screenwriters toolkit

Sometimes we get so into the challenge of finishing our screenplays that we forget to go back and make sure our characters have a consistent voice. Your Task: Read a screenplay that you or someone else wrote. Get into the mindset of one character and read it thinking of them. While you read, consider what’s awkward, what’s natural, what their voice is and if it’s being followed throughout. How is the character real or superficial? What could make them more consistent?

Can you defend the choices you’ve made in your own writing? Try it. Your Task: Take a screenplay that you’ve written. Pick out the major plot points and defend your decisions for the way you’ve written them. Write a short essay detailing the decisions you’ve made for the plot of your story and defend these choices against potential criticism.

Editing our own scripts is sometimes wrought with our own defensiveness and inability to let go of what we originally put on the page. Practicing with other scripts can improve our skills and help us see that no matter how done we think a script is, it can always use a little more work. Your Task: Download and read someone else’s script. Answer these questions: What opportunities have the writers missed? What loose-ends have not been tied up? Does this seem important to the writer? Why or why not? How would you make this script better? Explain each element you would change in detail. To go even further, share your notes with someone who has read the script or seen the movie. What do they think of your comments?

The first time I had my screenplay read out loud, I immediately knew many of the things that had to change. Try it! Your Task: Get hold of a finished screenplay. Get a group of people (at least 2 others). Assign parts to each person and read the screenplay out loud. Finished? Now, have each person do a 10-minute freewrite answering the following questions: What are my impressions of this work? What do I wish was in it? What am I glad that was included? Share.

You’ve finished a draft of your script! Congratulations. Now it’s time to re-write. Before you get started, get someone else to help you clear your thoughts. Your Task: Get Interviewed! Have a friend interview you about your script. Here are some questions: What do you like about your work? What do you want to change? What should never be changed? Why? How do you feel about writing? What about yourself as a writer? If you had to give up your script to a production company today, what would you be embarrassed about? What are you proud of? Hope that gets you started!

It’s inevitable. Every step of the production route will change your script! Your Task: Check out some examples of how this has happened. Download a script for a movie you like. Watch the movie and follow along with your script. Note what’s been changed, what’s been cut or added. Immediately following the flick, freewrite for 10 minutes on what you just saw.

In Secrets of Film Writing, Tom Lazarus describes Morris the Explainer as “the guy who comes in at the end of your script to explain all the things you haven’t written clearly enough in the body of the script.” Your Task: Become Morris. Re-read the script you just wrote and take notes throughout. While you’re reading, note what still needs explanation to an audience or producer.

Editing a script entails knowing it inside and out. Your Task: Break down a script to learn more about it. To do this, you’ll need to download a script for a movie you like. Also, get a stack of notecards. Reading the script, write a 1 or 2 sentence description of each scene. When you’re done, (cogratulate yourself on a huge task, then) pick 11 random cards from the pile and write the purpose of that scene.

The art of re-writing lives in your ability to let go of key concepts in your original work. I had an art teacher once who painted vigorously one day, then came back the next day looking at her painting “as if it was a blank page.” She taught me to let go of my artistic ego and drop the attachment I had to specific elements of my work. Doing this opened me up to criticism and taught me a lot about writing. Your Task: Pick a scene that involves 1 protagonist, 1 antagonist & 1 other person. This could be a scene that you’ve written, or a scene from a movie that you’ve downloaded the script for. Now, switch the roles of the characters (antagonist becomes neutral, protagonist becomes antagonist, etc) and re-write this scene with the same action from the original scene.

It’s time to get some help from the world outside your creativity. Script consultants provide writers with valuable feedback and tend to know quite a bit about re-writing your script. Learning some of the things they know can enhance your editiing ability. Your Task: Find a willing script consultant, and interview them about the kinds of notes they take. Alternatively, research articles on script consultants and read 5 to 10 of them. Now, make a list of 10 things to consider when re-writing.