When most novices start writing screenplays, the first thing they do is rush out and buy a specialized screenwriting word processor like Final Draft. While such a tool is necessary, thinking a program like Final Draft will make you a screenwriter is like thinking that a program like Microsoft Excel will suddenly make you into a mathematical genius.
Don’t mistake tools as a replacement for talent and skill. Programs like Final Draft help you format a screenplay but until you have a story worth telling, all the proper formatting in the world won’t help you one bit.
To write a screenplay, you actually need to master two separate skills:
- Making up a story
- Formatting that story as a screenplay
The biggest mistake novices make is they try to make up their story and format it at the same time. This practically guarantees a weak, mediocre story told poorly and often formatted incorrectly as well. When you try to do two tasks simultaneously, it’s hard to do either task well.
A far better approach is to separate each task. First, make up your story. Second, format that story. This lets you concentrate on making up the best story possible and then presenting it in a compelling manner as a properly formatted screenplay.
Making up a story can be as simple as telling others your story idea. If other people’s eyes glaze over when you tell them about your story, you’ll know your story needs work. Likewise if people get excited about your story idea, that lets you know what part of your story is most appealing.
The key to making up a story is getting feedback from others. When telling stories orally, you can get feedback by watching the people who are listening to you. When telling stories as written text, you can get feedback from people who can read your story and tell you what they liked and disliked.
Making up a story is a process where you constantly modify your idea until it grabs people’s attention from start to finish and makes them wish they had thought of that idea first. When your story can entertain different people on a consistent basis, that’s when you’ll know your story is ready to be turned into a screenplay.
At the basic level, formatting a screenplay involves aligning different types of text properly on a page. At a more advanced level, formatting a screenplay involves deciding on the best way to tell your story as a screenplay.
Don’t look at formatting as just a way to comply with screenplay standards. Instead, look at formatting as different tools you can use creatively for telling a story.
For example, the Scene Heading format describes where a scene takes place such as inside or out, the location such as a bar or restaurant, and the time such as day or night like this:
INT. BAR – NIGHT
While functional, the above scene heading is plain and generic. Remember, a screenplay needs to take readers on an emotional journey so simply specifying the name of the bar can create a different emotional tone that’s best suited for your story like this:
INT. DOUBLE DEUCE BAR – NIGHT
INT. CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS BAR – NIGHT
INT. PART TIME LOVER BAR – NIGHT
Each name of a bar evokes a different vibe and the type of people we might see there. By using formatting as a creative tool, you can make every part of your screenplay standout rather than just settling for proper formatting on the page.
So the lesson for today is that you can get creative with formatting so that way it elevates your screenplay from the ordinary to the distinct. The second lesson is that if you try to make up your story as your format it, you’re likely not going to write an effective screenplay.
Start with your story first and when you get that finely polished, then worry about formatting it. All the formatting in the world means nothing if your story isn’t worth watching, reading, or hearing in the first place.
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