screenwriters toolkit

A scene list is an outline of one-sentence descriptions for each scene in your movie-to-be. It’s a great way of seeing every scene and working out the outline of your story. Writing teachers such as Syd Field teach scene lists as a pre-cursor to writing the entire screenplay. Your Task: Make a scene list for someone else’s film. Here are the steps:
1. Download a screenplay for a movie you’d like to watch.
2. Get a copy of the movie as well.
3. Get a pen and a pack of notecards.
4. Watch the movie and outline. Every time a new scene happens, pause the movie and write a one-sentence description of the scene on a notecard.
5. When the movie is finished, put your notecards aside.
6. Now, get the screenplay that you’ve downloaded. Make a scene list of the screenplay by writing out all of the scene headers onto a sheet (or two) of paper.
7. Lastly, compare your notecards outline to the paper outline from the screenplay.
8. Freewrite: What have I learned?

Are you a visual person? If so, how do you structure your writing? Timelines are visual tools that help create chronological outlines of your characters lives. Your Task: Create a timeline for the internal and external events in your character’s life from the beginning to the end of your story. Internal events are things that happen to your character inside their mind or body. External events are those that happen on the outside (ie. meeting people, going places, etc.).

Let’s use a transformational moment in our lives to explore screenwriting structure. Your Task: List 3 transformational moments in your life. Pick one incident and answer these questions: What was your life like before the transformation? What took place during the transformation? What were the obstacles to transforming (both inside yourself and external)? How did you face these obstacles? Name the people involved in this transformation. What were their roles in your transformation? What happened to them because of this transformation? What was the outcome for you? Now, create an outline of the specific incidents that occurred before, during and after this transformational experience. Visualize a movie with each of these specific incidents as a scene in your movie. Freewrite: What do I think about my movie? What am I leaving out? What can I add to make it more powerful?

Have you ever used a Mind Map? Read this selection about mind maps from matchware.com:

A Mind Map is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain - it is a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally “maps out” your ideas.

One simple way to understand a Mind Map is comparing it to a map of a city. The city center represents the main idea; the main roads leading from the center represent the key thoughts in your thinking process; the secondary roads or branches represent your secondary thoughts, and so on. Special images or shapes can represent landmarks of interest or particularly relevant ideas.

The five essential characteristics of a Mind Map:

The main idea, subject or focus is crystallized in a central image.

The main themes radiate from the central image as ‘branches’.

The branches comprise a key image or word drawn or printed on its associated line.

Topics of lesser importance are represented as ‘twigs’ of the relevant branch.

The branches form a connected nodal structure.

Your Task: Create a mind map to help you brainstorm the structure of an idea. Place your story idea in the center of the mind map, and use the instructions above to see what comes out.

What’s getting between us and our goals? What’s in the way of our characters’ reaching their goals? I attended a theatre workshop once that put participant A on one side of the room, representing themself. On the other side of the room stood another participant, representing participant A ’s goal. Then a number of other participants stood in between participant A and their goal. Each person in between representing an obstacle for participant A. One person represented fear. Another represented the lack of money. Another represented self-doubt. And on, and on. Finally, participant A was told to walk toward their goal, having a conversation with each obstacle in the way. This was a great visual representation of our many internal and external obstacles and can be used as a tool to understanding our characters’ path through our movie. Your Task: Flip a piece of paper horizontally. On one side put your character. On the other side put your character’s goal. Now, in the middle, write each of the obstacles you can think of that prevent your character from reaching this goal. On another piece of paper, write out some of the conversations your character has with these individual obstacles (ie. what would your character say to their fear?). Finally, freewrite for 10 minutes on: How can the structure of my screenplay be defined by my character’s path through their obstacles?

Taking a look at others’ work can help us get an understanding of the process of structuring a screenplay. Your Task: Find a movie whose screenplay is also readily available. Get them both. Now, watch the movie. Take a series of (at least 3) scenes and transcribe them using screenplay format. Do this without looking at the screenplay first. Now, compare your transcription to the original screenplay and notice what’s different. Finally, do a 10-minute freewrite on what you’ve learned.

One of the best ways to learn structure is to analyze someone else’s work. Your Task: Pick 1 movie and watch it a few times. While doing so, make a list of all the characters in it. Then, make a list of each scene — where it takes place and a brief (anywhere from a few words to a couple sentences) description of the point of the scene. Is it purely for character development? Does it move the plot forward? What happens?

I would argue that the 3-act structure has been one of the most influential tool for screenplay development. Regardless of people’s move beyond this structure, it’s history, & applicability are important to understand for someone whose developing their craft as a screenwriter. Your Task: Write a 5-page essay on the 3-act structure. Where did it come from? What’s it’s history? What is it and how is it used? What are some of the challenges against it? What are some of the movies that use it? Has it developed over time? How?

Let’s get a handle on alternative screenplay structure, and the various ways to outline your script. While the 3-act structure remains very popular in use, other structures have seen an increase in finding their way to big and small screens. Your Task: Write a 5-page essay on alternative screenplay structures. Research different methods out there. Then compare and contrast them in your essay. Linda Aronson’s “Screenwriting Updated: New (and Conventional) Ways of Writing for the Screen,” is an excellent book to use. But don’t stop there. Many screenwriting teachers and theorizers have come up with very useful screenwriting structures.

Have you ever read a choose-your-own-adventure? This exercise is similar. Your Task: Create a character and the situation they’re at in their life. Now, pick 3 different journeys for their story. Once you’ve got that, come up with 5 major events for each of the 3 journeys. For example, Marla is a high-school senior. It’s 4 months before graduation and she just found out she’s pregnant. Her parents will kill her if they find out. 1 of the 3 possible journeys might be: Her boyfriend convinces her to drop out of school and run away with him. 2 of the 5 major events of this journey include: 1. She tells her parents and they freak out on her; 2. She and her boyfriend are in a park weighing their options, when he comes up with a plan for running away. Now, it’s your turn.