There are thousands of screenplays registered with the Writers Guild of America every year. Anyone who takes the time to learn the proper formatting or plunks down the cash for a screenwriting program can write a screenplay; it is something else entirely to write a GOOD screenplay. This article will outline the areas a writer needs to focus on to avoid many common mistakes and help them write the best screenplay they can.
You’ve taken a course or read a book, or found a great resource online that has given you instruction on how to format a screenplay, and you are ready to begin. You have your idea written down, you’ve spent time developing it, and you are ready to write it. How do you make sure that what you write is any good?
There is something to be said for talent. To a certain degree, a person either has a talent in a particular field or he doesn’t. Writing is no exception, but the good news is that in addition to being art, writing of any kind (but specifically screenwriting) is a craft, which means it can be learned.
Visual Medium
First and foremost, screenwriting is a visual craft. You are writing in chunks of a story called scenes, each of which has to communicate a number of vital elements to the reader, the director, and ultimately, the viewing audience. Each scene has to indicate who is in it, where it is, when it is and what is happening. As simple as it sounds, communicating these elements in a lean, creative and entertaining way is the challenge.
What’s the point?
Like any story your script has to have a point. Not a moral, per say, but a reason someone is going to put down their hard earned dollars to see your story in a theater. Often this point is defined by the movie’s genre, or vice-versa. Is the story about a man and woman who’ve fallen out of love? Is it about a super soldier facing his nations gravest threat? Is it about a scientist more in touch with his mechanical creations that his family? If you can’t accurately describe what your story is about, you are not ready to write it. Spend time figuring this out before you type FADE IN.
Character
Once you know what your story is about, its time to people it. What characters are going to be carrying out your will in the script? Some or all of them may have come up while you were figuring out what your movie was about, or may have even been the inspiration for the story in the first place. It has been said that there are no new ideas, which could apply to both the point of your story and the characters you create. While this very well be true, you can always tell your story in a unique way. Taking Star Wars for example, the characters of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Darth Vader are all archetypes of classic characters, but it’s hard to deny that George Lucas didn’t put his own stamp on them when he was writing the screenplay.