If you are serious about being a screenwriter, start your second script right away. I promise that it will be much better than the first one. As a screenplay consultant I watch my clients improve their writing with each new draft, after receiving my notes. When you are close to a project it is often difficult to see it objectively.
The most successful writer I ever represented as an agent came to me after having written eighteen original screenplays and three novels. He said, “The first eighteen were awful. I'll never show them to anyone.” The screenplay that he did give me was wonderful and I sold it to Disney Studios within a month for $750,000. That was the beginning of a young writer's career that was like riding a rocket.
It may not be necessary for you to write eighteen screenplays, but my point is that it takes a lot of time, practice, and dedication to become a good writer.
I cannot explain to you about “creative juices” “writer's block” “down time,” “being dry,” or “being on a roll.” You will feel them, or not. This is a field of dedication and self-motivation. It's up to you to sit down and do the work. There is no glamour when you are alone in a room with a computer and silence. The glamour, excitement, and big bucks come later after you have learned your craft and made that first and second sale.
You need tenacity to make it as a writer. There is no other way to become successful in this field than to hang in and continue to write and write and write.
Something must take place in your mind, heart, and brain if you are to become a great writer. You need the combination of your life experiences, daydreams, imaginings, and hopes. You will need to call upon your moments of despair and elation as well as all of the emotions you have felt throughout your life. It will help to remember the conflicts and feelings of people you know as well as your own. All of these events will give life to the characters that you create, make them real, and make them resonate with truth. Even wacky comedies and horror pictures need to have some underlying meaning to them to make them special enough to produce.
I also recommend that you get out of the house and experience life as much as possible. Travel, meet people, and see new sights and cities. Taste new foods, hear new music — use these resources for your work. The knowledge you will gain will make a tremendous difference between you and others who wish to be writers. Great scripts have honesty in their characters. The all-important character arc and the theme of your piece must speak to the human condition. This will set you apart from the average new writer.
Okay, now you've taken those classes, learned the basics, purchased the proper computer and screenplay-formatting program, and you have finished your first screenplay. It's time to look within yourself to see whether this is still the career that you choose. If it is, then it is time to go back and do it again.
When you begin your next script, you will have so much more to give it than that first one or second one. I believe that if you have chosen a genre that you love, you should write the next one in that same genre. Conversely, if that first genre wasn't a good fit, then try another. To perfect your area you need to keep going until you find it. Whatever genre you feel comfortable with is the one you need to work on again.
1. Write a one-act play.
2. Using the same plot, write it as a short story.
3. Use that idea as the basis for a screenplay.
4. Rewrite that screenplay three times.
5. Buy a book on screenwriting and read it twice.
6. Work out five to ten different story ideas for your next projects.
7. Sign up to hear a professional writer speak.
KICKIN’ IT UP A NOTCH 3
Getting a screenplay down on paper is difficult, there's no doubt about that. Making it great is even harder. However, if you don't try you may end up living in mediocrity, and you will never get the kudos and rewards of a successful writer.
A great screenplay and film has “legs.” That means that people will want to see the movie over and over again. They might want to bring their friends, or rent the film on DVD, or purchase a copy to own. A great screenplay has meaning beyond the ability to entertain. Even romantic and teen comedies can have depth and wisdom without sacrificing humor.
The secret for writing a great screenplay is not in finding the most unusual story — it is in writing up to the high standards described in the following pages.
CHARACTER ARC
No one wants to stay with a film or screenplay if the main character does not grow internally, does not learn something important about himself, and does not become a better, smarter, or more lovable person. Whether the film is Booty Call or Pride and Prejudice, you will notice the growth of the main characters and love them for it.
UNDERLYING THEME
A great movie is not about the plot. It is about what is going on beneath the surface. It is about something emotionally important or deals with a universal problem of great significance. Jim Carrey's Mask is about the insecurities of all people. It is about the main character's feelings of inadequacy and personal fears. You must find a way to touch something that can tap into the collective and often unconscious needs of people in general. Even the animated classic, Bambi, is about all of our fears of abandonment. As a writer you need to know what you are trying to say about the human condition. Without becoming preachy and pious you can impart wisdom and help people to understand themselves and others in a new and constructive way. You have the ammunition to educate as well as entertain. This will set your script apart from the masses of material that are spewed out every year. Take the time to understand your characters and know why they do what they do. The psychological aspects of a story need to be dead-on.
DIALOGUE
I heard that it was the great actress, Helen Hayes, who once said “If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage.” Nothing in a screenplay is as bad as boring dialogue. You must learn to write characters who speak with unique voices. They must jump off the page with personality, wit, and exceptionally clever ways of saying things. Each character in the piece needs to have a distinct personal quality and voice.
I've always hated screenplays that make me go back and forth from where I am reading to the opening sequences that introduce the characters. If I can't remember which one is Sally and which one is Susan, you haven't done your job. Find the inner core of each important character and have them speak in their own distinctive manner.
PACING
If your pacing is slow, or worse, if it is repetitive, you will lose your reader in just a few pages. Keep moving the story forward like a shark in the water, never stopping, never holding back or over-analyzing itself. If the reader's mind starts to wander at any point in your story, then you have lost a sale. If you spend too much time describing where people are or what they are wearing or the weather, you will lose your pace. Let the characters maintain the pace through their interaction with one another.
LIKABILITY OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS
If readers care about the people in the story, they will want to go forward with the script. Likability is more difficult to explain than it appears on its face. Sean Penn's character in