Clarity problems happen when the central conflict gets buried under an avalanche of superfluous ideas. To enhance clarity in your script, give the reader the thread early. Weight your setup to favor your protagonist and the problem, give less time to secondary characters, set atmosphere with active images instead of conversations. Keep all of your…
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CHEMISTRY
Chemistry between characters needs to be built. It is not enough that they are both attractive. It is not enough that they snark at each other. Real chemistry is built in the moments when they admire each other. They don’t have to do it out loud. If you don’t carefully and deliberately build the chemistry,…
Read moreAN ENDING THAT PAYS OFF
Notes from a Screenreader: Meaningful Images
Notes from a Screenreader: Meaningful Images nywift: Photo via Go Into the Story. A script is a story that will be told with images. It feels like that goes without saying, but spec scripts are so often crushed under the weight of their own dialogue that it bears repeating. Meaningful images are revealing, memorable, interesting…
Read moreIT’S A PERIOD DRAMA
FIRST DRAFT
TENSION
Letting tension out in the script happens when conflicts are resolved too soon. It happens in scenes with two or three lines of wrap up dialogue that should be cut. You lose momentum when you let out tension. Keep the tension rising in your script by giving your protag more problems instead of solving them….
Read moreFINISH IT. Actually finishing it is what I’m gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but it’s true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating….
Read moreIS IT A SCRIPT AT ALL?
It might be a novel or a short story or a painting or a collage or a poem. You might have a script idea if: It’s about a person who needs to accomplish something difficult. The person has a flaw that gets in the way. Strong forces oppose them. The story and its themes are…
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