Screenwriting is a skill and any time you learn a new skill, you’re going to make mistakes. Even though mistakes are inevitable, you must eventually learn from each mistake so you don’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
Unfortunately, far too many novices never learn this basic principle. Instead, they make a common mistake and never realize how this mistake is simply holding them back. Perhaps the worst mistake you can make as a screenwriter is to rely on a specialized screenplay word processor to make up your story.
Every screenwriter needs a screenplay word processor like Final Draft. However, the purpose of specialized screenwriting word processors is to help you format your screenplays. Yet all those fancy formatting standards for screenplays will be utterly useless unless you have a story worth formatting in the first place.
What too many novices do is try to make up their story and format it at the same time. By trying to do two tasks at the same time (make up a story and format it), they’re likely to do neither task well, which will only result in a mediocre story at best.
Rather than make up your story and format it at the same time (which is like trying to drive a car and pave a road at the same time), separate these two tasks.
First, make up your story. You can do this with paper and pencil or any word processor. The goal is to create a compelling story without the restrictions and constraints for screenplay formatting. Create a great story and tell it to others for their feedback.
If someone’s eyes glaze over with boredom as you tell your story, that’s valuable feedback that shows you need to improve your story. You want to tell a story so well that it will grab someone’s attention and hold it from start to finish. After hearing your story, you want people to give you honest and sincere compliments that they wish they had come up with that idea first.
The more feedback you get from others, the stronger your story will get. Tell your story to others and watch their body language and reaction. Write your story down and let others read it and comment on it later. The more feedback you get, the stronger you can make your story. Only when your story is consistently grabbing people’s attention can you move on to the second step of formatting your story as a screenplay.
Now compare this method to the typical novice method of just making up their story and format it as they go along. Think that story will be interesting from start to finish? Think it will be logical with plot twists and surprises that make perfect sense in hindsight? Think the story will even be interesting at all?
That’s exactly where most novices fail. Instead of taking time to make up a great story, they rush too soon into formatting their story, which is usually the first idea that pops into their head as they charge forward writing scene after scene with no idea if their story even makes sense, let alone grabs and holds anyone’s attention. This is a sure recipe for failure and this is the recipe far too many novices follow by trying to make up their story and format it at the same time.
So take time to make up your story first using paper and pencil or any word processor. Only when you’ve created a great story should you then worry about formatting it as a screenplay.
If you can avoid this common trap of making up your story and formatting it at the same time, you’ll avoid the most common and most limiting mistake of screenwriting. Remember, focus on making up the best story possible. Then focus on formatting it correctly as a screenplay.
Screenwriting consists of making up a story and formatting it as a proper screenplay. If you fail to take the time to make up a great story, you’ll never write a great screenplay. It’s that simple.
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