They say everyone has a novel in them. But what if novels aren’t your thing? What if you love films?
We’ve all seen great films. We’ve all seen terrible films too! Ones where we guessed the ending after five minutes. Ones where the characters seem to move from one contrived situation to the next. They are the ones we come out of the cinema after and ask how on earth they got made! But the truth is that even the worst screenplay has been a labour of love for someone. Managing to negotiate all the notes and drafts that it will take to get from an idea to the cinema screen is a small miracle in itself – and that miracle is made a little bit easier if you approach the process with some kind of idea of what you are doing. A plan. The notion of sitting down at your computer and drumming out ninety to however many pages of a perfect screenplay might sound romantic, but it’s not that realistic.
Here is a guide on how to approach writing your first screenplay. Very much just this writer’s approach (there are lots). And very much designed to get you to that final page of your screenplay and on the first steps to commercial success in the screenwriting business.
- Become an expert
- Pick the right idea
- Pick the right antagonist
- The inciting incident
- Write your logline
- Write your tagline
- Break your story down
- Scene by scene
- Set realistic goals
- Upon finishing your screenplay
- Rewriting
- What’s next?
Become an expert
If you want to make something, it doesn’t hurt to look at how some other people have done it before you. Especially the ones that have done it incredibly successfully. Read the screenplay of your favourite film. But don’t just read it for pleasure. Read it with your writer head on. Look for how the writer has structured the script. When the pivotal turning points are. How they capture the character’s voice in dialogue. How they write action. The formatting of how it’s all laid out (or buy a software programme that does this for you!). If you have enjoyed the film then chances are someone else has too. And that means they are doing something right. Learn from this. And apply what you learn to your own screenplay.
Pick the right idea
You are going to spend a LONG TIME working on this. So make sure that the idea that you are going to make into a screenplay is actually something that you love. If you don’t love it then why should anyone else? Even when you think you have THE idea, make a list of five others. Then come back and see whether THE ONE really does stand out. It’s better to spend longer coming up with the right idea, than it is to rush to script and then realise you are thirty pages into a stinker!
Pick the right antagonist
Your antagonist will determine so much of your screenplay. The best protagonist in the world will still struggle to be part of a great story without an antagonist (or forces of antagonism) to match them. Be as detailed with your antagonist as you have been with your protagonist when planning.
The inciting incident
This is the end of act one turning point that sets up your whole screenplay. Without an inciting incident your protagonist could just carry on with their life. They wouldn’t be forced to go on a journey. Your inciting incident has to make your audience say ‘WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?’ and desperately want to turn the page to find out. The success of your screenplay depends on your inciting incident. It dictates everything that will come after. It should show us the protagonist’s fatal flaw and the thing they will have to overcome to truly change and succeed at their journey.
Write your logline
Distilling the whole of your film into one sentence. Tricky. But it also makes you focus on what is at the heart of your screenplay. A logline is like an elevator pitch. It also comes in handy when your friends and family members ask you why they haven’t seen you in a while and you say I’m writing a screenplay and they then ask you what it’s about. No one wants a twenty-minute synopsis. They want to know the bones. They want to know what is going to make them want to watch it. A rule of thumb for a logline is that it needs to inform the reader of the protagonist, the goal of the protagonist and the antagonist. But see this as a creative exercise. If your logline sounds dull and dry, then your screenplay might end up going that way too. Push yourself to really get that single sentence singing. Test it on people. When they ask you to tell them more then you know you have something worth continuing with.
Write your tagline
A tagline is that killer sentence that you see on a film’s poster. It’s provocative. It makes you think. It makes you wanna put down your money and see that film. If you’re struggling to write a tagline for your script it probably means your idea isn’t the one to develop into a full screenplay. Make sure you see this as a creative exercise and really push yourself with it. It can also unlock a key theme of your screenplay which will be helpful to remember when your imagination is taking you off on a million different paths as you are writing.
Break your story down
When you think about how many pages you have to write it will make your head hurt. So don’t. Break your story down into smaller chunks. This will also help you with the most important part of your screenplay: the structure. Everyone approaches structure in slightly different ways. And there are a myriad of books you can read that will go into far greater detail on this subject. So let’s just stick to the structure I use and keep it simple for this example.
I write in 5 acts. This is really just an extended version of the traditional three act structure of BEGINNING / MIDDLE /END – and that goes back to Aristotle and the poetics. But the beauty of extending that middle section into three acts instead of one is that it gives you smaller chunks to break your story into. And more turning points to write towards. The smaller the section the easier it is to achieve your goal of finishing it. With each section completed the end goal of having a whole screenplay finished looks much closer.
The way I write each act has a theme. Each one of them propels my protagonist forward in terms of them having to make decisions and change as a person to achieve their goal. This means that I know that they are always active. ACTIVE. Not reactive.
