Quoted from FrankM The current thing that screenwriters are trying to feel out is how to convey texting on-screen. The earliest example I know was Jumping Jack Flash, where it was either read out loud by the recipient or (after the parties spoke with one another) in V.O. with the sender's voice. But how should it be shown to an audience? We haven't quite figured that out yet.

I'm not a big fan of texting in movies. IMO, it's pretty much exactly the opposite of showing instead of telling. But one method I found clever was having the person receiving the text looking at their mobile, and having the message appear as floating text on the screen. I'm not sure how the writer wrote that but I'd imagine something along the lines of "the following text appears on-screen as the character reads," or words to that effect.

On the very rare occasion that I have characters texting, I just write it out as clearly as I can. To wit:

Bob's mobile DINGS. He checks to see a TEXT from Mary: "M R Ducks."

Bob texts back: "M R Not"

Mary: "O S M R. C M Wings?"

Bob: "L I B. M R Ducks!"

This topic has stirred in me an urge to spiel, so bear with me here, and forgive me any pretentiousness I may display:

One of my favorite anecdotes (and I've probably shared this here on SS before) involves Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson. Williamson's script described the killer wearing a mask, but that was it. Director Wes Craven asked him how he was supposed to deal with the fact that even with a mask, the killer could still be recognized by his clothes. Williamson's response was (paraphrasing), "Not my problem. I'm just the writer."

The point being that while I'm sure there are more technical ways of writing a text, or phone conversation, or what have you, those technicalities aren't your problem. That's on the director and editor. Just imagine how much stress and time you'd save yourself if you simply focused on telling us what happens instead of fussing over how to write an INSERT or an INTERCUT or what-not.

If you look up any number of my posts here on SS, you'll see that's something I repeat over and over again -- "tell us what happens, not how it happens." It's great advice. I didn't create it, it was given to me years ago, and my writing improved dramatically because of it. And not just my writing, but also how much I actually looked forward to writing.

For the first several years, I would get so hung up on nit-picky stuff I picked up from all the books -- Trottier, Field, Keane, etc. -- that it was almost paralyzing. It was a chore trying to tell a story while adhering to all those technicalities they say you're supposed to follow. So when it was explained to me (by some writer on some site years ago whose name I don't remember or what site it was on, at that) that I was sweating over shit I had no actual control over, it was quite liberating.

(SIDE NOTE: That writer whose name I don't remember also gave me some great advice about plotting: in horror and sci-fi lots of new writers feel the need to explain everything about the monster, the situation, etc. But what explanation would possibly suffice to explain a monster or futuristic situation? Let the scenario be the scenario, then drop your characters into it and see how they react.)

Screenwriting books can be helpful, but they can be impeditive as well. We get so tripped up in how all the "experts" say we're supposed to write that we forget the entire reason we're writing in the first place -- because we have a story we want to tell. So tell it, as clearly and concisely as you're able, and forget all that other shit.

Yes, there are some general formatting guidelines you need to follow, such as how to write scene headings, capping character intros, where to place dialogue, making sure you keep your action/narratives to less than five lines and keeping your descriptions lean and precise -- but even those guidelines can be bent (to an extent). Anything else is incidental, and anything incidental is unimportant.

Brass tacks: when you don't know how to write something, remember the KISS rule:

Keep
It
Simple,
Stupid!

To be clear, I'm not trying to present myself as an expert on all things screenwriting, but good advice is good advice. And what I wrote above is the best advice I was ever given, so I feel it only right to share it with other screenwriters who find themselves facing the same frustrations as I used to.