It’s easy to start a screenplay. It’s much harder to finish it. Starting a screenplay takes little thought or preparation. Finishing a screenplay takes a lot of editing and polishing. To increase your chance of completing a screenplay, here are some simple tips:
- Don’t start writing your screenplay until you know your entire story. Trying to make up your story and write it as a screenplay as you go along is like trying to fly an airplane at the same time you’re putting it together. Writing (formatting) your screenplay should be the last task, never the first.
- The first half of your story should introduce the story world while deceiving us initially. Then the second half of your story is what your story is really all about.
The first half of your story (the first 60 minutes in a two-hour screenplay) should create a mystery that’s only explained in the second half of the story. Too many writers charge right into their story in the first half and then wonder why they run out of ideas.
Consider “Die Hard”. The first half of the story leads us to believe the terrorists simply want to hold people hostage for a ransom. It’s only in the second half of the story do we finally learn the real story – the terrorists plan to blow up the hostages on the roof to create a distraction so they can steal corporate bonds and escape in an ambulance.
The first half of your story is all about Deception. The second half of your story is about what’s really happening, that’s often more horrifying than what we originally thought.
In “Don’t Breathe”, the first half of the story is about a young woman and her friends who break into a blind man’s home to search for money he’s rumored to keep in his bedroom. The second half of the story reveals that the blind man has captured a young woman who accidentally killed his daughter, and plans to impregnate her so she’ll give birth to a replacement child. When the blind man accidentally kills this young woman, his new plan is to capture the hero and force her to get impregnated to give him a replacement child.
Notice how the first half of “Don’t Breathe” is relatively tame but the second half is simply horrifying. By simply delaying the true story, you create greater suspense.
Look at how the first half and second half of the following movies dramatically change the entire story:
- “Die Hard” – We think terrorists just want to hold people hostage for ransom. Suddenly we learn that the terrorists plan to blow up the hostages on the roof to create a distraction so they can escape.
- “Don’t Breathe” – We think the hero is just getting breaking into a blind man’s home. Suddenly we learn that the blind man wants to keep a young woman captive so he can impregnate her to replace the child he lost.
- “Top Gun: Maverick” – We think the hero is just going to train some Top Gun pilots for a dangerous mission. Suddenly we learn that the hero is going to lead the mission and that he’s risking the life of his best friend’s son.
When creating your story, always focus on making the first half of the story seem fairly simple and harmless. Then make the second half of the story ratchet up the emotions to show us the real danger.
When you understand how the first half of your story deceives us and the second half of your story finally reveals the horrifying truth, then you’ll find that completing your screenplay will suddenly become a lot easier because you’ll know to tease the audience in the first half. Then slam them with the horrifying truth in the second half.
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