Script Tips

First 10 Pages: 5 Major Rules

When it comes to the beginning of your screenplay, I’m a firm believer in letting the ending dictate the correct beginning.  If you know your character dies in the end, it makes sense to use that profound piece of knowledge to structure a suitable journey (both for your protagonist and your audience) to that tragic end.

Read more: First 10 Pages: 5 Major Rules

The Voice Over Value

Voice Over. Does it really improve your screenplay? Is it really the best way to bring out backstory? Does it really maximize how to reveal crucial information? No. Not really. Not really at all.

As a rule, Voice Over should be a last resort. Because it’s almost always a mistake, and for beginning writers it is always a mistake.

Read more: The Voice Over Value

Screenplay Evolution: Story or Character

Screenplays evolve essentially two ways: plot driven (often called High Concept), when a writer plugs original characters into a tailor-made plot, or Character Driven, in which the plot is born organically from the characters, usually an unforgettable main protagonist.

Read more: Screenplay Evolution: Story or Character

Make Us See It: Writing With Personality

Okay, so you’ve written a screenplay. It’s clear and concise, it flows well, it's easy on the reader - which is no small feat - but it's almost too clinical because it’s lacking any style.

You tell your reader things are happening visually, but you fail to engage us – to MAKE US SEE IT. And when I say that, I’m not just talking about the visual elements of a particular scene in your script. It’s more than that. It’s voice: style, word choice, rhythm, even the occasional tinge of sarcasm, etc. Simply put, voice is flavor, and often, a technically sound script can still be a bore to read because it has no personality.

Read more: Make Us See It: Writing With Personality

Exposition: A Little Crazy Goes A Long Way

You’ve heard it before: “Crazy is what crazy does.” True. Forrest Gump was a lot brighter than people gave him credit for. It’s also true that film is a visual medium. Action does speak louder than words; it’s what a character does that reveals the most to the viewer.

But there is dialogue. Your characters do speak. And although the screenwriter should take every opportunity to “Show! Not Tell”, even the most seasoned movie writer will find it necessary at times to incorporate exposition – almost always used to provide background information in order to help the audience understand an essential element of plot, character, or the world of the story.

Almost every movie has it, but not every film does it well.

Read more: Exposition: A Little Crazy Goes A Long Way