. The estimator counts words and divides. Both describe the structure of what you wrote, and the writing stays yours.