If you are just about to embark on a screenwriting adventure, it’s crucial to know the right screenplay structure. The script structure for film and TV is very different to theatre screenplay. If you send your finished manuscript in the wrong format to anyone in the film/TV industry, it will be instantly dismissed for looking…
screenwriting
Is Putting Yourself in Your Character’s Shoes a Good Development Choice?
I’ve been thinking about characters a lot recently. Usually, that type of free association wondering opens up a gate to my favourite way of developing projects and ideas: asking questions. How, as writers, we create characters, build them, nurture them, find stories for them or simply let them go when there isn’t enough love to…
Writing Down the Bones
“Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg is one of my favourite books. I’ve read it several times and each time I re-read it, I seem to discover something new, exciting, and inspirational, while expanding my understanding of the writing process even further. Natalie’s spiritual approach to writing resonates with me on so many levels;…
How to Build/Create Your Character’s Bible?
Building a characters’ bible is always optional and not an essential element of the screenwriting process that could ever stop you from getting started on your script. Not every screenwriter creates the characters’ bible, just like not every screenwriter works with an outline or a treatment. All those screenwriting tools can speed up the writing…
How to Incorporate Characters Secret Life into Your Screenplay?
The character’s secret life illustrates all that happens to them before the scene or the film/story begins. Knowing your character’s secret life is intended to assist writers in creating engaging and authentic characters. Even when you develop the fascinating secret life for your character, keep in mind that most of that will never make it…
The Devil Is in the Details
I’m sure we all know this phrase, and many writers and screenwriters talk about small details that distinguish characters from one another and make them unique, one of a kind, memorable and most importantly, authentic. Giving the characters small details will make them come to life. The characters that have minor quirks are automatically much…
How to Create Compelling Characters?
I hate when someone tells me that the characters, which I created aren’t compelling without giving me any specifics in which way they aren’t compelling, or not offering any words of wisdom that would help me turn things around for my protagonists. Such useless feedback is just garbage that confuses writers, shakes their confidence, and…
Can Your Story Surprise and Be Inevitable at the Same Time?
How many times have you seen a film and could easily predict what was going to happen next? The plot was unsurprising, the characters unoriginal, and it felt like you’ve seen that story many times over. Of course, no one wants to write predictable stories with flat characters, but sometimes the pressure from other people…
What Is the Theme of Your Story?
The protagonists’ stakes and obstacles give the audience the reasons to care for the story and the hero, while the theme depicts what the story is really about. In screenwriting, the theme adds another dimension to the stor As a filmmaker/writer, you don’t need to explain your theme to your audience. However, the story’s theme…
Until There Is Drama, There Is No Film
For the story to work dramatically, all the screenplay elements (stakes, external antagonist or obstacles, intimate opponent, actions the characters take or avoid taking) need to be visible for the audience from the start of the film. The only storytelling element that can be slightly delayed is the hook. But the hook still shouldn’t be…