FREE SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP - All Of It

A GOOD Screenplay In 4 Weeks!!!

[No gaurantee; you get what you pay for; buyer beware. ;P ]

Okay, I'm 37 pages into my first (decent) screenplay and I'm taking a break (it's my pay-the-bills job workweek, and I've scheduled writing weekends during the workweek, as I'm far less productive on these days) to revise my "free workshop".

You may safely disregaurd the first entries, as I have been given a professional processes from a an Anonymous Bennifactor in the biz, which I've already reprinted in the previous post.

However... I need things broken down into steps for easy consumption, and so I'm using my non-writing time to do that for you, in case it helps you the way it helps me.

If you've read this blog from the beginning you know that the whole point of the blog is to sift through 14 years of study and figure out how to actually WRITE on a professional level. I started out by listing what I believe are some bare essentials to comprehend the theory, and this year has been about finding a functional PROCESS. A month or 2 ago, frustrated, I created my own process, and was outlining it -- along with annotation observations and thoughts along the way -- when our Anonymous Bennefactor made a comment that has very significantly shifted the way I think about writing. The cat won me over, what can I say? He/she made relentless sense the more I thought about it.

Like I said, I posted his/her comments in the previous entry, so this info is redundant. I'm simply breaking it into steps (and will probably add a comment or two of my own, 'cause I'm like that).

So if it's helpful to you, here it is:


Step 1: Watch

Our Anonymous Bennifactor works in TV, so he/she recommends we watch 5 episodes of the show we want to write for, and get ahold of 2 teleplays from it. This is to familiarize ourselves with the elemnts that the show utilizes -- such as Girl A has a quite crush on Boy A, though Boy A is madly in love with Girl B, and there's always a monster that shows up in the Open, before the Act Two act break and is vanquished at the end of Act Three (you can tell what types of shows I watch, lol).

For screenplays, it's no different. You wanna write a horror script? Watch/rewatch 5 horror movies you really, really like and read 2 scripts from that genre. A great resource for screenplays is CS Web. They have both screenplays and teleplays, and their inventory has been growing quickly over the past couple of months! Another resource is JoBlo.com, though they have tons of pop-ups and adverising, and they don't offer teleplays.

Our Anonymous Bennifactor isn't fond of the term "sub-genres", but if you're writing a movie I recommend that you take them into account. If you're writing a horror movie and you're into ghost stories watching or reading FRIDAY THE 13TH or THE EXOCISM OF EMILY ROSE won't be as helpful to you, as one's a Slasher Flick and one's a Possession Flick. So the story elements you're soaking up may well confuse you a bit -- unless you're approach is to make a Ghost Story/Slasher Flick/Possession Flick. (However, unless you're Joss Whedon I wouldn't recommend combining more than 2 genres/sub-genres. Not on your first couple of scripts, anyway.)

Also, take notes while you're watching & reading. You're looking for all the elements that are the same in each flick, and all the elements that are different. The recurring elements are your genre/sub-genre requirements, and the elements that are different are all you: These are the infdividual writer's contributions, and that's where your unique perspective comes into play. (The element that McKee assures us make our choice/calling to write a valid and useful one, and the reason there will always be a need for good storytellers.)


Step 2: Sketch Out Your Story

Our Anonymous Bennifactor suggests using a legal pad. This isn't uncommon. I use NotePad, and I write in story beats, then I rewrite those beats onto my beloved 3x5 cards, because it helps me see the movie in scenes. Like with breaking down process information into steps, the cards help me organize and see the breaks in information.

How you sketch isn't important to anyone but you. What are you comfortable. At least 2 of my friends who write prefer long-hand. I've read than most writers work in long-hand first. What works for you?

THIS STEP SHOULD TAKE 2 OR 3 HOURS, TOPS.

I haven't applied this advice to a feature-length story yet, so see what works for you. But if you're just starting out, shoot for 2 or 3 hours.

"And I'm serious about these time limits, if you get bogged down any more than this you will never do what needs to be done and, unfortunately, you will never work."

Straight from our Anonymous Bennifactor's keyboard.

And my experience has backed this up. I have thought many a story to death. Spending too much time sketching out an idea allows insecurity to seep in, and that is CANDY for Writer's Block.

You have 2 things that you can take comfort from using this process: The rewrite and the fact that you'll move on to your next script IMMEDIATELY after sending off your first script.

