Readers' Turn

We asked:

What's the most important thing you've learned about screenwriting?

The winner: 

If you are going to keep writing screenplays and trying to sell them, especially if you plan on dealing with agents and producers on a regular basis, it is vital that you take lots of garlic supplements to strengthen your stomach.

S.J. Stratford

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More of our favorite entries:

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The most important thing I've learned in screenwriting is to tell the story through pictures and action whenever possible, rather than dialogue. This has been a particularly difficult lesson for me because I began my career as a journalist and then moved into playwriting, both of which rely so heavily on the written word.

This isn't to suggest that dialogue is not important. It most certainly is. But film, of course, is a visual medium, not a linear one. Because so many writers are in love with their words---and I count myself in this group---we often try to tell the story rather than show it.

I have learned the hard way (from accurate criticism) that a look, a non-response, a certain gesture, can be just as, if not more, effective a way to communicate what I want to say than by putting it into words.

Thanks,

Paul McLaughlin

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My shelf is overloaded with screenwriting books. Most are filled with great information, but if there's one thing I've learned that makes my library investment worth it, it's: If the reader stops turning pages before they reach FADE OUT, you're sunk.

There may be a thousand and one tricks for keeping the reader interested in your screenplay, but if you don't successfully employ at least one on every page, you will not succeed in this business. Sometimes that means that you must include things in your spec script that you know in your heart will be shredded before the script ever gets close to the screen. It always means that you'll leave things off the page that you know must be included on later versions of the script. When you're done, a reader must be able to fly effortlessly through the document, wanting for nothing but the ability to read faster.

Sure, you have to have good structure and lifelike characters and good dialogue and all that, but you absolutely must go back through your script--page by page--to see where it bogs down and fix it. Hollywood readers are not four-wheel drive. If it gets a little rough, they quit. That's not an indictment, just an occupational hazard that the screenwriter must bear in mind.

Rick Grant

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The singularly most important thing I've learned about screenwriting is:  Put your hero up a tree and then throw rocks at him/her.

Commit random acts of literacy! Read & Release at http://www.bookcrossing.com/friend/vmprlvr 

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The most important thing I have learned about screenwriting is that everything changes when you go to shoot.

Alan Gorg

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What is the most important thing I've learned about screenwriting?

To persevere.

Rome wasn't built in a day; neither is a screenplay. And since writing a screenplay is the easy part, and marketing it to a producer and seeing it through to production, distribution and exhibition is the hard part, perseverance is the underpinning prerequisite. (On occasions it can even make up for lack of talent!)

Bruce Andrews

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The most important thing I've learned about screenwriting:
When a story comes to birth in my mind, I must write down each piece to the big picture, no matter where I am. I write it down on napkins, paper towels, newspaper borders, anything available to get a hold of the precious ideas. The story starts to consume my day and nightlife by thinking and dreaming about it. NOW, I must sit down at the computer and write, write, and write until it is finished. Then I'll rewrite, and again rewrite. I might think I exhausted my resources, but sure enough I find more changes to better the script.

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Be not afraid. The only success is the success you make. Dare I say place your unmentionables (those I'll refuse to mention here) out on a chopping block. Send that screenplay all over the place. Take friends by the hair and tie them to a chair to tell them your moving story of two sultry sister seducing the Sultan. The more people that read it the better the chance someone likes.

I know I don't need to mention this, but it takes work. Having balls of steel is only a small portion of the big picture. Knowing how to make it better is the secret little key to the secret little door guarded by that secret little man, H.Wood.

So to wrap it all up, Unmentionables, Chopping Block, Sultan, Work, Steel, Big Picture, Little Man. That's what I've learned.

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Scripts are made to be read, and hopefully to be shot. You write: it’s pouring, hard rain streams down his face, he shelters her from the storm (the reader throws up; the director knows he’ll likely have to shoot in sunshine). Don’t write impossible directions, or if you do to set a tone, make sure the scene works regardless, then you have a story.

James Rae - Writer/Translator

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Get in late, get out early.

Steve Cooper

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Leonard Kamerling, Professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks, teaches a screenwriting course. In this course he states that the most important aspect of any screenplay is its structure. I have found that any problems in a screenplay can be traced back to its structure. Without a well-defined structure, the characters cannot find their place; the action cannot proceed; the inciting event cannot occur.

However, this does not limit the screenwriter to the traditional three part structure. As long as the underlying structure is well-defined and apparent to the audience, the screenwriter is free to create his/her own structure. As long as it is there, and it is solid, the screenplay will work.

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Keep the action lines brief, the dialogue pithy and the page count under 110.

It's all about the white space, baby.

Cheers!

Sandy Payne

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