10 Timeless Script Writing Rules
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012So. You want to write a movie script, but you’re not, actually, too sure how to write a screenplay? I’ve got a route for you. A battle tested map that gives you the basic outline of the process. 10 steps that lead to screenwriting glory.
1. You need one person at the heart of what you are writing who is very much loved by at least one or two people in the world of your story. They should really love this person in fact, because you’re going to really hurt this person, hurt them badly, and the reactions of the other characters are what will power the story.
2. Make sure you are writing in a genre. Understand whether you’re writing a thriller, a comedy, a ghost story, and make sure you understand what the audience likes to see in these types of stories. You don’t have to give them it, but do that from a position of power, not ignorance.
3. Happy endings stink, right? Wrong. They’re harder to write well than the average load of gloom dished out by the average amateur writer, they tend to deliver better word of mouth, and they tend to make people happy. I strongly suggest you plan for a happy ending.
4. Make sure you love your hero – and then devise a very clever ways to hurt them: build their character over the course of the story so that by the end they have powerful desires for two contradictory things. When you resolve that dilemma in the climax you add a massive punch to your ending.
5. You need a villain you absolutely love too. The clever thing to do with your villain is make sure they are explicitly designed to stop your hero getting what they want. And will go the extra mile on this. Even if it hurts. Especially if it hurts.
6. Never ever go to script until you’ve got the entire shape of your story worked out. Know what the ending is, what happens to your hero, and how you’re going to get there. Write that whole outline up as a prose document before writing a word of dialogue. This is called a treatment.
7, Give this prose treatment out to a bunch of your friends. Make them read it. And then listen to what they say. Don’t defend yourself, just listen. When three or more of them identify the same problem, well, you probably do have that problem.
8. Take the opening paragraph of your prose treatment. Think yourself into the world of that paragraph, until you can practically see it happening around you. Make sure you visualize the events over and over again, till it plays like a real movie in your head. This mini-movie is going to be the opening sequence of your script.
9. Get out your word processor, or your script writing software, whatever, doesn’t matter. You can format it later. Get that little movie down on paper now. Write the scenes. Make the characters move, and talk, and feel.
10. Do 8 and 9 over and over, paragraph to mind mini-movie to sequence on the page, until you reach the last page of the treatment.
You have just finished your first draft.
Format it. Print it. Weigh it in your hand. Admire it. You should be proud. Few people get this far. And if you followed these steps, it’s going to be far more readable than anything else you have written.
Philip Gladwin has battled evil TV execs on a daily basis since 1995. He’s a screenwriter and editor, and has created a useful screenwriting website that is packed full of authoritative information for the ambitious screenwriter. He’s also designed a neat little piece of screenwriting software that helps you structure your story along fully professional lines.