If your current script doesn't end up living up to your expectations, that's really okay because you're already working on your next one, and the sheer volume of your work is going to impress SOMEONE. (Hell, I got someone's attention just by whining on a blog, lol. Though I don't recommend that method AT ALL! ;P ) The point is, you're not just thinking about THIS STORY, you're thinking about a career of telling stories. You write your first, then your second... And after you've written your thousandth story you're Ray Bradbury, lol.

Don't be nice with yourself on this step. Whip it out and get to work.

Also, you're not fleshing out your story here, you're just sctching it out. Fleshing it out is...


Step 3: Flesh Out Your Story

Your story sketch isn't going to give you enough information to write a screenplay. That's just getting the inspiration down. This is where you fill in holes and make sure you can sit down and fill 120 pages.

Previous entries in this blog talks about structure stuff that you may (or may not) find helpful. Our Anonymous Bennifactor reminds us to "keep it simple, stupid". Don't let what I or anyone else has written or told you bog you down. You need strong act breaks, followed by scenes/sequences that clean up the mess you made during those strong act breaks. Other than that, you're just stretching your sketch out to fill the allotted page count.

The way to stretch that material is to think of how real people would respond in the situations you're putting them in. At this stage you're not worried about too much detail, though. What you're concerned with is creating enough material that you feel secure sitting down and whipping out the pages. Any story gaps that you feel you can fill in during the page-writing, leave them. Only worry about making sure you are comfortable sitting down to the keyboard.

BUT... you got a time limit on this step, too.

You have 4 to 5 hours to create enough material to fill 120 pages.

Like with Step 2, I haven't personally tested this time limit, so you may have to adjust according to the way you work. But I don't suggest you allow yourself too much more time. You should be ready to sit down and write the pages after a single day's work. That's sketching the story and fleshing it out.

I say this because I know from experience -- loads of it -- that the 2 extremes simply don't work: You can't sit down at a typewriter and write a script you're proud of without preparation, and you can't allow yourself to develop a story for weeks and months.

Professional writers do neither of those things.

So try to force yourself to stick to the 4- or 5-hour deadline. Remember, this isn't the only script you're writing. You've got PLENTY more stories to tell. (Even if you don't realize it yet.)

Finally, make sure, during this step, that you have all the recurring elements included. If you took decent notes, this will create story beats that you might have missed during your sketching-your-story step.


Step 4: Write

The first 3 steps "should give you enough to sit down at a computer and start writing your script with dialog from start to finish. That should take approximately 1 to 2 days with plenty of time for breaks to clear your head, get a Pepsi, read a magazine, call a friend, then back to work."

Our Anonymous Bennifactor is talking about a 60-page script, but I can tell you that I EASILY -- comfortably and joyfully -- wrote 30 pages in two 9-hour days. If I didn't have a "day job" and something that loosely resembles a social life, I could have easily written 120 pages in 4 days.

I'm talking EASILY.

So take our Anonymous Bennifactor's numbers and my numbers (always taking into account that I'm the amateur here) and figure out for yourself what you can do. But don't be overly-easy on yourself, but also don't be overly harsh. You can kill your love of writing by creating impossible deadlines for yourself. But you can also create worlds of unexpected frustration by asking too little of yourself.


Step 5: Relax

"Put it away for a day or two..."

Endulge in your favorite distraction(s) for a day. Or two. You've earned it! You wrote a friggin' screenplay, dude!!! :D

DO NOT think about it! Particularly, don't wonder if it's good enough! You'll take care of that in a couple of days...


Step 6: Rewrite

"..come back to it and rewrite it from top to bottom, half a day tops."

Since we're talking about 120 pages, it may take a whole day.

But this step is where you make your screenplay better! Like our Anonymous Bennifactor says, "...the rest periods are just as important as actual writing time. You need to let your script sit for a day to give it a fresh read. You will see things you can't believe any human being would write, and you will fix them."

You will. You're not an idiot. If you're reading this blog, you know stuff about writing your friends don't. You've been disappointed by movies that promised something they couldn't deliver, and you've been pleasantly surprised by movies that delivered more than you expected.

You know how to tell a good story.

And if this is your first, or fifth, script your Bullshit Meter will tell you what sucks, what's really good, and what is the best you can do right now. Perform up to your Bullshit Meter's standards and you're very likely writing a better screenplay than 80% of what Hollywood is sifting through right now!

So take a day (no more) and fix what's not working.

Then...


