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A Few Common Problems
Writers Have:
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| 1. |
After scanning the first five pages
of the screenplay the reader still doesn't have the slightest
idea what the story is about. Believe it or not, there
are times I've read an entire screenplay and the only
possible answer to the question, "What's it about?" is,
"It's about a hundred and twenty pages." |
| 2. |
There is no dramatic tension, meaning
there is no conflict. Without conflict, there is no story
- it's as simple as that. It is amazing how many writers
will go to great pains to set up a situation rife with
the possibility of edge of your seat tension, and then
blithely have their main character completely avoid it.
Sure, in real life resolving conflict before it ignites
is a good thing, in fiction the opposite is true! |
| 3. |
There is dramatic tension, but it doesn't
build. Often this is because the stakes don't mount with
each successive scene. Instead, the same scene is simply
rewritten over and over until the climax. Each scene must
move the story forward. |
| 4. |
Seeming set ups that actually aren't.
One VERY IMPORTANT thing to keep in mind is that almost
everything in a screenplay reads either as a set up, a
payoff or the road from one to the other. So often writers
introduce a fact or character to solve a problem in that
particular scene, without realizing that it will set up
an expectation in the audience's mind. Everything in a
screenplay impacts on everything else. This is especially
true of characters and events introduced early on. The
audience will expect that they will come into play later
on, and feel let down if they don't. |
| 5. |
The characters are too familiar. Up
to a point, familiar is good, it makes the audience feel
at home, these are people we know. Your job is to give
these familiar characters a fresh twist. Familiarity gives
us a frame of reference, so when they do something unexpected,
we are genuinely surprised. In other words, you've allowed
a character we thought we knew inside and out to grow.
And that is compelling. Without a fresh twist, no matter
how well written, familiar characters come across as stale
and often stereotypical. |
| 6. |
Introducing characters without giving
their age. This is a must. If we don't know how old the
person is, we can't visualize them. And, a specific age
is always better than "thirtyish" or "mid-twenties." |
| 7. |
Characters suddenly change, usually
for the better, in act three merely because it's time
for them to, rather than because of anything that's happened.
Character changes throughout, from the simplest nuance
to the broadest life altering decision, MUST be earned.
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| 8. |
Introducing new characters late in
the script. Don't. We will not care about them in the
same way and will feel cheated. Our emotional investment
is with the characters we've just spent the last hour
and a half with. You can't expect us to care about someone
new now. |
| 9. |
This goes double for anything that
even faintly resembles Deus Ex Machina - That is, introducing
a new character or fact late in the game that couldn't
possibly have been intuited before, but now solves the
hero's main problem. Not only will the audience feel cheated,
but you'll have totally sacrificed the internal logic
of the world you've created. In other words, it's a really
bad idea. |
| 10. |
The subplots don't reflect, mirror
or impact on the main storyline. A successful subplot
must in some way inform or resonate against the central
story. If it doesn't, it stops the story dead. Remember,
every scene must move the story forward in some way. In
a really good script, each scene - and sometimes just
a single word or glance - will advance several storylines
at once. |
| 11. |
Keeping crucial events/facts that the
characters would logically know about secret for fear
of tipping your hand to the audience. This is a very common
mistake. It results in the set up and the payoff coming
one immediately after the other, meaning we only find
out there's a problem at the moment it's being solved.
This not only completely squanders the on going dramatic
tension it would otherwise engender, but undermines the
believability of your characters. |
| 12. |
The hero doesn't have anything at risk.
We need to know what "doing the right thing" will cost
the hero. The same holds true for every other character.
Each main character must have something that hangs in
the balance. The flip side is that each character has
to want something, which, of course, is what they hope
to gain by putting something that they already have at
risk. There is no truer maxim than the old trusty: Nothing
Ventured, Nothing Gained. |
| 13. |
The writer is so fond of their hero
that they don't have the heart to put them into the kind
of nerve-wracking jeopardy that keeps the audience on
the edge of its seat. |
| 14. |
There is no genuine force of opposition.
