Building FountainFormat — A Resource That Didn't Exist
How a missing reference guide became
my most-used bookmark.
I kept Googling the same Fountain syntax questions over and over. So I built the reference I wished existed.
Why I Built This
Every time I sat down to write a screenplay in Fountain, I'd forget something. How do you mark dual dialogue again? What's the syntax for a centered title? How do notes work?
The official Fountain.io documentation exists, but it's buried in prose. I didn't want to read paragraphs — I wanted to glance at a syntax reference and get back to writing.
"If you have to look something up more than three times, build a tool." — Me, apparently
I searched for a quick-reference cheat sheet. A syntax card. Anything scannable. Nothing existed. Every Fountain resource was either the full spec (too long) or a blog post explaining what Fountain is (not what I needed).
So I built FountainFormat in a weekend. Then spent another week making it actually good.
How It Works
FountainFormat is deliberately simple: a single-page reference guide with every Fountain element, organized by category.
The core sections:
- Scene Headings — INT, EXT, and all the variations
- Action & Dialogue — The bread and butter of screenwriting
- Transitions — CUT TO, FADE OUT, and custom transitions
- Formatting — Bold, italic, underline, centered text
- Advanced — Dual dialogue, lyrics, notes, sections
Every example is copy-pasteable. Click any code block and it copies to clipboard. No friction between reading and using.
Each element shows the Fountain syntax on the left and the rendered result on the right. See the markup, see the output, understand instantly.
Technical Spotlight
The interesting challenge wasn't building the site — it was organizing the information.
Fountain has maybe 20 distinct syntax elements. But they interact in non-obvious ways. Scene headings can be forced with a period. Character names can have extensions. Dialogue can be dual. Transitions can be custom.
The taxonomy problem:
Is "FADE TO BLACK" a transition or action?
Is "(V.O.)" part of the character or separate?
Are lyrics dialogue or their own thing?
Categories aren't clean.
I reorganized the structure 4 times before landing on the current hierarchy. The breakthrough was organizing by "what are you trying to write" rather than "what's the technical element name."
Writers don't think "I need a scene heading with a forced prefix." They think "I need to start a new scene." The categories now reflect how writers actually work:
- Starting scenes
- Writing dialogue
- Adding description
- Formatting text
- Structuring your script
I almost organized alphabetically. "Action" before "Boneyard" before "Character." Technically correct, completely useless. Nobody learns syntax alphabetically.
What It Looks Like
Clean, scannable, no distractions. Dark mode by default because screenwriters live in dark mode.
Expandable sections, copy-to-clipboard on every example, fully responsive
Lessons Learned
Reference ≠ Documentation
Documentation explains. Reference reminds. I kept slipping into explanation mode — "Fountain uses scene headings to..." — when all I needed was the syntax and an example. Ruthlessly cut every sentence that explained rather than showed.
Build For Yourself First
FountainFormat exists because I needed it. I'm still its most frequent user. Building for yourself means you actually know if it's good — you feel the friction every time you use it.
Simple Sites Are Hard
No framework. No build step initially. Just HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS. Sounds easy until you're managing 20 code examples and trying to keep syntax highlighting consistent. Migrated to 11ty after the third time I copy-pasted a fix across multiple files.
The Result
FountainFormat is live at fountainformat.com. Bookmark it, forget about it, come back when you need it.
The numbers:
- Build time: 2 weeks of evenings
- Total cost: $12/year for the domain
- Pages: 1 — that's the point
The most rewarding feedback: "Finally, a Fountain reference I can actually use." That's exactly what I wanted.
FountainFormat connects to the rest of my screenwriting toolkit — use it alongside CoffeeDraft for writing and the upcoming PenDraft for markdown. Same philosophy: tools that get out of your way.