Enter, stage right. No, wait, stage left. Or was it through the backdrop curtain? No, I remember now – pop up through the trap door in center stage. Grrr, the trap door is stuck! Stupid stage directions. Necessary, but annoying. At least when it comes to screenplays. But how many directions do you put into the script? Or do you leave it to the actors and director to figure out on their own?

For some, drafting the stage directions to a screenplay can be as difficult and awkward as writing the dialogue, action, and settings. Screenplays are unusual creatures, like skeletons of some well-fed wildebeest. It has substance, form, and can waddle about through the magic of creativity, but the meat and bones aren't there. That's for the director and actors to take care of – giving the dialogue tone, style, and meaning. Bringing the actions and notations of their characters to life.

But first, you have to write it all into the script. Otherwise this skeletal creation is going to start losing bones as it waddles along the plot. A rib bone there, a tooth here, and, oh, there goes a femur. That'll complicate things. Better make sure you get your stage directions down right, or else your creation won't make it to the final curtain call.

Don't go overboard, though, having each character's step blocked out. There needs to be some freedom for interpretation by each actor. Unless your actor is an android, in which case by all means detail its every step and move. Otherwise, let the actors have some freedom of movement.

The more scenery changes you create, the more the production team may start to grumble. Backdrops can be tricky to swap out depending on the stage. Also, it's not exactly easy to go on the stage in darkness, remove scenery pieces, and replace them with new ones if the plot's location migrates from, say, a country home to a watery cliff side with a lighthouse. Make sure that whatever directions and scenery you want are justified and serve a purpose.

That is, of course, if you don't want your stage hands to revolt and lock you up below that little trap door on center stage. Or you could just give them little head mounted flashlights so they could see – give the audience a low-tech light show between acts. You always have options, just depends on what your stage hands and actors, actresses, lighting team, director, and producer are all willing to do. See why simplicity is sometimes easier? You try keeping all those people copacetic.

If you're writing for the silver screen, though, everything is dependent on your budget. Real props and scenery are apparently too expensive to utilize when you can just slap a blue or green screen behind an actor and have them mimic horror at the kraken about to make them go squish. (I much prefer the non-CGI scenery and set up as it is, by definition, more realistic. Although, I do hold a special place for Harryhausen's claymation creations. Those kicked ass.)