Have you ever heard it said that you have only one chance to make a first impression?  You have?  Well, it is absolutely true in writing.  Whether you are seeking publication or entering a contest to show your writing talents, you cannot affort to alienate the reader.  Even the most experienced and objective judge will have a difficult time forgiving a bad first impression.

How do you make that first impression a good one?  Simple.  Learn what the expectations of the readers are - especially when it comes to the format of your work.  You will have put a lot of time and effort into your Stage Play before it is ever ready for submission, so don't make the mistake of skipping over the format of the piece.  Appropriate formatting will at the very least put you on an equal footing with other contenders for contest prizes - once there, your work will get the chance to speak for itself.

Stage Play formatting is not as hard and fast as in some other writing genres, with the empahsis being placed on overall readability.  That does not mean however that there are not certain formatting techniques that seperate a novice from the professional to the trained eye.  We will explore here the few basic rules that will stand your manuscript in good stead in the www.stageashow.com Melodrama Contest and indeed will make your Play acceptable to the Stage Play contests that we are aware of. 

• Your manuscript should be in a text (.txt) or rich text format (.rtf).  This is the most readable and convenient format for a contest, unless the contest requires a specific software format.  All the major writing software (Word, Word Perfect, Final Draft, etc.) will have a setting to save files in this format and by doing so you do not force the judges to find or purchase a piece of software just to read your entry.   
• Your name and contact information should appear on the Title page of your manuscript but not within the body of the work.  Often, judges will remove the title page from a work during the reading process to ensure an objective reading.
• A page number and Play Title should be included in the header area of each page following the Title page.  This ensures that should a play become unbound it can be easily re-assembled.
• All pages should be securely bound, preferably using brads, in such a way that judges and especially actors can leaf through quickly and often roughly.  A good entry will be one that gets passed around a lot, so make sure your entry can stand up to the punishment.
• Top and left margins are to be set at 1.5 inches. 
• Bottom and right margins shoud be set a 1 inch.
• Page numbers appear 1 inch from the top and right.
• Character names are indented 4 inches, not centered.
• Opening stage directions are indented 4 inches.
• Other stage directions are indented 3.5 inches.
• The text is best set at 12 with a Courrier New font type.  What is generally strived for with the typeset is to emulate a typewriter. 

It is a pretty safe bet that none of our judges will be taking out a ruler to measure your indents and if they did we probably would not use them to judge again.  However, if your goal is to have your work speak for itself, remember the first impression your manuscript makes is how it comes out of the envelope. 

We wish everyone the best of luck in the www.stageashow.com Melodrama contest and encourage anyone who wishes to engage in the craft of Playwriting to jump right in - you will never know what you can accomplish until you try!