Notes To Screenwriters
Notes To Screenwriters
V I C K I P E T E R S O N | B A R B A R A N I C O L OS I
Notes
Advancing Your Story, Screenplay, and Career with
WHATEVER HOLLYWOOD THROWS AT YOU
Praise for Notes to Screenwriters
turns the thankless task of rewriting into a process of discovery and an experi-
ence of revelation. Notes tell you a reader found a problem. Barbara and Vicki tell
you how to know what that problem really is.
Charles Slocum, Assistant Executive Director, Writers Guild of America, West
On the short list of must-reads for every lm and TV writer.... Strongly recom-
mended for those whose job it is to give notes. If both sides of the table had this
book in their hands, the world would be a happier place.
Dena Higley, Emmy Awardwinning head writer, Days of Our Lives, One Life
to Live; author, Momaholic
I LOVED this book! It plainly and succinctly explains things it took me fteen
years in Hollywood to learn. It tells a writer exactly what to expect from notes, and
exactly how to respond which will save them a world of pain.
Karen Hall, writer and producer, Judging Amy, Moonlighting, M*A*S*H
The road to obsolescence is paved with writers who never learned how to receive,
interpret, and execute notes. The authors give young scribes the tools to tackle this
hugely important but ever-neglected part of the job.
Scott Teems, screenwriter, That Evening Sun, Rectify
A gift. Provides that long-needed bridge between the too-oft-times warring
factions: the misunderstood writer versus the equally misunderstood executive, pro-
ducer, agent, publisher. Helps the writer create the best work possible. Lifts
the veil on the confusions, standoffs, and utter frustration that can be the creative
process.
Bobette Buster, story consultant, Pixar, FOX; Adjunct Professor, USC School
of Cinema
tells it like it is for screenwriters, offering straightforward and practical insider
advice on how to write a good script and how to survive and ourish in this tough
and crazy business. The perfect guide to maneuvering through the often tricky
and murky waters of launching and sustaining a successful writing career.
Buzz McLaughlin, author, The Playwrights Process; Program Director for the
New Hampshire Institute of Art, MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen
Reading this book may take away your last excuse not to write and / or rewrite
your beloved screenplay. Insightful. A book on how to write a great script, not
just how to survive our industry. Im keeping this one by my keyboard.
Clare Sera, screenwriter, Blended
Where was this book 20 years ago when I was starting out? It will save much pain,
turmoil, and time for those who read it and learn.... A gift to writers and those who
work with writers. The Rules for Professional Screenwriters alone is worth the price
of the book.
Joan Considine Johnson, writer / producer, Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, Doc, Olivia,
Rugrats
Every pro screenwriter Ive ever met has the same few dog-eared screenwriting-
fundamentals books on their shelves. To those writers, these books are more precious
than gold. Notes is about to take up residence in writing ofces across Hollywood.
An instant classic. If youre looking to break in, this needs to be in your collection.
Brian Bird, writer / producer, When Calls the Heart, Touched by an Angel
A must-read for aspiring writers as well as practitioners. Penned with wisdom
and wit. Brilliant. Peppered with examples of what works and what doesnt,
all offered with insight and humor. Should be required reading in all screenwriting
courses.
Patricia F. Phalen, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Media and Public
Affairs, The George Washington University
The note I give the most often as a development executive is the one I nd most
frustrating as a writer: Im not engaged with your characters or whats happening.
Barbara and Vicki offer a much-needed strategy to answer this note, and about a
thousand others. They dig into the guts of what makes a story, and what makes a
story work.
John Burd, Manager, Production & Development, MarVista Entertainment
Creative and unique. Translates cryptic phrases like Its not edgy enough and
Wheres the sizzle? into actionable ideas. An exciting launching pad for examin-
ing what works in your script, and also a way to gauge what readers and buyers
might actually be taking away from the material.
Ron Fernandez, Director, MFA Film and Television, Mount St. Marys College
A fresh approach for new writers who think theyve heard it all. A solid perspec-
tive on writing that sheds new light on how to take feedback and make a script
better. A must-read.
