Screenplay: Writing Movie Scripts

Ever since they were invented, movies have entertained people throughout the world. Transcending all kinds of barriers such as culture and language, movies continue to hold audiences in their thrall.

Whether classics like Ben Hur, Gone With The Wind, or Singin’ In the Rain, or the latest ‘shoot-‘em-up’ blockbuster, all movies are based on movie scripts, also referred to as screenplays. Apart from an interesting idea, there is a lot more involved in writing a great movie script. A screenplay writer must use the idea to thread together a story that should get the audience involved in the story idea, whether the aim is making the audience think, cry, or laugh.

Screenplay writing is not an esoteric knack

With the movie industry continuing to grow, there is a corresponding increase in the demand for good movie scripts. This in turn gives rise to a demand for people who are capable of writing good screenplays. Many talented people find writing scripts for movies a creatively fulfilling job. As a screenplay writer, you can unleash your imagination to create enthralling scenes full of emotion or action, decide how lovers meet, quarrel, make up or part ways, create worlds full of alien creatures, and write dialogue that will be imprinted in the audience’s mind for years to come.

Despite the general impression, screenplay writing is not some sort of an esoteric knack reserved for some sort of cabbalistic group of people, but is a basic writing skill which can be learned by just about anyone who has a flair for writing. Hence, if you are one of those, here are a few screenplay writing tips that you should keep in mind when writing scripts for movies.

What is involved in screenplay writing?

One of the best ways of understanding what exactly is involved in screenplay writing is perusing movie scripts. This kind of study will reveal how ideas can be transformed into powerful movie scripts. These days, one can get access to all sorts of movie scripts, both new and old. For example, most libraries have a stock of new and old movie scripts, which are for the most part free of charge. Or, you could also become a member of cinema clubs, which most cities have, and make use of the movie script collection of the club.

Movie scripts comprise of scenes, which are strung together into a series of events, which in turn make up a whole movie. Hence, while writing a script for a movie, the story must be broken down into scenes, with each scene telling a little bit of the ongoing narrative.

A screenplay writer should control the structure of the scenes

The screenplay writer needs to establish what will take place in each scene. One of the best ways to do this is to develop a treatment outline, which will help in breaking down the script one scene after the other in a sequential manner.

As a screenplay writer you need to determine what the length of each scene should be. For example, a scene comprising of ten pages will last about ten minutes on the screen. Hence, if the scene is not that important to warrant such a long time on the screen, it should be shortened or even cut out completely.

Where each scene takes place should also be decided by the movie scriptwriter. On paper, each scene of a film script should begin with a slug line or a heading, which determines whether the scene takes place outside, which is spelt out as EXT., or inside, or INT. Also, which location the action takes place in such as ‘Living Room’ or ‘On The Street’, should be mentioned.

A good movie script should grab the audience’s attention

One of the fundamental things you need to do as a screenplay writer is to grab the audience’s attention early. You can do this by writing a script that plays around with the imagination of the audience. Once you have succeeded in grabbing their attention, continuing with the unfolding of the script will become much easier. You should write the script in such a way as to keep your audience wondering about what will happen next.

The best scripts always involve the audience as the narrative unfolds. For instance, audiences always empathize with great heroes, and get to detest villains for their dastardly actions.

Create believable characters

Pay heed to how the characters are developed by you. Refrain from creating ideal characters because such people don’t exist in reality. Everybody has flaws, such as faulty decision-making abilities and various other weaknesses such as ignorance, greed, the opposite sex, food, and so on. The flaws, in fact, are what make characters interesting.

As a movie script writer, you need to know everything about your characters such as their likes and dislikes, what they like to eat, how they react to various situations and so on. Once these aspects are established, remember to see that they are consistent about how they behave and what they say, according to their personalities.

Write movie scripts drawing from the human interest point of view that audiences empathize with involving issues like love, family, death, and life. Your screenplay should have a balance of both verbal as well as visual story-telling aspects. Also, keep the dialogue brief between characters, as long-winded dialogues are generally not liked. Each genre of script writing requires different techniques of treatment. Happy endings are usually received the best with audiences.

Irrespective of whether you write a movie script for a thriller, comedy, action, or drama, the key is to capture the imagination of your audience. Screenplay writers should also remember that writing a good script is just one half of the job, the other half is to market your work.

How to Write a Screenplay

A screenplay is a manuscript that details every visual, audio, conceptual, technical aspect and storyline of a film. In short, it is a movie written on a paper. It is about all that is played on a screen! It is the literary version of a movie, as seen from the writer's mind. Writing a screenplay and getting better at it is a long process. The basic requirements are a highly imaginative mind and a willingness to learn to write, adapt and work hard! This article is aimed at giving some tips on how to write a screenplay and start one of the most exciting creative adventures of your life. Read more on writing tips.

Tips on How to Write a Screenplay
A screenplay could be written for a full length feature film, it could be a short film screenplay or a soap opera screenplay. The basic writing style, for all of them, is the same in principle. The tips I give here are written with the assumption that you are writing a movie screenplay. So, let us get in to the crux of the matter. Let us see what all it takes to make a great screenplay and how to go about it.

