Screenwriting: 6 Points to Ponder When Writing Your Screenplay

Writing a screenplay from scratch, or converting a previously published novel into a screenplay, may seem like particularly daunting undertakings. Of course, the task ahead is not easy, but concentrating on the most important factors while writing your screenplay may increase your focus, and eventually, the likelihood of a sale.

According to Albert Lopez, a filmmaker based in San Francisco, there are six main things every aspiring screenwriter must keep in mind while working on a screenplay. They are the most important points because they are the most basic elements of any script. In no particular order, these are:



1) Know where you’re going.

2) Don’t use dialogue as a crutch.

3) Give characters playable actions.

4) Maintain structure/format.

5) Create obstacles for your main characters.

6) Second acts are hard to write.



Know Where You’re Going.

You need to know where you plan to go with your story. Knowing your denouement before you begin writing your screenplay will give you direction to complete the arduous task that lies before you. Having this focus helps propel your screenplay toward your goal – getting your characters to the place you always intended them to reach in your glorious final scene(s).


Don’t Use Dialogue as a Crutch.

Do not use dialogue to tell your story. Dialogue is used to build characterization – to establish your characters. “On-the-nose” dialogue should be avoided. Take, for example, a married couple arguing in their kitchen. The wife should not say, “I hate you. I am so mad at you. You never help me out around here. You make me feel invisible.” Instead, she enters the kitchen, tight-lipped, approaches the sink, starts rinsing dishes, and says, “Did you take out the trash today?” She full well knows the answer to that question!


Give Characters Playable Actions.

Provide your characters with something to do while they are talking. Let’s look at the husband and wife in our dialogue example. Through the subtext of the wife’s actions, we understand she is mad. It is also possible, with playable actions, to see that her husband truly does behave in a way that makes her feel invisible. How? Is he sipping juice at the breakfast bar while reading The Wall Street Journal, flipping pages as she enters the room, not even bothering to look up as she enters? Or is he unshaven, lounging on a futon in front of the television, surrounded by half-empty chip bags, failing to acknowledge his wife as she returns, haggard, from her job? The characters actions help drive the plot and establish the back story.


Maintain Structure/Format.

One cannot stress enough the importance of structure and format when writing a screenplay. These factors can be the life or death of your script. Structure is important because a screenwriter must know a basic outline of the script in order to get characters where they need to go by the end of the script. What is the destination? At what physical place or emotional state is your main character to arrive? Your screenplay must have structure to get her there.

Formatting your screenplay properly is vitally important. Many studios and producers will not even read a script that is not formatted correctly. If you need help getting started, Mr. Lopez recommends the book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, by Sid Field. This book details the “how” of the technical aspects of writing your screenplay: structure, format, plot points, scene headings, and much more. For example, did you know your screenplay needs to be in Courier font, or that preparing it in Word is one flag of an amateur? If you have a budget of a few hundred dollars or more, there is an excellent selection of screenwriting software on the market, including Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, and Sophocles.


Create Obstacles for Your Main Characters.

Give your main characters goals, and place obstacles in their way. Your main character(s) must be opposed by a strong force in order to gather the empathy of readers and, if all goes as planned, moviegoers. A period of testing is imperative for your protagonist. Most of this testing that stands between him and his ultimate goal will occur during the second act. This is part of why it is vital that a screenwriter knows her ending upfront. You can put obstacles in front of a goal only if you know the location of the goal.


Second Acts are Hard to Write.

Death, taxes, and the second act slump…trite but true. Act Two is the most difficult one for any screenwriter. This is the act where the most events are happening, and hitting a “slump” is natural and quite normal at this stage. Work through it, and try not to torture small animals or loved ones at this stage. (No husbands were harmed in the making of this film…I digress.) Your heroes are still dealing with the same problems set up in Act One. In Act Two, however, the journey is more difficult. Adversaries and obstacles arise in full force during Act Two. The tension is mounting throughout the second act, and it is up to you to sustain it. No pressure.

You know the basics. You have the talent. Now go write that screenplay!

Screenwriting: 10 Top Tips for Writing your Screenplay

If you want to learn how to write a script, there are a variety of books and programs to teach you. Reading top books will give you a ton of useful information to help you take your story from simple idea to full-fledged screenplay.

