The Naked Screenplay: What is Screenwriting?
Penguin February 23rd, 2008
Screenwriting is the most difficult form of writing because it’s composed of hundreds of simple rules and principles. When taken together, the complexity of it all can be astounding. It’s like trying to eat an elephant. How would you eat an entire elephant? In little burgers, of course! The craft, and it is a craft, of screenwriting is learning how to eat all those littler burgers in the right order and pace.
The main craft of screenwriting is to “make the interior exterior” to “make inner feelings visible”. This will come out in visuals, actions, characters, but mostly in conflict.
It’s a craft, not a formula. Just like painting, dancing, or music are crafts, so is screenwriting. In order to be a good screenwriter, you need to know all the rules and principles essential to the craft. At that point, you can break the rules, as long as you know what you’re doing and you put something better in it place.
The essential craft of screenwriting is logic. If you can think, you can write. It as to do with architecture, not literary skill. Think back to all those terrible movies that didn’t make any sense because they lacked logic. Think of the great films that make instant sense. That logic is the structure of the screenplay. Screenplays ARE structure. The dialogue and everything is just paneling.
What will craft do for you?
It’ll maximize your talent. It won’t give you talent, but it will take the talent you do have and bring it to the fore. It’ll give you essential questions to ask about your screenplay, not the answers to those questions. The answers are up to you and come from inspiraton and perspiration. The questions stimulate your subconscious.
It’ll reduce your despair. How many times have you seen a bad movie and just beemed because you say to yourself, “I could do better than that!”? Or how many times have you seen a great movie and felt crushed because, “I could never do that.”? Understanding the craft behind screenwriting will expose those great films and the questions they had to wrestle with to make them great. It empowers you because greatness is no longer a mystery box.
It’ll reduce your writing time. Knowing the questions and how to solve the problems of your screenplay in a systematic manner will get you out of that rut. Just like how dancers practice over and over again to get that muscle memory, you’ll gain that same sort of mental muscle memory.
Next: Inspiration
- Penguin
The Naked Screenplay: Introduction | The Naked Screenplay: What is Screenwriting? |The Naked Screenplay: Inspiration | The Naked Screenplay: Perspiration | The Naked Screenplay: Research | The Naked Screenplay: The Audience is Smart | The Naked Screenplay: Where’s Your Story? | The Naked Screenplay: Why Should I Care? | The Naked Screenplay: Who is Driving the Story? | The Naked Screenplay: Who is the Hero? |
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