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Screenwriting tips for beginners
You are excited to become a screenwriter, but you don’t know where to start? Here are a few tips for you!
1. The hardest part is to get started
The hardest part about becoming a screenwriter is not to come up with the best idea, but to get started. Start by turning your day into your inspiration. Who did you met today? What were your thoughts? What dialogues did you have? How did they make you feel? After you start writing your first phrases, you will get in the mood for writing more.
2. Practice makes perfect!
Even if you do have the best idea, you still need the skills to write it down! For this reason, practice is very important. Write down your idea. The next day, try to rewrite it in a different way. You are your first judge, try to improve it a little bit each time you rewrite it.
3. Keep it real
Screenwriters have a rich imagination and you can come up with so many creative ideas. Don’t forget to keep it real and show empathy for the human emotion and behavior. How would a character react to a given situation? Every scene has to be real and relatable. Even if you are creating a SF background, you still need to focus on this.
4. Let your characters do the action
Once you have characters, let them do the action. Let’s suppose your character is planning to steal a very expensive neck lance. For this purpose, your character will do many things – follow him as he talks with his partners in crime, as they plan up the robbery, etc.
5. The best story starts with the logline
You need to summarize your whole action in a sentence. What is the purpose of your story? What exactly is happening? If you cannot say it as simple as you can, it is no use to develop it as complex as you can.
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10 Replies
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Another useful trick is to use conflict to reveal the true colors of the character. Everyone can be the nice guy in the absence of conflict. But conflict shows who they really are.
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Don’t forget about that difficult part where the character fails but then tries again and succeeds! Or maybe…maybe he never succeeds. I saw that tragic endings are harder to forget. I think we all cried at Hachi-Ko. And it was just a story with a dog. Nothing special, right? Except…it was.
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That, indeed, was a masterpiece. You’re right, Marianna!
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That’s a good trick, too! Characters react different to conflict, some are really good and avoid getting others upset, while others are pure evil when provoked.
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From my experience, you can write a story about the tree from your garden. Everything has a backstory and if it doesn’t, you can create it. Let’s take this example. How did that tree got to grow old and have tasty cherries? Someone planted a seed. What’s the story of how the seed was planted? What’s the story of who eats the fruits? Inspiration is really everywhere. You just need to start writing and start asking yourself questions and answer them through the action, dialogues and so on.
Btw, I couldn’t reply to this until I was a member of this forum. 🙂
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To be honest, the example with the tree would make a great movie! I would actually see Pixar (or a similar company) doing an animated, very emotional and fun movie, with that idea.
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Good ideas can be found everywhere. Your skill as a screenwriter can make turn anything into a masterpiece. 🙂
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You are right!
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They say that a photo can say more than 1,000 words. But even that photo needs to have a story. It is the same with screenwriting. What is your story that you want to tell? Then learn to tell it as best as you can. A writing routine can help discipline yourself to get in the writing mood easier. Write a few minutes each day. You will soon end up doing what you love and spend more than that. It’s hard until you get your pen in your hand and focus on that
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You are completely right, Istvan! The more I postpone doing a task, the harder it is for me to actually do it. It is always easier when I just get my pen and start writing. Slowly, but surely, I get in the mood of doing something by doing it. Ideas keep coming. This trick is extremely useful regardless of what you do…for example, the hardest part of working out is going to the gym. Once you are at the gym, it will be easier to start working out than to go back home without working out. 😀
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