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Sunday 3 July 2022

Things to consider before writing a screenplay

 


Things to Consider Before Starting Your Screenplay

The lightbulb moment is invigorating. Few things beat that rush of excitement that courses through you when a movie idea hits you.

What follows is the urge to flesh out your idea because you believe you might be onto something special.

Here's some friendly advice: enjoy that moment because it's one of the perks of the creative process. But before committing to transforming that idea into a full-on screenplay, tick these boxes first.

 

1. Test Your Idea

Understand that some ideas are nothing but ideas and will not thrive on-screen, while others are genuinely screenplay-worthy.

So to vet the value of your idea, ask yourself a few questions: is this line of thought fresh, or is it merely a spruced-up version of the last two movies you saw? 

Can this produce a story, or will you struggle to squeeze out three acts?

If you think your idea will fly as a screenplay, the next thing you want to do is pitch it to close pals to gauge their interest. Ask for honest feedback on how they feel about it. Having many people interested in the story might be a sign that it's worth chasing.

 

2. Determine Why Your Story is Important

It's always great to nail this down before writing. Why would anyone care about this story? What does it matter if you tell it? Will it make any impact on anyone’s life? 

These questions are important because they let you test your idea for relevance. 

For instance, you wouldn't want to pour yourself into a story that would slip under the radar because it was ahead of its time.

 

3. Define Your Target Audience

You also want to have clarity about who you're writing for. Identify their age group (if this applies), popular worldviews, the trends they are familiar with and other details. 

This process aims to ensure that when you begin writing, you can embed story elements that your audience will understand, so they find your work relatable.

 

4. Outline Your Story

Your story outline is like a simplified version of your treatment. It contains all the events that would happen in the script but without dialogues. Basically, what you do is break down your story into its narrative-arc components and map it out beat by beat. 

Some writers use index cards or notepads. The goal is to do what works for you to bring out a good outline for creating a compelling story.

 

5. Develop Your Characters

Getting a sense of who your characters are before diving into the story is very important. Make a list of your characters and their strengths, weaknesses, goals, and motivations. 

This process will help you to map out how each character would react to different events in the story; it makes writing easier. 

And if necessary, with the bird's eye view you now have, you can decide to tweak the attributes of specific figures to create a more diversified character list before writing.

 

6. Research Your Story

Next, you want to research your story thoroughly. You can start by fact-checking some of the story elements you think you're familiar with to be sure you have your facts right.

Researching aspects of your story you aren't familiar with is a no-brainer. The internet can come in handy in this situation, but you may also need to consult subject matter experts depending on the subject and or how much information you need.

 







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