Step 7: Relax Again

Okay, SURELY by now you can agree that you've earned another respite, yeah? Not only have you finished a screenplay, but you've FIXED IT as well! :D

Besides, by now you recognize how very valuable that down-time is to the creative process. Imagine if you had skipped Step 5 and jumped right into Step 6! What kind of a mess would THAT have made?!

So relax again. And tell any inquisitive friends that you're going through your "cool down" period on your story. Assure them that it's part of your process. ;P


Step 8: Polish

Our Anonymous Bennifactor says this should take "about 2 to 3 hours" (and I believe he/she is talking about 60-page scripts) so give yourself 5-6.

The point is that you want to correct spelling errors and make everything as shiny as possible, but you DO NOT want to let yourself get hung up on ANY single detail.

The point of all these time limits is fighting a writer's natural insecurities. For some reason, we tend to be perfectionists, to the point of paralysis often. (1) We know more than we often think we do, and (2) this isn't the last story we're going to tell ever, our legacy.

Our legacy will happen sometime during a myriad of deadlines and paychecks and personal dramas that make what we're writing seem like an actual job. Stephen King has commented on hos diconcerting it is to be told you're best work (in his case the novel THE STAND) is something you wrote 20 years ago.

A career is a collection of work, a library, and we can't plan it out. (Or script it, as it were.) We'll write stuff, we'll get attention; we'll write more stuff, we'll get less attention; we'll write more stuff, someone will notice how great our first stuff was... Life is quirky. It's much more creative than we'll ever be.

THIS SCRIPT -- your first or fifty-first -- IS NOT YOU CAREER. And it's not your life. It's a story you told.

So make sure it's good, to be sure! But don't lose sight of the very small portion of your life that it occupies. You had fun writing it for a week or for 4 weeks, now...


Step 9: "Read It Once More and..."


Step 10: "...Send It In"


Step 11: "The minute it is in the mail, start your next script."

This is a VERY IMPORANT step mentioned in MANY of the books I've read! This is not only how you keep your perspective and you sanity, but this is how you get better.

If you're reading this blog you don't have that instinct or security or obsession or whatever that Bradbury and Serling and Shaymalan and Whedon and our Anonymous Bennifactor have that FORCES us to write story after story.

Maybe you're like me, and you think about it too much. Enough to give you doubts about HOW good you are.

But writers WRITE.

You can do like I've been doing, and write about writing while you're trying to write, or you can -- as suggested by our Anonymous Bennifactor, and countless other professionals -- simply GET TO IT.

You ARE good enough. And if you're not now, you WILL be.

I laugh as I type these words, but JUST DO IT. In the words of our Anonymous Bennifactor:

"Writers write all the time, and we put out at least a script a week, one because we have to and two because that's all the time it takes to deliver a good script. If it's taking you longer you are definitely doing something wrong.

"By the time you get to your 5th script, you should be getting pretty good at the process. By 15 or 20 scripts you should have a decent agent on your side, and by 30 scripts or show you should have landed your first job, even if it's only an assignment."

The Other Way

My last entry actually received a comment (from someone who I don't know personally, lol) from a professional writer who appears to be completely offended by this blog.

They suggest the "Just Dot It" approach to writing -- popular with most authors, to be sure -- in which you don't ponder structure and stuff, you just write.

In case you -- whoever you are, in whatever stage of writing you may be -- haven't already read/heard this approach, this is a great example of it...

With a very noteable exception: This guy/gal actually gives time deadlines, which are exceedingly helpful! Most people who say "just do it" don't give you any time limit... You just do it when you do it.

So here's a very suscinct and useful example of the "Just Do It" approach:

"If you're going to be a writer, you have to sit down and write. Scripts are nothing more than story and character. I can think of no business where the phrase 'keep it simple, stupid' applies more.

Your schedule should be something like this (using TV as an example): pick a show you think you can write well, watch 5 episodes, take notes, get your hands on 1 or 2 scripts from the show, sketch out a story on a legal pad.

By watching 5 and reading 2 you will quickly realize there are certain elements that are always there (what the show wants) and certain elements that are always different (what the writer contributes that is original). This is what should be in the notes you take.

(By the way, sorry I'm focusing on TV, I see that you interest seems to lie in film, but I'm a TV writer so that's all I have to give you, but I promise it will be helpful either way. Film is similar, so be smart and read between the lines.)

