How the counter reads your script
It looks for a character name at the start of each speech. Three common layouts work: the name followed by a colon (HAMLET: To be), an all-caps name followed by a period or a dash (HAMLET. To be), and screenplay layout, where the name sits alone on a line in capitals and the dialogue follows until a blank line. Screenplay extensions such as (V.O.), (O.S.), and (CONT'D) are removed, so a voice-over counts toward the same character.
Lines without a name continue the speech above them. Parentheticals such as (beat), stage directions in brackets, and headings such as ACT I or INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT are skipped. Names are matched without regard to capitals, so HAMLET and Hamlet are one character.
Lines, words, or speeches: which number to use
Each number answers a different question. Speeches tell you how often you speak, which is how many cues you must know. Words tell you how much text you must learn, and they are the fairest way to compare two parts. Lines follow the layout: verse has fixed lines, but prose wraps differently in every edition, so the same prose speech can be three lines in one script and five in another.
The longest speech shows the hardest single stretch to learn, and speaking time estimates how long your part runs at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. For one speech, the monologue timer gives slow, average, and brisk estimates and a stopwatch for a real run.
Plan how to learn the part
Once you know the size of the part, divide the words by the days before your off-book date and you have a daily target. Learn the biggest speeches early, and learn your cues along with your lines: every speech in the count is a cue you have to hear and answer. The cue script maker lists your lines with only the end of the speech before each one, which makes a quick self-test. To hear every cue out loud, the run lines online tool reads the other parts and pauses for yours.
For classic plays, the play library has every role counted from the full text, with the scenes each role speaks in and its longest speeches. When you are ready to run the scene, Offbook reads every other part in AI voices and gives you the next cue when you finish your line.
Questions
How do I count how many lines my character has?
Paste the script into the box with each speech starting with the character’s name, for example "HAMLET: To be, or not to be". The counter finds every character and lists their speeches, lines, and words, biggest part first. Stage directions in brackets or parentheses are not counted.
What counts as a line?
Every line of dialogue as it appears in what you paste. A speech is everything a character says before someone else speaks, so one speech can run for many lines. Prose lines depend on the page width, so when you compare parts, the word count is the steadier number.
Why is a character missing or listed twice?
The counter only knows a character by the name at the start of each speech. If a script uses two forms of a name, such as "HAM" and "HAMLET", use "Fix character names" to merge them. If a line has no name in front of it after a blank line, it is not counted; the note under the table says how many such lines there are.
Is my script uploaded anywhere?
No. The counter runs in your browser. The script you paste is not sent to Offbook or stored on a server, and it is gone when you close the page.
Keep reading
- Cue script makerPick your role and get only your lines, each with the last words of the speech before it, ready to print.
- Hamlet: every role by lines, words, and stage timeWilliam Shakespeare. Line counts, scenes, and the longest speeches.
- Monologue timerEstimate how long your monologue runs, check it against an audition limit, and time a real run.
- How to learn lines for a play, without crammingRereading your script feels like work but doesn’t build memory. Here’s a three-week plan that does, cue by cue.