Alfred Hitchcock said, “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” One college professor was fond of saying, with apologies to Kahlil Gibran, “Drama is humanity looking at itself in a mirror.” While scholars have pondered the exact nature of drama for centuries, both of these statements are insightful and accurate. In addition to stage plays, most movies and television shows are drama. So, if one hopes to write a screenplay, becoming a “drama queen” is a step in the right direction.

Drama consists of actors imitating human behavior to present a story that touches the audience and stirs their emotions. Although cultures sometimes force people to suppress their feelings, human beings want and need emotional stimulation. They love to laugh, to cry, and, sometimes, to be scared silly. “Reality” TV shows, such as Fear Factor, and action films, such as Terminator, go for emotions on a gut level. But plays and screenplays can add dimensions of aesthetics, intellect and, yes, morality.

Screenwriters Are Playwrights

For beginning screenwriters, it is crucial to know that the name of the game is screenplay and screenwriting is drama. This is perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of screenwriting. Too often people try to write screenplays as if they were writing novels. It doesn’t work. It can’t work.

Novels and plays are different art forms. They have different requirements. Novels are literature, “creative writing with recognized artistic value” that, typically, appears in print. Novelists write for publication. They describe and explain human behavior, forging a story for people to sit and read. Which is wonderful. to curl up with a good book is one of life’s great pleasures.

However...

Regardless of the medium for which they are written, dramatists design plays for performance. Moreover, screenplays are “blueprints” for film productions. Once a movie is “in the can,” there is no further use for the screenplay, and they are rarely published. When one does find screenplays in book form, they tend to look like stage plays. One can read them for content, but one could not make a movie from the script.

In fact, people who write drama create behavior:

• For actors to perform.
• For presentation on a stage or screen.
• For an audience to watch.
• For the purpose of presenting story that unfolds as if it were happening in real time

Screenplays have evolved over the past century as the means by which a writer presents a story cinematically. While stage plays are confined to the theater in which they run, screenwriters can take an audience anywhere. A hospital operating room. The Taj Mahal. An actor’s face. For that reason, screenwriting emphasizes visual images as the building blocks for its stories.

Film industry admonitions hammer home this point. “Screenwriting is show, not tell.” Also, “If it can’t go on the screen, leave it out of the scene.” Directors, producers and agents tend to advise, “If you can’t photograph something, cut it.” But perhaps the most effective way to bring home the point is to ask an individual, “Do you buy a ticket and go to the movies so that you can sit and listen while someone reads to you? Or describes and explains behavior to you?” In Glass Menagerie, the protagonist, Tom, talks about going to the movies to have adventures. It’s also the reason people go to see stage plays.

Many novelists, including greats such as William Faulkner, failed at screenwriting. They could not make the transition from narrative prose to drama, and the special needs of cinema left them cold. Novelists who succeed do so because they realize the difference and can handle both art forms. Forgive the repetition, but a screenplay is drama. It has to work as drama. If one simply writes novels and puts them into screenplay format, the script will be dead on arrival.

Some Steps to Learning Drama

Much depends on one’s location and what resources are available. It is true, however, that drama is hard to learn from books. One can get the basic theories, but experience cements them into the brain. The best bet is to live in a city which has a thriving artistic community or a college/university with an active theater program.

Taking college courses, such as an acting class, is a fine idea, and it can be great fun, but it does cost money. If one can’t afford classes, smaller towns sometimes have thriving little theater companies. Working with a community theater company is good, and backstage is just fine. (One often learns more behind the scenes than on the stage.)

If one lives on a mountain top or in the middle of a desert, libraries, the Internet, bookstores, television, and, nowadays, outfits like Netflix can bring instruction into the home. For example, one can get a PBS series such as Screenwriters and Their Craft or videos such as Finding Richard. The best home study materials, such as Finding Richard, focus on the actual work of drama, showing performers, directors and producers in action.

Does Screenwriting Require Formal Education?

At this point, the question often arises, “Do I need a college degree?” No. Film industry people do look at a writer’s education and take formal training as a sign of dedication and professionalism. But the value of education depends on how a person uses it. Education helps to develop skills and will make the work easier, but it is not a magic bullet. Ultimately, what counts is having an original story that works dramatically and cinematically.

To sum up, screenwriters need to understand three arts:

1. Writing
2. Drama
3. Cinema (Revealing a story through visual images)

It's okay to change the order. For example, one could gain a command of drama and then sharpen writing skills before taking on the challenge of presenting a story cinematically. One does need, however, at least a working knowledge of all three arts. Granted, it’s a lot to learn. That’s why it’s best not to worry about time limits. Crafting a good screenplay can take months, even years. You will be ready when you are ready. Fortunately, in screenwriting, patience, hard work and persistence lead to success.