Steve McEveety, producer, What Women Want, Braveheart
contains fantastic exercises designed to help you develop your characters, your
plot, your theme, your whole damn script. Im working on a project right now, and
literally turned to this to get over humps in my character development.
Chad Gervich, writer / producer, Wipeout, After Lately, Dog With a Blog
A great buffer to help soften potential blows to your ego and your skills as a writer.
The book goes beyond the basics of just notes and gives both beginners and veterans
something to help their writing process.
Matthew Terry, screenwriter / lmmaker / teacher
takes away the dread of receiving notes and provides constructive and realistic
[solutions] that are applicable to any screenplay, giving the writer the opportunity to
solve most issues. One of the most useful tools in a screenwriters toolbox.
Stefan Blitz, Editor-in-Chief, Forces of Geek
All the elements for a screenwriting and writing companion. Eye-opening for
connecting your script with audiences, and making the cinematic experience
compelling.
Dave Watson, editor, Movies Matter
treats the storyteller as someone with a noble calling who can always strive to
be better. Drawing from their vast experience in the lm industry, the authors reveal
solid strategies for utilizing feedback to shape a story into its best possible form.
Screenwriters at any level of experience will benet from this book.
Tom Farr, writer
A wealth of information. All screenwriters will learn to create better and more
compelling stories. Read this book only if your skin is thick enough to handle the
truth about what you put into your screenplays.
Forris Day Jr., writer / reviewer, Scared Stiff Reviews, ScriptMag.com
Notes
T O S C R E E N W R I T E R S
B A R B A R A N I C O L O S I A N D V I C K I P E T E R S O N
!"#$%&'%( *+,- ./+-01 .&-22%34$01 $%" 5$-22- 6'/7
W H A T E V E R H O L L Y W O O D T H R O W S A T Y O U
M I C H A E L W I E S E P R O D U C T I O N S
Published by Michael Wiese Productions
12400 Ventura Blvd. #1111
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 379-8799, (818) 986-3408 (FAX)
[email protected]
www.mwp.com
Cover design by Johnny Ink. www.johnnyink.com
Interior design by William Morosi
Printed by McNaughton & Gunn
Manufactured in the United States of America
Copyright 2015 by Barbara R. Nicolosi and Vicki Peterson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
permission in writing from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nicolosi, Barbara R.
Notes to Screenwriters: Advancing Your Story, Screenplay, and Career With Whatever Hollywood
Throws at You / Barbara R. Nicolosi and Vicki Peterson; foreword by David McFadzean.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-61593-213-9
1. Motion picture authorship. 2. Motion picture authorship--Marketing. I. Peterson, Vicki
II. Title.
PN1996.N53 2015
808.23--dc23
2014018798
Printed on Recycled Stock
!
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Dedication x
Acknowledgments xi
How to Use This Book xiii
FOREWORD by David McFadzean xv
INTRODUCTION: THE BOOK THAT NOTES BUILT xviii
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CHAPTER 1
NOTES ON TAKING NOTES 3
CHAPTER 2
NOTES ON THE STORYTELLER 9
a. Are You Good Enough? 10
b. Can You Go There? 12
c. Respecting Your Voice 14
d. Your Passion Project 16
e. The Essential Skills of Storytelling and Screenwriting 17
f. Finding Your Voice: An Exercise 20
CHAPTER 3
NOTES ON STORY 22
a. A Story Is Better Than the Real 24
b. Story Has a Nature 26
c. Movie Stories Have a Special Nature 32
