The Naked Screenplay: Where’s Your Story?
Penguin February 28th, 2008
Every screenplay has a set of commonalities. They all have scene descriptions. They all have character descriptions. They all have dialogue. They’re all formatted. They all have interesting ideas or premises. But most screenplays, 98% of them, from the pros down to the noob, have the same problem. They don’t have a story or empathy.
When you’re writing, ask yourself 3 questions
Who’s story is this? Who’s the hero? Who’s driving the story forward?
What does he want? What is the compelling drive that forces the story to move forward? Why is the hero doing what he’s doing?
Why should I care?
There’s a place for dialogue, scene and character descriptions, but that’s at the end of your script. Not literally, but after the structure for your film works. Without that core structure, the frame, the architecture, your story will collapse. All the other stuff is just paneling. This isn’t to say that you can’t write any of that stuff. It just means they’re not as important as the structure.
If you listen to little kids tell stories, they’re full of exquisite details about everything. But they’re boring. Because they’re linear. Everything is, then and then and then. They tell you everything. Good stories are told on the cut. The go from high to low, positive to negative, good to bad, progress to reversal (or setback). Good stories leave out all the chaff.
-Penguin
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