How to Write a Screenplay

NATURE OF MOVIE STORIES

We all have a basic of idea of what a story is.  But what kind of stories does cinema tell well?  Movies borrow from the arts, like painting, dancing (rhythmic motion) and photography.  Movies are very good at showing stories that move.  Hence, the name motion pictures.  Characters move through space to pursue visible and tangible goals and to overcome external or externalized obstacles. 

Let’s say you have an idea that inspires you to write a story.  You say to yourself that you want to write about “A woman who realizes her self-worth.”  You could explore this idea in any medium.  If the story is inspired by your life, it could take the form of a journal entry or you could write an anthology of short stories told from the perspective of your journal entries.  You could choose creative non-fiction and write the story as a memoir. 

Is there a story here?  Sure.  It has a transformation/change (going from lack of self-worth to developing a sense of self-worth) built-in. What might make this idea inorganic to the screenplay form is that the obstacles and events may be too internal.  If her epiphany about herself happened while thinking about life after a therapy session, the idea would translate much better into a novel or novella.  Fiction is a great medium to get inside someone’s head.  You are allowed to describe what people are thinking and feeling. 

Let’s stick with this story idea though.  Take the therapy idea.  You could tell the story through a series of conversations with her therapist.  The dialogue and the relationship between patient and therapist might drive the story.  A series of conversations?  Hmm, feels like a play.  Theater is a medium of words.

Now here’s the irony.  Although, technically a screenplay’s medium is words, those words are used only to describe what would be seen and heard in a different medium—film.  Other than dialogue, none of the screenwriter’s specific words used to describe character or action will ever be known by an audience. 

So screenplays consist of what can be seen and heard in a movie theater.  In screenwriting, you are limited to describing what we see and what we hear.  That’s it.  (And it has to be only what we see and hear right now, as we are watching the movie.)

Consider the prose sentence:  “Shirley thought about her therapist’s words.  And she was going to apply these principles the next time a guy rejected her.”

Here is a list of several differences between prose and screenwriting.

“Thought”—“thought” and “realized” have no place in screenwriting.  Nor does the past tense, except in a character’s dialogue.

“Going to”, “Next time”—Future tense is as irrelevant as “past tense.”  In screenwriting, it is improper style in an action description to write: “She will punch him the next time he sees her” or “If she moves, he will shoot her.”

“To apply”—There is no room for vagueness in film.   What does italics or quotes look like?  You can’t write, “Her body language indicates that she is not interested.”  That’s just telling us.  You must show us.  So after a character insults Jenny: “Jenny closes her book, stands up, and walks out of the room.”

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