THOUGHTS
ON WRITING - STYLE, VOICE, FORMAT, BUSINESS
and
other knobby screenwriting questions
IDEAS TO STORIES
While good ideas may come as rain while walking to the market, great movie stories are extremely difficult. Even a well-written and professionally executed screenplay is often far from a great story. And what makes a story great is often somewhere in that nebulous nature of the "voice" of the writer - what he or she has to say and the choices the writer makes in expressing that idea.
Readers' stacks are filled with rather decent ideas turned onto relatively mediocre stories many of which are indeed well-formatted and spell-checked to perfection by automatic screenwriting programs which are available to all with a handy $300 at their fingertips. (The Writer's Store link on this page has both Final Draft and Hollywood Screenwriter, and both have their advocates.)
Most people attempting to write believe their idea to be great when it is often only middling and familiar. Most people attempting to write either tell their story of coming to Hollywood to be an actor and the cruelness of the business, or manage to mangle a copy of their favorite Tarantino film. Both of which are destined for the round file.
The screenwriting world is extremely competitive. And certainly the first judgment any reader is going to make about a script upon picking it up, is does it look like a script. Has the writer spent enough time and effort to find out what a script is supposed to be.
I was at an event at the WGA for members who presumably have passed at least a certain level of professionalism, where a group of readers and development executive were invited to dispense wisdom and they spent most of their time complaining about brads, formatting and what was on the title page!
Readers (and execs and producers) will pick up a script and "feel" whether it is at least a competent work. They peek at the page count. If it "feels" like it is going to be chore to read, they might just put it down and pick up another one.
The beginning writer's (or indeed any writer who is not a million dollar player) first goal is to get his or her material read. The second goal is to get the reader to finish! reading to "THE END". Most scripts in the professional Hollywood (I don't mean contests, or other flotsam) are not read past the first 15-25 pages, with a peak at the middle or ending to see if it got better.
Anything that stops or slows the reader's progression through the script risks having that person simply put it down and go to the next. A spec screenplay is not a movie. It is a document first to be read. Typos slow the reader. Most people reading scripts in Hollywood, even the secretaries and interns are general bright and well educated people, and proud of that. They take umbrage to a writer who presents them with bad spelling and bad grammar. If the reader starts feeling the need to make editor's marks on your script, they have stopped reading it for content.
Certainly a writer's voice is how he/she writes. Some well-known writers blazed their own trails in style, but that is a heavy risk to take. And if taken, your style better be your own and highly involving. Or whoosh - on to the next guy.
A unique voice or deeply involving or fascinating story certain show through bad formatting and spelling. One need not be as anal about shot descriptions and transitions as some books and gurus order. Don't worry about insulting the director, if your script actually gets to a director, you're already past that issue. The director won't be insulted, he'll just bar you from the set and do what ever the hell he wants to do. But technical blocking in a script SLOWS THE READ.
I now think of transitions in a spec script as punctuation, a way to give the reader a pause when I want the place or tone to shift. It doesn't really matter if it's a CUT, a DISSOLVE or a FADE or whatever. You’re a long way from the post production lab. But is it a guide to who you expect the reader's "mind's eye" to move to the following scene. And a shot description is to take the reader to a perspective you think is necessary for understanding or tone. TV scripts use them more be it's a rather particular medium. If you're writing a TV spec, it should look like a TV script. It is better to present your point of view for the reader in the way you describe a scene. They will move through it the way you describe it. And describe with economy. To keep the reader moving. You will get many, many points for your script being a "good read". They may not buy this one, but will be eagerly willing to read the next. Because the writer's first goal (after selling the script) is keeping the door open.
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