- All ideas need to be dramatic. Usually less is more - the writer needs to know all the back stories and the backgrounds, but the audience only needs to know enough to stay hooked without being confused by it. You need to bring a new perspective to well-known tales, worlds, subjects and genres. The way the audience feels when they are experiencing it is really important. Clashing genres can work if they are handled well. The emotional response that you are looking for is just as important as well. Don't write anything you don't care about, because you don't want to lose interest in the script while writing it.
- Strong scripts know what they are and what message they are trying to tell, weak scripts drag on without being clear from the start. Form is the kind and the shape of story you are telling. Format is where it might air and who will watch it. When writing soaps, they require a huge variation of characters, families, relationships, settings and back stories. One thing to remember about the form of a script is that they are all blueprints rather than a piece of literature. They are written to be made. The more the script looks like something formed and formatted, the more impressive and effective it will be.
- To improve you script and your craft you can work on the structure, dialogue, formatting and scene writing, but if your characters aren't engaging enough, then the whole plot and storyline will be difficult. To be able to write characters, you need to know what the world looks like from their point of view. When you know this, then you can know how they might act and react in any situation. Good characters are usually active, not passive. They are always on some kind of journey, whether it be physical, emotional, psychological etc, and they are always trying to do or get something. Characters should always want and need something, because from this creates dilemmas and choices that they have to make. Characters need to be emotionally engaging and the audience need to spend time with them and become engaged in their life. They need to have some emotional background so the audience can sympathise with them.
- You don't need to know all of the exact details of the ending, but you need to know what kind of ending you are trying to reach and achieve, whether it's tragic, comic, romantic, thrilling, horrifying, bittersweet or ambiguous. Knowing where you're going means you can work out the best and the most engaging place to start. Once the story has started you need to hook the audience's attention immediately. This doesn't always mean an action sequence, it means starting the story straight away by showing the characters in action. Don't start by explaining the back story, if there is something important that we need to know about the past, you should bring it into the present-tense action. You don't have to introduce every character or every theme and plot straight away, bring them in gradually to surprise the audience. But you do need to do something important in the beginning, and make sure the characters step out of their comfort zone. Plan the story before you start writing. Make sure you know what the beginning, middle and end are, and plan what happens in them. Make sure the plot isn't taking over the characters.
- The most difficult part to write in many scripts and stories is the middle. The middle takes up most of the story so it's the most significant part of the story. Once you've worked out where to begin and where to end, you have to work out the best way for your characters to get from one to the other. If it's an action story there should be some tension, if it's a detective story there should twists and clues, if it's a love story you should write about a blossoming relationship. The characters need to get lost in the story. You need to manipulate the characters, events, actions and consequences. You need to make things difficult for the characters while keeping the pace of the story for the audience.
- Endings should follow on from everything has happened before. They must not be predictable, there should be a surprise at the end. Great ending satisfy the audience. To do this you need to follow through with your story, and bring the characters to a point of understanding and realisation about themselves.
- A scene is the mixture of time, place and setting you use to frame and show a significant moment or event in the story. It's what we need to see for the story to move forward and it's the moment of drama and comedy. Something significant must happen in a scene whether it's a big thing or a small thing. Scenes show the conflicts, tensions, dilemmas, decisions, actions and reactions of the characters running the story. Juxtaposition is crucial in scenes. Each scene needs to be specific and unique.
- Dialogue isn't just about what the characters say, it's about what they express. Good characters have identifiable voices due to their tone, grammar and the ways they express themselves. If your character has an accent or uses slang you need to write it in. When we are first introduced to the character, show their accent but don't excessively write the accent all the way through as it will be difficult to read. Find dramatic ways of making the information important in the moment and story. If you want the audience to realise a secret about a character, make the revelation it quite difficult with consequences in the story.
This information will be very useful when it comes to writing screenplays and also it help make my work more effective.
