Characters Have Purpose
February 17th, 2010
Recently, I spoke with a close friend of mine. She went on a rant about a script she read having way too many characters. I didn’t read the script she spoke of but I’ve read similar ones. That made me think about being a writer and made me question how many characters I have in my screenplays.
Each character serves a purpose to your story, with the main story line and any additional story lines. If they have no purpose, delete them. This is the best advice I can give beginning writers. There is nothing worse than too many characters and confusing the reader.
One of the important aspects of a character is relate-ability. The reader and audience must relate to a character for them to stay invested in the story and character. Otherwise, why watch? Why read? And if they can’t even remember who the character is and what they’re doing there, then you must delete that character or do some major revisions.
Remember a top key to screenwriting- Less is more.
And always, always… Write with purpose. Everything you write has a purpose to the story. The characters are no exception.
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Writing Explosive Action Lines
February 10th, 2010
Showing the story instead of telling the story is critical in the action lines of a screenplay. These lines are used to show different elements in the scene without actually directing anything or anyone. If not careful, action lines can end up looking like a paragraph out of a novel and quickly discarded by readers, producers and anyone else with a short attention span.
In order to break the rules, we must know the rules.
Rules to Action Lines:
- No directing. We are writers and not actors or directors. Let them do their job and you do yours.
- Eliminate “ings”. Everything takes place right now. If Adam is sitting, he sits. If Sandy is playing basketball, Sandy plays basketball.
- Less is more. No paragraphs. Stick to roughly four lines of text.
What makes great action lines?
Action words. Choosing the words you use is so important to a quality screenplay. Action words are those that show movement and create impact for the reader. Here’s a list of a few: chase, scream, blast, rip, and explode.
Most of those are great for action genre scripts but if the story is a drama, action words are still important. Being more creative, however, is the key. Dramas are more about the characters, generally, and using action-evoking adjectives can aid the intent of the scene or character. For example, “Sarah listens” can be expanded to “Sarah intently listens”. The second example gives a sense of action while creating subtext.
Using the action lines wisely will create a visually moving story perfect for the silver screen.
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Slug Lines: How They Shape Our Vision
February 8th, 2010
One of the most difficult aspects of screenplay formatting is the slug line. These little guys are so important because they set the scene and tone. They tell us where the scene takes place and what time frame. In this posting, we’ll be discussing what information and format capitalization/punctuation is used and required in slug lines and why.
INT./EXT.
First, we have to decide if the scene takes place inside (interior) or outside (exterior). This all depends on your story. If you have the scene in the desert, use exterior. If you have the scene in a house, use interior.
Now let’s say you have a scene at an amusement park. After the establishing exterior scene[i], the next scenes take place inside the amusement park and are still considered exterior because they are all outside as well.
WHERE – LOCATION
Secondly, we have to show the reader where the scene is taking place. This can be a “HOUSE”, a “BARN”, a “HIGHWAY”, or where ever you place your scene. Depending on the context of the story, a location gives clues to the reader and audience as to what they can expect.
There will be times when an additional location is necessary. Let’s say we have a scene in the kitchen of a house. We could use “KITCHEN” as a secondary location. When having a secondary location, use a hyphen between the two to distinguish.
WHEN – TIME FRAME
Thirdly, we have to decide the time frame of the scene. If it’s morning, type “MORNING”. A number of other examples are: NIGHT, DAY, DUSK, DAWN.
A lot of times, the scene is continuous from the previous scene. It is unnecessary to show the time frame and unnecessary to type “CONTINUOUS”. Using “CONTINUOUS” in the slug line is distracting to the reader as we assume the next scene follows right after the last scene.
What about when the next scene is later in the day but takes place at the same location? Then type “LATER”. Remember, though, that “LATER” implies that several hours have passed. If only a brief amount of time has passed, for example ten to thirty minutes, then use “MOMENTS LATER”.
CAPITALIZATION AND PUNCTUATION
A slug line is ALWAYS capitalized. For punctuation: abbreviate the interior or exterior with a period, space, location, space, hyphen, space and time frame.
EXAMPLE
Now let’s discuss the following example. The first slug line will be incorrect and the second will show the correct way.
EXT. OUTSIDE THE DECK OF A CRUISE SHIP. MIDDAY
The above slug line is incorrect. There are way too many words making the setting complicated to understand as a script reader or producer. The word “outside” is already assumed in “Ext” and is unnecessary. Words like “the and “of a” are also unnecessary and clutter the slug line. The punctuation is also wrong.
The correct slug line is:
EXT. CRUISE SHIP – DECK – MIDDAY
Think of slug lines like layers. First, is it inside or outside? Where is the main location? Is there a secondary location? And what time of day is it? All these questions are answered in the above slug line in a brief and simple manner. That is exactly what is wanted.
Can you tell a difference between the two? Does it make sense?
The key with slug lines and also with screenwriting is that you must SHOW the story. With other creative writing, the writer “tells” the story but as a writer for the screen, we must SHOW. Think visually and give the reader and audience one word they can SEE mentally. This will create a more engaged reader and move the screenplay pacing to an exciting page-turner.
Slug lines are vital to setting the scenes within your screenplay. Understanding and mastering them will create a visually stunning film.
[i] An establishing scene is used to explain the setting of the following scene. It is a master scene showing us where the following scene will take place.
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Welcome to ScreenplayGenius!
February 3rd, 2010
Thank you for visiting my new site called ScreenplayGenius.
After five years of learning and writing screenplays, I have decided to share my knowledge with other aspiring screenwriters. Writing a feature script is like a long journey with many challenges, obstacles and frustrations with great reward at completion. The trick is completing. Right? Well, ScreenplayGenius is here to help. Not only do I love writing screenplays, I love reading them. With all my knowledge, my goal is to provide clear, understandable, expert analysis of every script I take notes on that will help you to your end goal of completion and ready for the marketplace.
What do you do when you feel stuck in your story?
Take it to the Genius!
In addition to my services on story analysis, I will also be posting blogs regarding different aspects of writing, story and format. This will provide additional knowledge and education totally free.
I love writing and storytelling with all my heart and can’t wait to share it with you!
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