Professional Documents
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SCREENWRITING
1. If the story doesn't work, then the script won't work. If at any given time,
your reader is not wondering, "What's going to happen next?"--you've got a
problem.
2. Author Julia Cameron says, "The singular image is what haunts us and
becomes art." Think about that! At last "a place" to put all of your little insights,
moments of truth, fascinations and unique experiences that previously lacked
a "file." If you access that "file" while preparing your script and use these hot
little tidbits as springboards for scenes, your script is going to be buzzing with
honesty and life. This is what audiences crave.
4. Writing a script is relatively easy. The real work is in preparing, building and
"arc-ing" out the story and defining the characters. Once the "blueprint" is in
place, the writing itself is usually a welcome enterprise. Many writers have
trouble being patient enough with this process and it can cost them dearly in
the long run.
5. There are many "techniques" for creating and developing characters some
of which are effective. However, the single most important thing you can do is
to have a strong emotional connection with your character. Intellectual
platitudes and techniques are OK, but audiences want characters who are
alive. Find your most visceral emotional connections. Don't settle on a
character until you do.
11. "Layer" your scenes. One of the most effective strategies writers use (like,
for example, Quentin Tarantino) is to add extra juicy tidbits and mini-subplots
within scenes, while the main story continues to unravel.
14. The moment you throw something in that doesn't belong in your story,
solely for the sake of appealing to some imagined reader who you think wants
a bit more sex or sentimentality--at that moment, your story dies a little and
becomes a little more of a lie.
15. Don't start with a mystery and end with the hero finding great love. End by
solving the mystery.
16. EXPERIMENT: take a couple of pages out of your script. Are your
characters distinctive enough that, if you REMOVED THEIR NAMES from the
pages, you could tell who they are JUST FROM the dialogue? If not, you need
to do more work.
17. Don't mix forms to "cover" all bases. If you're going to do a movie where
people throw pies, then let them throw pies. Save your Oscar winning love
scene for another script.
18. Rule of thumb: get into scenes as late as you can and get out early.
Forget about the "glad to meet you's" and the "what would you like for
dinner's." "How can I start a scene as close to the end as possible?"
19. Before writing anything, you should be able to tell someone the story (and
have it worked out so smoothly) that it's practically ready to write itself.
20. If, in the course of a screenplay Tom Dick and Harry need to be provided
with the same info, tell Tom and when we get to Dick and Harry, let's assume
that they've been told off camera.
21. Have another (nice) way of making a living while you're trying to make it
as a writer. This will give you space to grow and create without going nuts.
Waiting by the telephone is a prescription for despair.
Copyrighted 1999