Listen, Read, Watch, Absorb
To write any soulful piece of writing that captures a reader or a movie viewer, one must feel it, experience it inside. Great screenwriters and novelists are like sponges who absorb everything that they see hear and experience. The process of being a good writer starts with living life and minutely perceiving all its manifestations. Read as much as you can, watch as many classic movies as you can, listen to world music and enjoy all the forms of artistic expression. All this will help you in enriching the world within you, which will eventually come in handy when you start writing. Start with writing short stories, short plays and poems. To learn to write better, one must keep on writing. Read what you wrote and keep improving. Remember that the greats were also as clueless once, the way you are now!

Read Great Screen Plays and Learn How It's Done
Another thing that will help you in learning how to write a screenplay is, reading the screenplays of some of the greatest movies ever made. You must become a student of the movies and the movie business. See how the masters do it. The scripts of many great movies are available on line. Find them and read them. Look at the arc of the story, the dialogs and the detailing. Watch the movies, in detail. When you watch them first, watch them for the fun of it. Let the second viewing be a study of all the finer detailing that the movie has. Everything in every frame should be studied. Observe the quality of dialogs, the philosophy, camera angles, composition of scene frames, visual impact, smooth dissolving of scenes, story build up and make your own screenplay analysis. Making notes is also a good idea. They will help you later. Read more on creative writing.

Brainstorm Screenplay Ideas
You must spend a considerable amount of time in this 'Movie Study', as this will guide you once you start brainstorming for your own screenplay ideas. Brainstorming your own idea for a story, which will be the progenitor of your screenplay, is the first step. Once you get an idea, start putting it on paper, until you finalize upon one story idea.

Begin with the Story
Just like a journey of a thousand mile starts with the first step, a script or screenplay begins with the typing of the first words. It all begins with the story. I can't tell you what kind of story to write, but I can underline the characteristics that make a good story. Every good story has a 'conflict' in it. The conflict may be within people, within a person's mind or even a social conflict. A story connects a point A to a point B and how good it is, depends on how difficult, how intriguing and interesting the path from point A to point B is! It could be a comedy. The more the twists and turns, the better it is. If you are a movie buff, (which you must be if you are writing a screenplay), you will understand what I am talking about. The audience must be kept guessing of what happens next! Considering all this, write your story and rewrite it until you find it satisfying, by filling in as many details, as you can. Visualize your story, your characters in as much detail as you can. This will take many weeks and even months.

Understand all the Technical Aspects of Writing a Screenplay
Now that your story is ready, it's time to write and put the movie running in your mind on paper. Before that, understand all the technical aspects of how to write a screenplay! This is very important! If you have read movie scripts before, you'll have an idea. The screenplay is a series of successive scenes, each written with explicit detailing. This includes the time of the scene, the place, the graphic detail, background sounds and of course ultimately the dialog. There are certain rules of writing a professional screenplay like, one page of the script has the content of one minute of the scene! That way, most Hollywood movies being 120 to 150 minutes long, your manuscript should be 120-150 pages long. There are script writing software applications available now, that can take care of all the technical details, while letting you focus on quality of your script. Install one on your computer and learn how to use it.

Visualize the Story in Your Mind and Think in Terms of 'Scenes'
Keep the story in front of you and divide it into logical parts, scene wise. You can write a one liner outline for each part of the story and from that outline start writing your scenes. This way, you get an idea about the flow of the whole script.

Begin Writing The Screenplay, Scene by Scene
Start visualizing your story scene by scene and write one at a time. Explore all scenarios and settings while writing your scene. Give full reign to your imagination and see the things happening in your mind's eye. Let the dialogs be crisp, appropriate and as catchy as possible. Place yourself in that scene and think like the character and say what he wants to say in the best possible way.

First Draft, Second Draft, Third Draft
This is a long and arduous process of connecting every scene with the next and creating a coherent whole. The scenes need to be ordered and you need to ensure that the story is building up nicely. Once the first draft is done, you can start reading everything back again from the first scene. Polish and think about how you could write this better. This process is complex and may take months and your final draft may even be the eight or ninth draft!

Read it out to a Close Confidante or an Honest Critic
Once you think that that it is ready, give it to a close confidante for reading or a person who knows about script writing and movies. Take his opinion and note his suggestions. These opinions are very important, as a third person can point out errors or improvements which our biased self may not see. Again make improvements if you want. Once you think that it's ready after being evaluated by your inner circle of critics, including yourself, it's time to sell your script.

The Hardest Part: Selling your Script
Selling your script is the toughest part of all. Good creative writers are usually not great salesmen. However, you must learn to sell your script too. Get a literary agent or go and meet movie producers with your scripts. With a combination of true quality and a lot of luck, your script may land in to the hands of a good producer and director, who will then buy the rights of your script! Here is where you get paid for your month long or sometimes year of efforts! There is a one in a million chance that your script will be selected, but if it gets selected, it's all worth it! It is a tough profession to choose, but when it pays off, it pays off really well!