Advice.. Please.

[fighter25]

Ok so a little bit about myself.. I attend East Carolina University and am a double major in Musical Theater and English-concentration-script writing. and I want to perform and/or write scripts.. Well I asked the play write professor at ECU to give me some advice.. and he never came around to it.. so I'm just going to copy and paste the email I sent him.. hoping that you guys can help me.

"The Fall sounds good. I thought about what I wanted to do once I leave ECU.. in the next 3 years.. haha. But I would love to get into NYU TISCH, UCLA, or USC to get my MA degree in Play/Screenwriting, and the reason why I chose those schools is b/c not only am I a English Major but also a Musical Theater/Acting Major and those cities would be great for auditions. Plus I heard they all have really great programs. Do you know of any other grad-schools that would be good for me to attend? Also I want to start writing scripts, just to practice. I'm planning on taking your Intro to Play Writting class in the Spring 10' and most of the ENGL classes I'm signed up for are classes dealing with film and creative writing. Is there anything you would suggest I do this summer that would go towards play/screen writing? Any good books you suggest I read? Maybe try to write a script this summer and have you look at it in the fall? Everything I write, play scripts or screen plays, I would like you to evaluate them and tell me what I'm doing wrong/right. But I really need your help if I want to get into those schools I listed b/c of the portfolio I have to turn into them my Senior year, b/c I know how hard it is to get into those schools.. and I'm ready to dive into play/screenwriting."

Just act as if I wrote the email for you :)..
What books should I read?
How soon should I start writing?
Is Grad School needed? and if so are the three schools I listed good or are they just the schools everyone picks b/c thats all they've heard of when it comes to great schools for Film/Television.
Do you know of any other schools that offer MFA Play/Screenwriting?

I've noticed that I look at movies and plays diferently now than I use to. I try to pay attention to the style of writing used, and I always look up the person who wrote the script. This summer, I'm reading Shakespear plays, and buying movie scripts from ebay.. and following them as I watch the movies.. just to see how the script translates to film.
I think one of my weakest areas is vocabulary and just general knowledge about things, but I feel that my creativity is strong.. I guess I'm just scared..

But anyways any advice would help.. Thank You!

[alleycat]

Asking a professor to read and evaluate the work you do on your own is probably asking too much, unless he is willing for whatever reason (and generous with his time). I wouldn't do it if I were a professor.

There are a number of books on writing plays and screenplays. Your professor should be able to offer you suggestions, or you can check out those in your university library and see which one hit a chord with you. Also check the reviews on Amazon on these types of books. One I would suggest is The Screenwriter's Bible, which has a lot of information both on writing screenplays and on those tricky formatting problems that always seem to crop up. Another couple of books that are interesting are Save the Cat and Your Script Sucks! (that last one is more of a personal recommendation because the guy who wrote it lives just up the street from me). As always, the best thing of all to do is to write a lot, read a lot, go to movies and plays, and try to learn what works and what doesn't and why.

If you want to write this summer, try writing a play for the National Ten-Minute Play Competition. Also, maybe go through all the steps of writing a screenplay using the "formal method" (beat sheets and all that). This would be an exercise for your benefit, not necessarily you writing a screenplay you hope to get produced.

[Script a Wish]

I actually wrote a blog about whether or not film school is worth it. You can check it out at my site (link in the sig).

[icerose]

I'm probably the worst person to be answering this.

1. I have never read any books on script writing.

2. I have never attended any school for creative writing and definitely not script writing.

3. Everything I have learned has been through reading other scripts and getting critiques.

I am a sold writer. Nothing big, mind you, I'm just getting started. I've worked on the first season of an animated series as a rewriter/editor/writer on all 13 episodes. It is not yet in distribution, they are still producing the episodes. It is going to Cannes this year which I am rather excited about and am hoping this will mean I get my own IMDB page and the series gets distributed. Only time will tell.

If you want to write a script, the best thing you can do is...start writing.

There are many sites on the internet that have free scripts to read. There is a sticky at the top of this section of the forum that has links to many sites.

Formatting, once you get it down you have the foundation of your script. Then you have plot, character, dialog, pace and so forth that you have to master and do know it will take time. Writing is as much of an art as it is technical and you need to draw your readers in and hold them.

Once you have a script down on paper and you're comfortable with it, try posting the first ten pages. Often if you have glaring errors in the first ten pages, pacing, plot issues, bad dialog, and so forth, people can tell within the first ten pages and you'll most likely find them throughout. If you take those critiques and apply them to your script you'll find your writing skills have grown.

As you write, rewrite, and start new scripts you'll get the hang of it and it does become easier and the quality higher as you move along.

Good luck out there.

[Script a Wish]

I have to say I think it's important to read books about writing. Not as important as writing, or reading and analyzing scripts - but very important indeed. Every person has to study their craft - mathematicians, accountants, Olympic athletes, and writers.

[DevelopmentExec]

I have to say I think it's important to read books about writing. Not as important as writing, or reading and analyzing scripts - but very important indeed. Every person has to study their craft - mathematicians, accountants, Olympic athletes, and writers.

I think it's difficult to learn by analyzing scripts if you don't understand the basics of the craft you are analyzing - i.e. story, pacing, character, conflict etc. You may not catch the inciting incident if you don't know you should be looking for one.

I did go to film school and a large part of curriculum was crit based. We'd watch films and disect them to within an inch of their lives - under the guidance of professor's who drilled the elements of story and film into our heads over and over and over again. I don't think those classes would have been very valuable if we critiqued the films without someone there to TEACH us.

Whether you go to film school or not it's imperative that you understand the craft - if you are going to have any shot at success. Now there are people who innately understand drama and structure - but those people are the exception, not the rule and they are few and far between. And even they could probably improve their writing it they understood the craft elements so that they could consciously craft their stories

Writing in and of itself doesn't necessarily make you a better writer - not if you don't understand the craft and just making the same mistakes over and over again. I had a client who had written over a half dozen scripts and the last was as bad as the first, because he didn't understand conflict or character and took no measures to learn because he believed he'd write himself into knowledge. He just read one book that he didn't understand and then wrote in a vacuum.

STUDY the craft.

[Goodwriterguy]

STUDY the craft.
One should have a kind of standard in mind which they're seeking to achieve, a "model" of the perfect script, and keep studying and keep writing until their work satisfies this standard. To write any nunber of pieces without any way of perceiving growth in competence is, well, an unproductive approach to say the least. I want to get better at this, how do I measure improvement? How is improvemnt perceived?

It's no different from learning anything else, practice makes perfect but one does have to pay attention, keep their eyes on the ball, and apprehend the standards, which become goals.

Talent is hard work ... that involves a feedback loop.

Screenwriting is an apprehendable craft.

Study the craft, very good advice! :)

[Cyia]

STUDY the craft.


This needs to be in big giant letters burned into your memory.

The first script I wrote, I had no idea what I was doing. I wrote out the action like prose and the dialogue as:

Character: What the character says.

No transitions.

It didn't look pretty, but I got my story down.

Film school wasn't an option, but I found a book by a UCLA professor that showed me how to craft what I wrote into an actual screenplay. I took what I had and formatted it into 148 perfect pages... then I had to take a machete to it and whittle it down. Cut out the flowery stuff, make the dialogue natural. 20 pages of what I wrote were nothing but filler. The other 18 were like cutting off a limb, but the story is better for losing them. (I kind of wish I'd kept a copy of them, though.)

The point is, just writing is a great way to get the story out of your head and on paper - then the real work starts. You have to know the basics if you want it to be marketable and no one's born knowing the basics.

Get a class if you can, but at the very least look for guidance where you can find it.