• E.M. Forster on STORY; “It has only one merit: that of making the audience want to know what happens next. And conversely it can have only one fault: that of making the audience not want to know what happens next.”
• A story must be the vehicle for emotion. Elements that contribute to an emotional experience are valuable: Those that don’t are probably disposable.
• Some ways to tell if your idea “is a movie”:
1. You can identify a protagonist with a strong desire or goal.
2. You can identify an antagonist (human or other opposing force).
3. The story can be explained in less than two minutes.
4. You have a great title.
1. You can identify a protagonist with a strong desire or goal.
2. You can identify an antagonist (human or other opposing force).
3. The story can be explained in less than two minutes.
4. You have a great title.
The Principle of Creative Limitation: The confines of story structure and genre enhance creativity rather than limit it. What would tennis be without boundary lines and net? “When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost—and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl.”
- T.S. Elliot.
- T.S. Elliot.
You must be able to identify what genre you are working in. You have to know if you’re building a boat, a house, or a pyramid.
Conflict is to story what oxygen is to breathing. After a few minutes a person will die without oxygen. A story will die just as quickly without conflict.
“Action is Character,” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Last Tycoon). Character is revealed in the choices the person makes under pressure-–the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation about the character’s true inner self.
The Story Labyrinth: A story is like a trap that we enter voluntarily. If the maze is too easy to get out of, the fun of finding your way through it will be lost. The solution should not be too simple, or the twist too obvious.
Confidence is the single most important quality in a principal character.
Avoid stories about “an average guy who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life.” Better to aim for interesting, militant characters with powerful desires and challenging goals.
The only sin a writer can commit is to bore the reader (and audience). To confuse the reader is to bore the reader. Bad grammar, punctuation, and format also bore the reader.
Screenplays are not novels, plays or poetry. Write only what can be seen and heard on a movie screen.
Understand Subtext -- the unspoken thoughts and motives of your characters. “A scene is never about what it’s about.” What we really think and believe seldom breaks through the surface except in moments of intense conflict. Don’t force your characters to stop and talk about their feelings.
Outline your story and invent a climax before you start writing pages. This is certainly more productive than “writing blind,” even if your outline and ending eventually change—as they most probably will.
Despite Ernest Hemmingway’s self-deprecating quote, “The first draft of anything is shit,” the first draft of your screenplay—no matter how rough--represents the most difficult, illuminating, creative, and exhilarating step in the process.
Is all about the great research, if you find yourself into a writer’s block sometimes means that you did not research enough. Research is the key to plots, characters and emotions. The core of the story relay on the amplitude of the research.
Writing is re-writing.
SCREENWRITING TIPS