d. A Story Has to Matter 34
e. High Stakes Mean Death 38
f. Meeting the Audiences Needs 39
g. The Catharsis of Compassion and the Fear of Evil 42
h. Things Story is NOT 43
i. Exercises for Crafting Your Story 44
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CHAPTER 4
ARENA NOTES: A WORLD TO EXPLORE 46
a. Arena Exercises 50
CHAPTER 5
NOTES ON CHARACTER: THE LOVABLE PARADOX 51
a. Qualities of a Relatable Character (Adapted from
Aristotles Poetics) 52
b. Character Versus Characterization 55
c. What Do They Want? What Do They Need? 57
d. Backstory: How Did They Get Here? 59
e. Finding the Haunting Paradox 62
f. Character Exercises 63
CHAPTER 6
NOTES ON DIALOGUE: BETTER THAN REAL SPEECH 64
a. Dialogue Is Designed to Be Heard 65
b. Dialogue Is Designed for Actors to Play 67
c. Dialogue Has a Momentum 67
d. Dialogue as a Voice of Authority 68
e. Dialogue Utilizes Metaphors 69
f. Dialogue Utilizes Subtext 71
g. Dialogue Exists to Process Conict 72
h. Dialogue-Writing Tips and Exercises 74
CHAPTER 7
NOTES ON THEME: THE GOOD, THE GREAT, AND THE
UGLY 77
a. Theme Is a Thesis 78
b. Exercises to Strengthen Your Theme 80
CHAPTER 8
NOTES ON TONE AND GENRE: GETTING ON THE SAME
PAGE 82
a. Genre Is What We Feel 82
b. Tone Is the Rhythm of Your Story 84
c. Tone and Genre Exercises 85
CHAPTER 9
SPECTACLE AS THE SERVANT OF ALL 87
a. Spectacle Exercise 88
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CHAPTER 10
STRUCTURE NOTES: HOW YOU REVEAL THE PLOT 90
a. Act One: The Beginning 91
b. Act Two: The Middle 92
c. Act Three: The End 93
d. The Beauty of the Beat 94
e. Scene Structure: The Building Blocks of Your Story 96
f. Structure Exercises 98
CHAPTER 11
CINEMATIC NOTES: DOES IT HAVE TO BE A MOVIE? 99
a. A Movie Is a Harmony of Elements 100
b. Moving Through Time and Place: Transitions 102
c. Layering In the Meaning 103
d. Death by Visual Clich 105
e. Cinematic Exercises 107
CHAPTER 12
SECTION SUMMARY: THE BIGGEST MISTAKES NEW
SCREENWRITERS MAKE 108
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'%75& 3$4 8239932 111
CHAPTER 13
FORMATTING MATTERS 113
CHAPTER 14
RULES OF SCREENPLAY STYLE 116
CHAPTER 15
SOME ADDITIONAL FORMATTING DOS AND DONTS 134
CHAPTER 16
SECTION SUMMARY: FORMATTING RED FLAGS THAT
WILL STOP YOUR SCREENPLAY 137
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CHAPTER 17
SO NOW WHAT? 141
CHAPTER 18
REWRITING 147
CHAPTER 19
STORY CURRENCY: LOGLINES, SYNOPSES, PROPOSALS,
BEAT SHEETS, AND TREATMENTS 152
a. A Penny of Your Thoughts: Loglines 153
b. Putting Your Two Cents In: A Story Synopsis 155
c. About a Fiver: Story Proposals 156
d. About the Cost of Dinner and a Movie: The Beat Sheet 160
e. Talking Real Money: The Treatment 161
CHAPTER 20
THE WRITERS REAL LIFE 164
CHAPTER 21
WORKING WITH A WRITING PARTNER 176
CHAPTER 22
WORKING WITH PRODUCERS 181
a. How Does a Writer Meet Producers? 182
b. How to Know If a Producer Is a Good Fit for You 184
c. Parameters of a Working Relationship 186
CHAPTER 23
STUDIO VS. INDIE: WHERE DOES YOUR PROJECT FIT? 193
CHAPTER 24
NETWORKING 199
CHAPTER 25
SUCCESS 203
CHAPTER 26
FAQs ABOUT THE BUSINESS 208
CHAPTER 27
SECTION SUMMARY: RULES FOR PROFESSIONAL
SCREENWRITERS 214
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APPENDIX A: The 100 Most Inuential Movies Ever Made 217
APPENDIX B: Correctly Formatted Title Page 219
APPENDIX C: Correctly Formatted First Page 220
APPENDIX D: Correctly Formatted Interior Page 221
Bibliography 222
About the Authors 224
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If you are a writer but have never written a screenplay...
