3. Figure Out What You Care About

Now that I have told you about all of the boring logistical aspects of screenwriting, totally forget them for a second. I think the best way to brainstorm what exactly your movie should be about is to think about what’s important to you. What sorts of themes do you want to explore? Most movies on the surface are about one thing, but explore something else a little deeper. Take one of my favorite movies, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. It’s described by most people as a film about two best friends who invent fake careers in order to impress people at their high school reunion and hide the fact that they’re failures according to conventional standards. But, ultimately, it’s about how everyone is performing all the time—even the people whose lives seem ideal! And that success isn’t necessarily measured by things, but relationships! Also, that it can just be fun to fold scarves.

You might discover you want to change the underlying emotional theme of your movie as you write, but I think it’s good to pick one so that you can reflect back on your first intention and see if the scenes you write consistently reflect or challenge that.

4. Establish Your Protagonist

Treat getting to know the main character of your film kind of like you would getting to know information about your favorite pop star. You should be desperate to discover facts about them and treat no detail like it’s too mundane! What’s their favorite color? Do they prefer crunchy or smooth peanut butter? What’s their biggest fear?

Create a character profile for your protagonist detailing all sorts of facts about them. Many of them won’t appear in your script, but this practice will help you when writing because you’ll be familiar with how they’d behave in a scene or respond to another character. Do the same for other characters as you see fit.

5. Write Some Throwaway (Or Not So Throwaway!) Scenes

Consider the setting and mood of your film. Write some practice scenes totally unrelated to the story to get a feel for the characters and how you want them to talk. Consider a movie script a little glimpse into a whole entire world that exists within your head! Plus, some of these practice scenes might cause you to churn out bits of dialogue that you end up reusing later in your real draft.

5. Write a Logline

A logline is a one-sentence summary of your movie that boils it down to its most essential elements. It’s basically the description that’d come up when you Google the name of a film, or how you’d describe your movie to someone at a party. A good logline usually mentions…

  • The protagonist
  • The goal of the protagonist
  • The antagonist (which can be a concept, not necessarily just another person)

In the case of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, this would look like…

  • The protagonists: Romy and Michele
  • The goal: impressing their old classmates
  • The antagonist: their old classmates

Which would make the logline something like…

Two best friends create an elaborate lie about their careers in order to impress their old classmates at their 10-year high school reunion.

For such short sentences, loglines are so hard to write. But once you establish one, it help you focus on a clear goal for your story.

6. Write an Outline

Some screenwriters like to get super organized before delving into a script by writing on index cards representing every scene of the film, including the setting and the dramatic beats for the scene. Others like to write simple outlines, often according to the three-act structure I mentioned before. Some people just like to write a few paragraphs so they know the general direction they should go in. I don’t think there is one right method, but I think before you delve into writing your first draft, it’s good to chart out a solid beginning, middle, and end, so you know where you’re going.

7. Make a Writing Schedule

Before you actually start writing your script, consider how much time you want to devote to it. Give yourself some realistic goals. Like, “I’ll write one scene a day,” or, “ I’ll write for one hour a day.” Or maybe, “I will write the first act of the film in one week.”

Writing a script requires a lot of discipline, which is super boring, but NECESSARY. Picture how even the most exciting, action-filled blockbusters originated: I’m sure the guy who wrote The Fast and the Furious groaned in frustrated at his computer screen a few times because he just didn’t feel like writing some days!

8. Write a Draft Without Worrying

Type out a draft of your film without focusing too hard on self-editing or length. If you have a solid outline and sense of plot for your story, it won’t be too painful. Some small but helpful things to consider while actually getting down to business:

  • Remember the phrase “Start late, get out early,” a cliché that writing teachers love because it’s true: You don’t need to start every scene with people coming in a room and saying hello to one another, and you don’t need to conclude with them saying goodbye. It’s OK to skip the obvious.
  • Try to keep each bit of dialogue to three lines or less at a time. (One exception is if someone in your movie is giving a speech.) Consider what conversations with your friends sound like—in fact, you can even record them and transcribe them to get a feel for this!
  • Have your characters call one another by name at least once. And make sure every character’s name sounds distinct and can’t be confused with another character’s! (Fun fact: The reason Laverne on Laverne & Shirley wore a letter “L” on her clothes was to avoid confusion: so the audience would distinctly remember that she was Laverne and the other main character was Shirley.)
  • Consider where each scene takes place for maximum interest. Make sure your characters are doing a variety of activities. Like, if your movie is set at a high school, make sure every scene doesn’t just take place at the cafeteria table where your characters sit. Unless, of course, this is an avant-garde film on the politics of the high school cafeteria, in which case don’t let me stand on your toes!
  • Read it! Print your script draft out and read it to check for proper formatting. Read the lines aloud and see how they sound when they’re not just written, but coming out of a human mouth.
  • Ask some trustworthy friends to read the script and give you honest feedback. Sometimes when I write I become so completely absorbed that I miss glaring mistakes or whether the pacing of my scenes is too slow or fast. Remember how I told you that outlining moving scripts was a good practice exercise? Ho back and outline your current script. This is a good way to ensure that your acts are the right length and that you’ve got a solid beginning, middle, and end.

9. Revise

No script will ever feel perfect. Sometimes I write things that I think are great, then revisit my work the next week only to realize I’ve subconsciously plagiarized dialogue from High School Musical. The best thing to do is to just keep revising, printing out your script, and hand-revising. Make notes of parts where jokes could be stronger, or dialogue could be more unique to the character. Try out scenes in different settings than you originally wrote. Write a different ending! Try out all sorts of paths until you’re happy with what you’ve got.

Now go out there and write the movie you want to see in the world! Don’t forget to thank me when you win an Jenny Award—and please be sure to wear a formal backpack on the red carpet, as I am petitioning for this to become Hollywood’s most glamorous trend. ♦