Basic Screen Writing Tips

Firstly, let me say that I am a published author rather than a screenwriter, although I have a screenwriting qualification from an English film school and I am currently working on my first feature length script.

Sitting in front of a black  screen , with a loose idea in your head can be the most daunting situation to find yourself in. It may even put you off for life, and it is not the right way to go about writing a feature-length film script. This article is strongly geared towards the full length film script rather than any other format. So how do you write a feature script (by that I mean anything over 75 minutes)?

Before you even begin to write, it is helpful to do some or all of the following things:

If you have an idea, research it as much as you can. Find out if any other writers have done something similar, but always strive for originality in your work. Develop your story by simply sitting down and hammering out as many ideas as you can. It does not matter if you never use them, because what you are doing is constructing the foundations for your story and your characters. Only by writing the bad stuff out of your system, can you begin to find the seams of gold that will give your idea a three-dimensional feel and that vital ingredient – originality.

Writing the script itself will be infinitely easier, if you have already sat down and hammered out a lot of notes about your story, your characters, the settings and the visuals.

Cinema is a visual medium. Never forget this. You are not writing a book, or a stage play, so try to think of the bigger visual picture. Immerse yourself in  art  and visual design, go to a lot of  art  galleries – this last point might sound strange, but believe me, if you have an idea for a film, one of the best things you can do is find a work of  art  that is the best visual representation of your idea. It may be one painting that inspires you, and better still, it might even inspire you to write scenes that are directly based on that work. The bottom line here is that most screenwriters are not visual artists, so you must tune into the  art  around us and use it to your best advantage.

Your main character – This character should be fully developed before you begin to write the script. You must know everything about them, their desires, their motivations, their past, their habits, wants, opinions. They should be a fully living, breathing individual who exists on his/her own terms and is capable of guiding you through the world of the story.

What’s it all about? What is the essence of the story you are writing? What is it really about? You need to know the answers to these questions before you begin. This especially applies to non-action screenplays, that are exploring some deeper aspect of the human condition.

Writing a screenplay is not a matter of sitting down in front of a blank  screen  and typing – it needs to be an organised adventure, from initial idea, through research, thinking time, making notes. The writing of the script itself should be like stepping into a boxing ring – you wouldn’t step into the ring unless you had done a hell of a lot of training first. In this analogy, the training is all those elements I have mentioned above. Once you have worked out the story – don’t worry about having an ending, that can come later – and once you have worked out your theme and character, and once you have a confidence in the visual aspects that are required for your script, the writing of the script itself will be a piece of cake.