Scriptwriting

This page is generated. Do not edit it by hand — run scripts/atlas-vocab.py.

part of Copywriting · tier 2 · Text · 0 pieces of work carry it · 7 crafts it is confused with

The craft, and who hires it

Hired when a piece will be spoken: commercial and brand-film scripts, VO narration, dialogue-driven spots, radio/audio scripts, and explainer narration — the script stage that directors, voiceover artists, and editors then execute.

Writing language to be performed: voiceover narration, dialogue, and structured spoken narrative for commercials, films, and audio work. The craft is words built for time and voice — rhythm, beats, and story flow that only fully exist when read aloud.

Tag it when…

Tag when the piece contains authored performed language — continuous VO narration, scripted dialogue between characters, or a structured spoken narrative with deliberate beats — where the writing quality is evident in what is said, not just that someone speaks.

Never tag it when…

Never tag on-screen text crafts: supers, headlines, and CTAs are copywriting_advertising; identity prose read as text is copywriting_brand. The performance of the words is Voiceover (Audio-Visual Elements) and the staging of them is Direction (Video Production) — the script tag claims only the authored language. Unscripted, spontaneous speech (interviews, candid captures) is not this craft, whatever the piece's format or subject: judge whether the words were authored, never what kind of content the item is.

Easily mistaken for 7 other crafts

Every other page suggests neighbours by similarity. This one navigates by difference: each line names the craft this is confused with, and the rule for telling them apart.

• copywriting advertising — Spoken/performed language = scriptwriting; read-on-screen persuasive text = advertising copy. One film can carry both.
• copywriting brand — A manifesto read as narration is scriptwriting craft in execution and brand-voice craft in language — tag script when the performed structure (beats, timing) is the evident craft.
• audio visual elements voiceover narration — Voiceover is the recorded performance; Scriptwriting is the authored text. A great read of weak words is voiceover only; crafted words are script regardless of who reads them.
• video production live action direction — Direction shapes how the script is staged and performed on screen; scriptwriting is the language itself.
• video production commercial spot — A spot as a piece is Video Production (Commercial / Spot); tag scriptwriting only when the authored VO/dialogue is itself a crafted output — a spot's video-craft tag never implies a script tag, or vice versa.
• video production documentary — Documentary's observed, unscripted speech (interviews, verité) is not scriptwriting; authored narration written OVER documentary footage can be.
• video production film tv entertainment — A scripted entertainment piece is Film & TV / Entertainment as video craft; the authored screenplay/dialogue craft is Scriptwriting — tag both only when each craft is genuinely on display.

At what size it applies

Asset tag when performed language carries the whole piece (a VO-driven spot or dialogue-led film IS scripted work to a buyer); moment tag when only a segment is script-driven — a narrated passage or dialogue beat inside an otherwise visual piece.

Where to look next

• The whole services tree — the services index.
• Every other vocabulary — the vocabulary index.
• How work gets credited to a craft — the entities chapter.