Don't get lost in all this 'index card' crap, index cards are for working staffs on shows where there are so many people on a script that no one can keep track of anything, they're not for individual unemployed writers sitting in their houses not writing. I happen to know that Abrams actually does not use index cards on his own projects (other than posting some bits in the writer's room from time to time), I know he teaches this, but when he writes, he just sits down at a computer and writes from top to bottom until it's done.

Sketching your story on a pad should take about 2 to 3 hours. Now flesh it out, that should take another 4 to 5 hours, make sure you have all the elements that the show you're writing for uses from week to week. The best advice I can give you about this process is make sure you have strong endings to your acts, and make sure the beginnings of your acts resolve whatever mess was left behind by the strong ending you wrote for the previous act. Sit down and watch any 5 hours of primetime television and you will see that every single show follows this formula. Again, film is similar.

This should give you enough to sit down at a computer and start writing your script with dialog from start to finish. That should take approximately 1 to 2 days with plenty of time for breaks to clear your head, get a Pepsi, read a magazine, call a friend, then back to work.

Put it away for a day or two, come back to it and rewrite it from top to bottom, half a day tops.

Put it away again then come back to polish, about 2 to 3 hours, read it once more and send it in.

That's all there is to it. The minute it is in the mail, start your next script.

And I'm serious about these time limits, if you get bogged down any more than this you will never do what needs to be done and, unfortunately, you will never work. And the rest periods are just as important as actual writing time. You need to let your script sit for a day to give it a fresh read. You will see things you can't believe any human being would write, and you will fix them.

Writers write all the time, and we put out at least a script a week, one because we have to and two because that's all the time it takes to deliver a good script. If it's taking you longer you are definitely doing something wrong.

By the time you get to your 5th script, you should be getting pretty good at the process. By 15 or 20 scripts you should have a decent agent on your side, and by 30 scripts or show you should have landed your first job, even if it's only an assignment.

One final piece of real advice: if you want to get noticed fast in Hollywood, write a movie. It will never get made, but it will get your phone ringing. Use the exact same process I gave you here, but give yourself 3 or 4 weeks (max) rather than the one week a TV script takes."

I sincerely appreciate this no-bullshit approach to writing, and I highly recommend that if you're a beginning writer reading this blog (and why else would you read it, really?) you give this a shot.

I have tried this method (but without the time limits because, as I said above, this is the first person who gave me the time limits... everyone else just said "just do it") and always, ALWAYS found myself asking "What happens NEXT?!!" with no one to turn to for help.

Also, this approach is harder for me now than in the past: I used to be able to sit down for 5 hours straight and write. My pay-the-bills job gets in the way of that now. Now a hard-core writer, like this guy/gal, would likely say "Then you don't have the discipline and will never be a writer."

Fine.

But this blog isn't for them.

This is for people who are like me: You've tried everyone else's approach and it's STILL not working for you.

Also, many writers don't peer too closely at what goes into the process of creating a story. (I'm not saying the above guy/gal is like that, I'm just speaking generally.) Many of them don't dare ask where she shoes came from when they wake up, lest the cobbler elves refuse to return when they go to sleep that night.

I'm not like that. I am cursed with a nagging need to understand how all the cogs fit together to make the machine go. I started out in community theatre (from the age 11 until 19) where the lead actor also painted flats, sittuated gels in lights and then hung them, and darned costumes if need be. In the short films we've made I have held the boom, operated the camera, set decorated, helped light, acted, helped with special makeup effects and edited. (Don't ask me to be a set decorator, art director or be cinematographer for your film, if you want it to be good, but I AM a badass editor. Not TOO bad at the special makeup effects, either -- though I can give you the name of someone who is truly a master... and is on IMDb.)

The point being this: If the above advice works for you, BY ALL MEANS USE IT!!! I'm not a professional writer yet, this guy/gal IS.

If it doesn't, my blog will still be here.

What's The PROBLEM?

I think I have an epiphany about developing a story:

Think of all your tent-pole sequences -- starting on or around page 10, page 30, page 45, page 60, page 75 and page 90 -- as Weighing The Options scenes followed by intense action (or dramatic) scenes! They don't have to be executed like exposition scenes, but the content need to be along the lines of people weighing their options and making a plan of attack.

Many gurus, including McKee, talk of story in terms of problems to be solved and characters making choices, but I think I FINALLY get what they're actually saying, and why.

I used to more or less ignore this approach to breaking a story because the ideas I had never fell easily into a Problem To Be Solved format. AND, the ideas always developed into stories that didn't feel particularly exciting. Interesting, yes. Compelling even, in a mellow way.

