(Note: For this blog entry, I'm covering the first five commandments; next week, we'll post the last five
The New 10 Commandments of Writing Screenplays.
Writing Screenplays By Commandment
1. Entertain us…or it’s over!
Entertainment is the number one reason that people go to movies. Every producer and agent knows that. So it should be the #1 focus of your screenwriting. Become a master at making any character or situation entertaining and you’ll be a writer in demand.
To be blunt, if there is anything in your script that doesn’t entertain, fix it.
2. Make EVERYTHING more interesting.
The industry is filled with readers who are fed a gourmet diet of professional screenplays. If you want yours to stand out, it has to captivate their attention and cause them to forget that they are doing a job.
This should be an ongoing campaign of yours. Make your scenes more interesting. Make your characters more interesting. Make your dialogue more interesting. Make everything more interesting.
3. Give us a lead character we can’t stop following.
Professional screenwriters intentionally create characters we want to follow. They are unique, yet familiar. We can relate to them and want to go on the journey with that character.
In general, your protagonist should be the perfect person to lead us deep into this story and the conflict that is about to occur. Don’t settle for a good lead. Go for great.
4. Promise us something special…and deliver on it.
Somehow, you have to keep people reading until the last page. Here’s a solution.
About 15 years ago, I read a book called “A Story Is A Promise” by Bill Johnson. Since then, I’ve always looked at a script from the perspective of “What is the promise you’re making to the reader/audience and how do you keep it in a unique way?”
Essentially, you are promising some major achievement by the protagonist or some big confrontation that will happen in the 3rd Act between protag and antag. If the promise is strong enough, we’ll read every page to see what happens.
5. Show us deeper meaning.
Deeper meaning can be built into the plot, character, situations, actions, and dialogue of a script. It doesn’t have to be profound, just beneath the surface…and perceived by the audience.
Audiences and readers just don’t appreciate on-the-nose writing. Subtext gives them a chance to interact with the film. They have an internal experience of the story because they are interpreting what the dialogue and actions really mean.
Because of that, it is just as important to take care of the subtext of a story as it is to create the surface story.
Check next week for the remaining 5 Commandments of Writing Screenplays...
