Document Statistics - Pro Feature

Generate Document Statistics Report

Statistics can be run for the entire document, or in conjunction with a Report for a smaller range of information. To see available reports or filter your document, see Reports or Filter Content. 

1. Open the Analysis widget
2. Select Document Statistics

OR

1. Select Reports > Document Statistics
   1. The report will generate and appear as a window within the app.

Download Document Statistics

1. Generate Document Statistics report
2. Scroll to the bottom of the report.
3. Select Download Report

Document Statistics Report

General Statistics

There is no ‘right answer’ for what these statistics should look like. Any numbers given below will be the industry standard, but not the rule.

• Dialogue - This is the percentage of a script that consists of Dialogue lines. Useful to see if a script, in particular, needs more Dialogue or is too Dialogue heavy. The standard is in the 40-60% range.
• Density - It calculates the average amount of ‘blank’ space on a page. Since the screenwriting industry generally prefers screenplays that are briskly paced and easily read, this statistic is extremely useful. As a screenwriter, it is important to know if the overall script will appear text-heavy. Monitoring the density and pace of your script may help improve its visual appeal to a potential Producer or Director.
• Pages per scene - The number of pages per scene on average.
• Page count – Total page count of the document you are currently on. The general rule for screenwriting is a script should be no longer than 120 pages, however, most professional screenplays are around 90-110 pages.
• Word Count – Total number of words in the document you are currently on, including all types of lines.
• Speaking characters - The number of characters with Dialogue in the document you are currently on. This number can change if a Report is being run on a filtered or shortened view of the document.
• Silent Characters - There may be circumstances where a character is present in a scene but has no lines of Dialogue. While it may be indicated that this character is in the scene by the Action or Scene line, they will not show up as part of the Statistics page unless entered in an outliner line.

Gender Overview

These stats are here to help determine the balance of gender in a script. Again, there is no right answer here. That said, there are many writers who are keen to monitor their writing from the perspective of gender in order to learn more about their own internal biases (or the lack thereof). 

• Gender (#) - There is a row for each gender category that has been noted in this script or section of the script. The number in parentheses is the number of characters assigned to that gender. WriterDuet pulls an initial assumption based on the name and context clues in the script to automatically assign gender to characters. These assignments can be edited under the Writing Metrics section of this report. If we are not able to determine the gender of a character, it will be left as "N/A" until manually assigned.

• Bechdel test -  The Bechdel test determines whether there are scenes between two or more female characters and zero male characters, where the subject matter is not related to a male character, and there are at least seven blocks of dialogue in the scene. The Bechdel test became popular because historically it has failed surprisingly often in the big-budget films.
• reverse Bechdel test - The reverse Bechdel test does the same thing with the genders reversed. It can be fun and interesting to see if your script passes these tests.  

Lines of Text by Type

These statistics give a breakdown of each Line Type. This counts the entire amount of vertical space taken up by each line type, not just the number of paragraphs of that line type. Especially useful to determine if a script is heavier in one area than it should be (too many action lines, not enough dialogue, etc). The total number of lines in the script only reflects lines that have been classified with a Type (Character, Dialogue, Action, etc.)

Writing Metrics

The writing metrics give an overall view of how much a Character contributes to the story. They can also give an idea of the rhythm and pace of a Character’s speech pattern. Some of the components of the Writing Metrics section are used across the industry, and some are specific to WriterDuet. All statistics in this section are averages based on lines of Dialogue spoken by Characters.

• Action - This helps you compare the number of Action lines to the amount of Dialogue in your script. While there is no industry standard for the ratio between Action lines and Character lines, this statistic can be helpful for a writer to better understand their style of writing.
• Gender & Total - This helps you compare the Dialogue lines per gender and all of the Dialogue lines in your script.
• [CHARACTER] - Each character in the script will be listed here. Characters are identified by text that is designated as a Character line.

• Lines -  A Dialogue line is defined by a continuous section of dialogue for a specified character. A Parenthetical will not interrupt a line, but a change in line type will.
• Complexity - This can help a writer work on each character’s unique speaking style and complexity. Since the reading and speaking complexity is vastly different for most people, WriterDuet has altered the formula to be geared toward speaking complexity. For example, you would expect a Child character’s Dialogue to have a lower complexity percentage than a Doctor character’s.