But not intense, driving, gotta-get-to-the-end kinds of stories.

And I think the reason why is because they're all these leisurely strolls through a world, even though the worlds tend to have monsters lunging ravenously at the heroes! How can that NOT be exciting?

Because there's something about actually having people talk -- in harried tones, natch -- about why this approach won't work and the flaws in this other approach and why their best bet is this other seat-of-their-pants stop-gap solution that get the audience ready for a wild ride! Then follow those scenes up with the attempted solution, the unexpected complications that arrise, and your heroes' resourceful skin-of-their-teeth escape from the complete failure to execute their plan and the audience is awake and watching and listening!

It's a wierd balancing act, because you have to have the emotional archs of the characters to make the audience care about their being in jeopardy, but you also -- I now believe -- have to have physical (or psychological, or whatever) jeopardy to make the emotional archs really resonate as meaningful.

I came across this idea when I was toying around with a short story as a sort of mid-development "snack" to clense my palate and continue tooling around with my craft. I had this realization and developed the story from the stand point of a series of Weighing The Options And Deciding On A Plan tent-pole scenes, and the story came out quick and dynamically!!!

So if your story isn't feeling exciting and compelling enough, try to retool your tent-pole sequences in this fashion, and see if it doesn't super-charge your entire screenplay!

I BROKE THE STORY!!!

9 days ago I implimented my "5 Cards Created or Altered a Day" strategy for developing a screenplay.

This evening (well, yesterday evening by Normal People schedules, really -- this is around 2:00 or 3:00 pm for me) I created a decent breakdown for my movie!

I'm NOWEHERE NEAR writing the actual script pages yet, but I can at least see the light at the end of this particular tunnel!!!

And since this is meant to be a free workshop and guide to help YOU write YOUR screenplay, I'll explain what happened.

Okay, when I reached dead ends with the cards, I'd work on character stuff and emotional stuff. I even researched the layouts of ranches and ranch houses so that I could plot action from room to another if necessary. (Which ended up being very helpful, though not in the precise way I imagined.)

I worked on different aspects of the story as they came to me -- without ever really breaking a sweat, I might add; if you're frustrated and dispondant you might want to take a break for a few days and give yourself permission to have fun and come back fresh next week -- and got to know what I COULD about the world I'm creating.

Then today, frustrated at my lack of significant progress (AND after having allowed myself to slack off one day too many) I sat down with a copy of the pilot to VERONICA MARS -- the teleplay by Rob Thomas -- and just read, and it was the transition from Act One to Act Two that seemed to break a damn in me. I decided to break the story up into 15-page sections and just figure out where each section begins and ends.

That's it, that's all... I was just going to figure out the beginning and ending moment for each of the 8 15-page units that make up a 120-page script.

This was so that I could figure out where the holes are in my awareness of the story. It also was to help me figure out where some of my cards might go.

That ended up giving me a very clear workable structure that I KNOW is a safe starting point. The structure I came up with tonight is solid. It can and WILL be better as I work on it, but what I came up with tonight is absolutely good enough.

So now my job will be to turn what I've created tonight into notecards, and begin making those notecards more detailed. I have 3 characters I need to come up with names and personalities and wants and desires for, and I have several death scenes (I'm writing a horror flick) that I need to really massage and tease out. Then the rest is finding the precise moments when all my character stuff is going to play out (so that you care about what's going on and the jeopardy of a killer is ACTUALLY SCARY).

But I have contrsucted the diving board that will give me enough lift to finally get me into the pool.

Okay, that's a lame metaphor. Sorry. But you get my point.

Anyway, I have more work to do on my cards, so Bye for now.

And good writing!!! :D

More On Those Damn Cards

I'm finding that after roughly a week, I'm not making my 5-card quota.

I believe 5 cards a day (creatred OR altered) isn't a particularly ambitious goal, but I have a life as well -- as I'm guessing you do, too -- and so 2 or 3 seems to be what I can accomplish while I'm really breaking the story.

I suggest that on days you're just not making any progress, do research. Read up on the specific things you need to know more about concerning your characters, setting, the genre you're working in (yes, watching movies in the specific sub-genre can be, in my opinion, considered research and legitimate writerly work).

Just keep an eye on your Bullshit Meter... You know when you're working and when your slacking. And no one's there to keep you on-task but you.

Remember that no one's going to do this for you. So if you don't do it... it doesn't happen.