Perhaps, you want something a little simpler than that. Rather than a whole book packed with ideas, you want a concise list, a limited number of things that you can keep in mind whenever you are writing. I present: 10 Top Tips for Writing your Screenplay.”

Any top ten list is likely to be fairly arbitrary, and this one is no different. However, I will bet that if you were to ask a hundred good screenwriters for their top ten, most of these on the list would be their first priority.


So whether you are a first timer looking at a blank screen and wondering how to get started, or have already written several screenplays, taking heed to these fundamentals tips can help you produce better work.

Film is a visual medium
Writing a screenplay is fundamentally different to any other form of writing. Why, you ask? Answer: Film is a visual medium.

For the past year or so I’ve been part of an online writing community. This has given me the opportunity to read a lot of other people’s work. One item that stands out in many otherwise decent screenplays is that they are not written in a primarily visual way.

• Too much dialogue – many screenplays are plagued by a surfeit of talking head scenes, where there is nothing visual happening, nothing for the audience to watch.
• The description is too detailed, too dense – a screenplay is not a novel. Keep descriptions short and sharp, giving just the essence of person or place.
• Show your story, don’t tell it – if we can’t see it, then don’t bother writing it. Thoughts and feelings can only be conveyed by what a character says or does.

Keep it short and sweet
There are clear parameters for what constitutes a screenplay. If your manuscript runs over 120 pages, most editors won’t hassle reading your masterpiece. So be succinct and cut the unnecessary words. Eliminate the fat! Point made?


Come in late, leave early:
One way to keep your screenplay to a good length is to come into a scene late and leave early. What that means is that the audience joins the action when it’s already running, and leaves the moment the relevant action is over.


For example – if your hero is attending a job interview, you can join the scene with the interview already underway, and leave while your hero is still in the interview – you don’t need to show her coming in, saying hello, being introduced, etc, etc.


Write what you believe in
This is something so obvious it’s amazing how many people fall foul of it. Try to write a story that you are passionate about – do not predict what the market wants.

The film that is playing at your multiplex today was probably shot 12 months ago and written four years ago. Trying to catch the wave based on what you think Hollywood wants is a waste of your time and effort.


Format like a professional
There are two ways to format – right and wrong. Either use screenwriting software (e.g. Final Draft) or buy a good book on formatting, and learn it inside and out.


Strong opening and big finish
Many editors or producers read just the first ten pages of a screenplay. If you haven’t hooked them by page ten, your chance of being accepted is slim.


This means, your opening has to be so good, that they will want to read the rest of the screenplay to see what happens next.

After a strong opening, the next important part to cap is the ending. If a reader is still interested after the first ten pages, they will often skip straight to the end to see how the story finishes.

The best description I’ve heard of what constitutes a “good ending” is to give the audience what they expect, in a way they don’t expect. People want a happy ending, where the hero triumphs, but they want to be surprised by the way the hero achieves it.


Conflict, conflict, conflict
One thing every good script needs is conflict. Conflict is the engine that drives a story forwards. The more the various characters are in conflict with one another, the more a chance that something interesting will happen.


Send your hero to hell
We want the hero to triumph, but we also want their triumph to be against the odds. You do that by throwing everything at them. How do you achieve that? Simple! In any given situation, think of the worst thing that could happen to your hero, and then do it to them.


Give an audience a reason to care
Strong characters are essential if you are to take the audience along. Nowhere is this more crucial than in your main character. Your main character needs to be:

• Sympathetic
• Vulnerable
• Believable
• Interesting
• Multi-dimensional

Too many stories fall flat because the main character is either unsympathetic (so we don’t care what happens to them), or less interesting than a subsidiary character.


Outline or die
There are several of ways in figuring out where your story is going. Some people write each scene on an index card, others use sheets of paper; some just type the different scenes out. Then there are those who write the screenplay based on a half page of notes.

My own recommendation is to outline as much as possible. Why? Just ask yourself – which would you rather re-write when you discover your story isn’t working? A 10-page scene outline, or a 120-page screenplay?

While paying attention to the above will not guarantee that you become a great writer, ignore them at your peril. The more you write, the more you’ll find what works for you – but paying attention to the basics will shorten your learning curve.