Three secrets to being a good screenwriter

If you’re considering becoming a screenwriter…stop. No I don’t mean that you shouldn’t try and be a screenwriter. I mean stop considering and start doing. The difference between a screenwriter and a non-writer is just the decision to write. The difference between a great screenwriter and average screenwriter can be found in these three tips.

Write everyday
We humans are creatures of habit. So there is no better habit to get into for screenwriters than to write every single day. I recommend you write for at least ten minutes, but no longer than thirty. Sure you could write longer, but when you go to write again tomorrow, your subconscious is going to bring up memories of yesterdays two hour writing spree and say “No way…I’m not getting into that mess again”. Thirty minutes is the absolute max. If you have more to write, then that’s just a good starting point for tomorrow.

It’s also a good idea to write at a specific time everyday. Get up a little early, go to sleep a little later, or maybe just write for part of your lunch break.

Your plot affects the characters not the other way around.
The characters are the vital element of your story. The plot is only there to illustrate who your characters are. You should never make your character do something out of character simply to further the plot. At first this may seem difficult. There is something you may want very badly to happen, but if there isn’t a character in the story that could both make it happen and want to make it happen, then you’ve written the wrong story for the wrong characters.

Write fast and sloppy
Don’t try to right the perfect first draft. No one cares about the first draft. You’re screenplay may start out as an animated short about a lovable bear, and turn into a fierce suspense about hikers being chased by bears. There is no reason that anything you write be coherent, logical, or especially good, until you finish the first draft. There are only two requirements for the first draft:

1. It’s finished
2. It contains real words (mostly)

The desire for perfection is the cause of all writers block. You start to think “What should happen next…maybe the hikers could find an abandoned cabin…no that’s been done already”, when you should have just written “The hikers find an abandoned cabin”, and moved on. It doesn’t matter…write something….the hikers get hit by a bus…it doesn’t matter. You can always fix it. But just writing without judgment opens up the flow of creative juices. Who knows you may even mistype something, and the typo itself spawns a whole scene…but that won’t happen if you are staring at the blank screen.

In fact, I started this article with the title “The secret to being a good screenwriter”, and I only had one tip. Then I thought of two more, edited it a few times, and then fixed the title. There is a good chance I may even edit this article a bit after I published (followers of the site who pay close attention may have noticed I do that from time to time.)

I don’t know just who said it first, but its a common saying that “Good screenplays aren’t written, they’re rewritten”.

The simple method to write good scripts and beat writers block

After reading countless screenwriting books I constantly come across the same mantra:Write what you know. Its both good advice and the stupidest advice you can give someone. Frankly, if I watch one more movie about a struggling filmmaker trying to get his movie produced, I may just have to hurt someone. The fact of the matter is you can create interesting stories about things with which you have no direct experience…its just that the trick to making it work involves writing what you know.

Lets say for example, you want to write a gangster movie. You know, the type that Tarintino fans salivate over…a bunch of cool guys in suits, lots of guns, and witty one liners. Now the problem is, your a college kid in film school who works part time at a snowball stand. You’ve never even seen a gun, much less fired
one while wearing cool sunglasses. How are you supposed to write a cool gangster movie, and “write what you know”, when you don’t know anything about gangsters. I guess you’ll have to just write a movie about a kid at a snowball stand who can’t figure out how to write a good movie.

When it comes to good movies the important thing to realize is that the entire plot of movie - whether its a gagster movie, an action movie, a sci-fi adventure, or just about any genere - is purely a device to create and express interesting characters. This is known as a character driven screenplay. The important thing isn’t necessarily what the characters are doing, but what their actions say about who they are.

Consider, for example, Resevoir Dogs. The plot is essentially a robbery goes wrong, and they hide in a warehouse while trying to figure out what happened. If you were to write Resevoir Dogs, you really wouldn’t have to know hardly anything about how a bank robbery takes place, how guns work, or how the police would respond. Its barely even shown in the movie. Instead, the movie builds its following around the unique and interesting characters that form the team of bank robbers. The botched robbery is really only an external stimuli to force the characters into showing who they really are.

Mr. Pink is sniviling and self-centered. Mr. Blonde is a sadistic psychopath. Mr. White is a old professional trying to hold everything together when things are at their worst.

Making good films is all about the characters. Sure Hollywood can get away with big budget extravaganzas with characters as two dimensional as the cartoon frog on your cereal box…but you can’t. And until you have the budget to fly an F-15 into a dinosaur in the middle of downtown Chicago, your movies are going to have to be character driven as well. This is a good thing.

And that brings us to the major point of this article: How do we write what we “know” but still be able to write fun action movies, gorey horror flicks, or sci-fi epics? Well, as I said earlier, good movies are about characters…and you definitely know characters…I mean you do know people don’t you? How about your Grandpa…what would he be like if he was a mobster? What if your girlfriend/boyfriend was an undercover secret agent? What if you were an intergalatic smuggler and your boss was your biggest rival?

Essentially, start with some people you know as characters and begin applying some abstract stimuli to them - aka plot points. Using this method opens up the flood gates of creativity so much that the story essentially begins to build itself. You become less concerned with trying to come up with witty one liners, and more involved in what that person would really do. Of course, feel free to take some artistic license. If you base a character on someone who says “OMG, wtf, roxxor noobs!” after every sentence, feel free to tone it down a tad.

So to summarize the method:

• Start with a really simple concept: Lets say, an assassin is offered alot of money to kill someone she doesn’t want to kill
• Now put a person you know as a character and imagine how they would react. Ask yourself: What if my girlfriend was secretly an assassin, and she suddenly got offered a million dollars to kill me…how would she react? How would I react when I found out?
• Repeat: With every character you create, try and give that character some of the qualities of your friends, family, co-workers, teachers, etc. If you need someone really cool, think about someone you know who is really cool. Have the character talk and act like them. You’ll begin to find that eventually you find something so difficult to deal with that you know your “cool” friend wouldn’t be able to handle it…as long as you stay honest to the character, this is a good thing. Too many bad action movies have characters whose wife and kids are kidnapped for pretty much no reason, and the hero reacts as a text book vigilante. Maybe your friend who is normally cool would just fall apart in this situation. Maybe your cowardly friend might actually rise to the occasion and save the day. Just make sure you keep your characters honest and interesting.

The story begins to build itself… it is character driven