- Get your notebook
- Watch a movie
- Make a hashmark for every thing that HAPPENS
- Open your screenplay
- Repeat step 3
- Compare
Define HAPPENS?
- An action that pushes the story forward. Pro tip: Look for verbs.
Examples?
- Emily asks for a divorce
- Molly smashes a photo of Cal and Emily, Jessica smiles at it
- Hannah discovers Jacob watching her
- Cal freezes when Emily asks for an answer
- Jessica interrupts Robbie masturbating and flees
- Hannah rejects Jacob’s super smooth advances
- Emily confesses to an affair
- Cal jumps from a moving car
- Cal agrees to the divorce
- Robbie confesses his love to Jessica
This happens in the first ten pages of Crazy, Stupid, Love (script here) which was written by Dan Fogelman.
The characters and their situations, what they want, who they are, are revealed by the actions they take.
Do the math for better drafts!