Thus, the hero has nothing to play against and so doesn't
get the chance prove their worth. As mentioned before,
many writers love their hero so much they can't bear to
put them in genuine peril. Trouble is, without that they
can't truly become a hero! |
| 15. |
There is a villain but he/she isn't
well defined enough. Or, they don't do much. The villain
can't be a nebulous threat that never really materializes
or acts. A villain has to take action, and that action
has to mount. Remember, the villain's job is to put the
hero to the test, preferably a test that even the hero
doesn't think he/she can pass! |
| 16. |
The villain isn't good enough. After
all, no one is bad to the bone. Or, if they are, they
don't see themselves that way. I'm sure even Kenneth Lay
thought he was doing a good thing. The point is, black
and white characters - whether all bad or all good - are
boring. Not to mention impossible to relate to. In fact,
sometimes a totally good character is even more off putting
than a bad guy. Think about it, that guy in the office
who does everything right all the time, has a perfect
family life, and his desk is never messy, don't you just
hate him? The point is, let your villain be likable -
thus accessible - in some small way. The more we can relate
to him/her as a human being, the more heinous - and compelling
- his/her bad behavior will seem. |
| 17. |
Way too much detailed stage direction.
To be told your stage direction is novelistic is not a
compliment. Stage direction should be as short as possible,
with nothing superfluous or unnecessary. Remember, less
is more. Always. |
| 18. |
Putting information in the stage direction
that isn't visual so the audience will have no way of
knowing it. It's amazing how many writers will give their
character's backstory in the stage direction. For instance,
from an actual script: "DOCTOR BONEAPART, a sadistic physician,
lost his license years ago for experimenting on live human
beings." Unless he has this information tattooed on his
forehead, how on earth could we know that by looking at
him? |
A List of Pointers...In
No Particular Order:
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| 1. |
Make sure that none of your characters
have similar names - a script with main characters named
Carl, Carol and Charlie is impossible to follow. |
| 2. |
Make sure your format is right. It
isn't that readers are sticklers for form. It's that they
read at warp speed, and if you deviate from the accepted
format, it makes your screenplay harder to read. And believe
me, the last thing you want to do is needlessly annoy
the reader from the start. |
| 3. |
Make sure that your screenplay isn't
printed on both sides of the page. Even though one of
the most established agencies does this, and of course,
it is ecologically sound, it is much more cumbersome to
read. It breaks the flow immeasurably. |
| 4. |
Here's one you couldn't intuit. Three
holes, sure, but only two brads, top and bottom. Three
brads brand you as an amateur. Go figure! |
| 5. |
NEVER use a picture or illustration
as a cover page. Ever, ever, ever. Really. |
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| Literary consultant Lisa
Cron provides comprehensive script and story
analysis, in-depth story development solutions and
consulting, for both the professional and the novice. |
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Lisa Cron can offer you an objective perspective,
honest criticism, and practical suggestions for less than what
most others might charge.
See the page for more info.
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"You can't wait for
inspiration, you have to go after it with
a club."
-- Jack London
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"The essential is to
excite the spectators. If that means playing
Hamlet on a flying trapeze or in an aquarium,
you do it."
-- Orson Welles
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"Give them pleasure.
The same pleasure they have when they wake
up from a nightmare. "
-- Alfred Hitchcock
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"There is no great writing,
only great rewriting."
-- Justice Brandeis
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"Don't get it right,
get it written."
-- James Thurber
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"Surprise 'em with what
they expect!"
-- Norman Krasna
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"The humorous story is
told gravely; the teller does his best to
conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects
that there is anything funny about it."
-- Mark Twain
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"Never confuse movement
with action."
-- Ernest Hemingway
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"Talent is helpful in
writing, but guts are absolutely essential."
-- Jessamyn West
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"I would never write
about anyone who is not at the end of his
rope."
-- Stanley Elkin
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"Tension is wonderful
for making people laugh."
-- John Cleese
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"Action is character."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald
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"Don't say the old lady
screamed -- bring her on and let her scream."
-- Mark Twain
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| Looking for answers to
the most important questions asked by screenwriters
today? |
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| Lisa Cron, along
with other top studio and television executives,
literary agents, managers, script consultants,
producers, produced screenwriters and distinguished
screenwriting authors, answers screenwriters'
questions in Final Draft's new book, |
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