Have you ever walked out of a movie theatre thinking “Hey, I could have written that story better? So, for all you writers out there who have a passing interest in writing a movie script, there are a few things you need to know. Here are listed a few basic steps that are of prime importance, showing you how to write a movie script.
Format
The most important thing that you need to keep in mind while writing a script is that the format is completely different from writing a regular novel or story. A novel, for example, can be of varying lengths, and do not follow hard and fast rules related to style of writing. But, a screenplay for a feature film is almost always about 100-120 pages long. Another thing to keep in mind is the tense of the writing. A screenplay is always in present tense, almost as if to tell the actors what they are required to do. A novel, on the other hand, is generally written in past tense.
Plan Your Script
One more thing that you will need to finalize before writing a screenplay is the genre of the script you are writing. Your best script will be written when you decide to write a movie script in the genre you like to watch. Your passion will come through in the writing. In addition to the genre, you will also need to plan out a few more details before you start writing. You will need to decide the characters, the conflict they undergo, the incidents that change the course of the characters’ lives, and finally and most importantly, the climax.
Visual Writing
Remember, you should only describe the things you can actually SEE or HEAR onscreen. Anything else is unnecessary. Screenwriting is about finding ways to convey character’s feelings, emotions, and layers through their actions. Also, in the interest of using as few words as possible, it’s encouraged for you to use short sentences with brief descriptions. With a novel, you can go into infinite detail describing the exact feeling, smell, touch, and world of the scene. A screenplay must be able to paint a picture in the filmmakers’ minds, but not in as much detail as a book. It is, thus, highly advisable that you use evocative verbs that paint vivid pictures in front of the reader.
Dialogue
Unlike in books, where we have the time and space to set characters apart by how we describe them, it would be wise to remember that in a screenplay, the main tool we have to set our characters apart is the way they speak: their dialogue. Your goal is to try and keep these dialogues short and crisp. Try to keep about 95% of your dialogues to 3 lines or less. Another important tool that you could use to set the tone of the character is the use of subtext. Writing clever and witty subtext may be a little time consuming, but it is an excellent way to build characters within the limited space provided to you.
White Spaces
Finally, always remember that in a script, white spaces (or empty spaces) are your best friends. Scripts are all about using as few words as possible to paint a picture in front of the readers’ eyes. Writing a script with more white spaces makes for a very fast read, and makes your script look more professional. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you better churn out a script which makes for a fast read. Make sure you delete any details that do not contribute to the story’s progress, and more importantly anything that you can’t see or hear onscreen.
Image credit: Eric The Fish on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Pranay.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Pranay Kanagat is a freelance writer who has a love for writing on various subjects. In particular, he enjoys creative writing. He is also studying for an Engineering degree.[/author_info] [/author]