ACT 1 – Call to action
This act sets up the protagonist and the world they live in and what their flaw is. Then at the end of the act we have our inciting incident.
ACT 2 – Dream stage
The protagonist tries to deal with the fallout from the inciting incident, but does it in a manner that means they don’t truly have to change. This looks like it might succeed for a little while but then the second turning point comes and means they have an even bigger decision to make.
ACT 3 – New World
This act can really be split into three smaller sections. Experimenting pre-change / midpoint / experimenting post-change. The midpoint is the moment of truth, when the protagonist actually makes that decision to change, try to conquer their flaw – and, in some metaphorical way, become a new person. But obviously this has consequences. That takes us to our act three turning point.
ACT 4 – Crisis
This act is where the forces of antagonism should grow to the point that it seems that no matter what our protagonist does, they will fail. The greater the forces of antagonism, the greater our protagonist is going to have to work in act five to overcome them – and the more rewarding the screenplay will be to our audience. The act four turning point should be huge. Not always in terms of action but emotionally. If you look at a lot of films you will note this is usually the moment that someone dies.
ACT 5– Final Battle
The final battle between our protagonist’s old self and the new. Will they give up after everything that’s happened in act four and just return to their old life? Is that even an option? Will our audience like them if they do that? Probably not. Whether our protagonist succeeds or fails in their journey we want to see them put it all on the line in this final act. It needs to reward the whole journey that has taken us to this point. Then finish off with a brilliant ending that we don’t guess but feels like it was the only ending that this screenplay could ever have. It was inevitable – but surprising at the same time.
Scene by scene
When you feel you have a couple of solid, working paragraphs for each act, work through each one and break it down into a scene-by-scene (little cards and a whiteboard are handy for this, as you can easily add them, remove them and move them around). Don’t just stick to your first structure either. This is a really important part of setting you off in the right direction towards finishing your screenplay. Test every choice your character makes. Make sure every obstacle that you have placed in the way of them getting to their goal keeps ratcheting up the tension. Make sure every turning point that ends an act creates a moment where your audience is asking ‘WHAT HAPPENS NEXT’ and can’t wait to get to the next scene. Get excited about your scene-by-scene, write it with as much wit and charm as you hope to write your script.
Set realistic goals
Now you have a roadmap for your screenplay and you’re ready to start writing. But it’s always better to set realistic goals for how long that is going to take you to write. If you can only grab an hour every couple of days in the evening after work then set yourself the goal of completing five scenes a week maybe. Or ten. If you have more time maybe you can complete an act a week. This is not a race – and no prizes are handed out for who writes the quickest script. So be kind to yourself when you make your plan. AND STICK TO IT.
Upon finishing your screenplay
You’ve written the magic words FADE OUT. And the script is finished. Treat yourself. Go out. Enjoy the world again. Feel proud of yourself. DO NOT THINK THIS IS THE FINISHED ARTICLE. This is just another milestone that you’ve ticked off. Now the real heavy lifting begins. But don’t worry about that yet. Have a couple of weeks off. Put your script in a drawer. Forget about it.
Rewriting
When you do come back to your script you’ll have fresh eyes. And you’ll also feel a sense of pride that might make you lie to yourself about certain moments that don’t work. Be brutal. If you have an inkling something isn’t working it’s probably not.
Ask yourself: have you overwritten the dialogue in a scene? Cut it back if so. Does some of the dialogue feel like people just explaining things to each other rather than speaking like actual human beings? Cut it. Rewrite it. Make it better! Look at your protagonist again. Are they really being pushed to achieve their goal? Can they be pushed further? Make it tough for them. Try out different paths. Ones with bigger obstacles. Are all the other characters in your screenplay actually people or just devices to get your protagonist from a to b? Give them each something idiosyncratic that marks them out from anyone else in your story, and that way actors will want to audition to play them as well as your main character.
Keep on doing this, for every minute detail. Test every decision you (and your protagonist) have made until you simply cannot test it any further. Then – put the script back in the drawer for week. Come back to it with even fresher eyes and do it all again. You might only get one shot of someone reading this script. So make sure that it’s’ in the best possible shape when you send it to them.
What’s next?
Now your screenplay is finished you need to make your approaches with it. Most studios, production companies and agents have details on their websites that let you know if they will accept unsolicited scripts and where to send them if they do. There are also hundreds of script competitions that you can enter your screenplay in (be aware some cost money). But as much as you should be trying to place this screenplay, you should also be planning for what you are going to talk about if you do get that all-important meeting with someone and they want to know what you want to write next. It’s very rare that someone’s first screenplay gets made, so having a clear plan of your next steps is a great idea. Maybe you want to write a more ambitious film. Maybe a different genre. Maybe you never want to write anything ever again! Know your next move – and know it before you sit down in a room with someone who might be able to make it happen. You are a writer now. You have written. It must be so.