Liana M. Silva

There are basically only two ways to embark on writing a screenplay. The first is to come up with an idea – usually a high concept one – and then start plugging characters into that idea. With this approach, often the title alone is enough to understand the entire story: Wedding Crashers (buddy comedy), Jurassic Park, (action/adventure), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (rom-com). All successful films, but in each scenario, the characters are secondary to the story idea. Imagine Twister or Jaws or Speed with completely different characters. The story does not change. The…

Usually the story really begins at the moment when the first character faces the difficulty that he or she has to solve, and it better be a clear difficulty, and he better realize that he must do something. Dramatic form means action, and action brings tension. So the awareness of the tension, and the clarification of what the nature of your tension is, helps to build the whole script.