On the first page… From the very first moment, you – the writer — are responsible for what will appear in the frame of the picture of your film and in the imagination of your reader. Starting right after the words “Fade In,” you begin to create a world in which your story exists. From … More On Language in Scripts – Scenes and Narrative (Part 2)
Dialogue and description. Dialogue and description are the two functions the words in your script serve. How you choose to describe a scene and what you have your characters say are where your reader lives. They are the two elements that define the experience of your screenplay for the reader. Writing dialogue and description … More On Language in Scripts – Scenes and Narrative
What is a Story Beat? In a nutshell, a story beat — as opposed to an acting beat or a parenthetical beat used in dialogue — is a single scene. In other words, a story beat is single unit of dramatic action. The dramatic action of every scene begins with a character who has a … More Scenes and Story Beats
What makes a Scene a Scene…? In my last blog, I defined a scene as a unit of story in which a character has a clear want that s/he either does or doesn’t get because of a conflict with another character, and the result of that conflict in some way advances the plot of your … More How to Write a Scene (Part 2)
What is a scene…? In screenwriting, there are many different ways to define a scene. Some will say that it is an event, something that happens or a “unit of story” that takes place in a specific location. As soon as the scene changes location, it becomes a new scene. I would disagree with … More How to Write a Scene
The Hero’s Journey There has been tons and tons of great material written about Joseph Campbell and his Hero’s Journey. Here’s my take on his incredible work. It’s my attempt to simplify it down to its core ideas in “snackable” bites that are easy to comprehend. Joseph Campbell According to Me The hero’s story is … More Joseph Campbell: The Hero’s Journey (Part 2)
There are lots of ways for dialogue to be less effective than it should be. Let’s examine a few: Show, Don’t Tell Characters in a scene are trying to resolve a problem. If you’ve done your job well, the audience is right there trying to solve the problem with the characters. Rather than spoon-feed your … More Dialogue: The Do, the Don’t and the Out Loud
A person cannot speak unless he or she has had a thought. A person does not have a thought unless he or she has a need. That is never more true than in all dramatic writing. Characters in a script speak because they want something. Another way to think of it: the average person speaks … More Dialogue: Subtext
So, we’ve done a lot of talking about characters, who they are, how they function and what they add to your story. But how do you know you’re on the right track? Here’s a list of questions about your characters. If you can answer all these questions with clear, simple and specific examples, you’re on your … More A Character Checklist
In the 1920, Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic. He was mainly interested in narrative Folk tales as he believe that Folk tales were about the same basic struggles, therefore had the same characters. According with the Propp theory, characters have a narrative function as they provide a structure for the text. Let’s examine how … More Character Functions: Types of Characters
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