Skip to Chapter 3 and read through Chapter 16. These chapters
cover the essential elements of a screenplay, and basic technical
information about standard industry formatting. Use each of the
chapters and the accompanying exercises to guide you as you esh
out another part of your project from the story and plot to the
characters, arena, structure, dialogue, and cinematic quality. When
you start writing pages, refer to the section on formatting to ensure
that what you write looks like a real screenplay. After you nish a
draft, move to Section III for what to do next.
If you are a writer who has written one or more screenplays,
but has never gotten them read or considered anywhere...
Begin at Section III and read the chapters about the business. Before
you do your rewrite, move back in the book to Section I.
If you are a screenwriter who is getting feedback from pro-
fessors, writing groups, producers, or story consultants...
This book is really for you. Take a few minutes before diving in to
make a list of the general notes that you are getting on your project.
Put the notes in categories like Notes on Me as the Writer, or
Notes on My Screenplay Story, or Notes on My Technical Style.
Make your way through the whole book from the beginning, com-
pleting all the content exercises. When you nd one of the notes
on your list in the heading of a chapter, you know where to start
working. Read that chapter and work it against your screenplay.
If you are a producer, development executive, educator, or
investor...
Start by reading the rst section of the book, on the notes experi-
ence for writers. Try and put yourself in the shoes of the writers
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story notes, character notes, structure notes, and business
notes. In short, there are lots and lots of ways for the myriad people
in the business to nd fault with your screenplay.
The sad thing is that many of the notes people give on proj-
ects are completely useless. Thats partly because, along with the
hackneyed stories, the notes themselves have become clichd.
Integrity prohibits it, but it would be possible to hand the same set
of notes off on script after script. Its rare to nd a script that has a
new problem.
Another reason notes dont offer much help is that the people
giving them often dont know any better than the writer what
the true problem with the script is. Even if they have the correct
instincts, they still may not have the vocabulary of story to help the
writer pinpoint the projects aws and allow their repair without
the destruction of the components that are working well.
There are lots of examples of useless notes that get given over
and over again to sincerely striving or hapless writers: I didnt care
about your characters. I wasnt engaged in the reading, and found
it a slog. I never understood why you were telling this story.
There was too much going on. There wasnt enough going on.
It needs a hook.
Notes to Screenwriters is the synthesis of our attempt to always
give better, more helpful notes to writers and producers. Weve tried
to get to the bottom of the clichd notes, and ascertain the real
causes behind why we dont care and why the read is a slog and
why the story just doesnt seem to cohere. Chances are, if a produc-
tion company passes on your script, its because of one or more of
the little gems weve collected for you here.
The second part of the book is spent breaking down the rules
of screenplay format. This kind of problem forms the bulk of so
many line notes because mistakes in format mess with the whole
way a screenplay should work as a technical document. If a project
doesnt work technically, it isnt going to get a chance to work any
other way so buckle down and get your formatting act together.
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Finally, the last part of the book is all the best tips we have heard
and shared about living a successful life as a professional writer in
the entertainment industry. The sad truth is, lots of good projects
go nowhere because the writer has no savoir faire about nding and
working with collaborators. In the end, people will prefer to work
with a bad project more than with an unprofessional writer. A bad
project can be xed, but taking on a difcult writer who is clueless
about the business is a thankless task.
This book is not meant to be a complete how to of screen-
writing. It isnt meant to analyze types of characters. It isnt meant to
provide a foundation in the wonderful and terrible craft of screen-
writing. This book presumes you are already somewhat schooled in
storytelling, and particularly in screen storytelling.
This book is built upon the detailed mentoring weve given to
clients. Some of the material requires taking in a deeper vision of
the meaning and purpose of story. Some of the material consists of
bullet points and lists of things to consider.
You are being put in a development executives ofce to deter-
mine why you or your story idea or your screenplay isnt working.
Our intention is to break standard industry notes down into the
reasons behind them. Why is it that you dont care about my char-
acters? What is it that makes my dialogue at? Why does my project
feel like it is meandering and in search of a point? Why dont people
like to work with me? Were trying to best articulate the notes that
the executive might give. And were offering you, the writer, some
practical, pithy, and hopefully insightful suggestions on how to
address those notes.
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So, after all that, did they like it?
Didnt they see that great metaphor I put in there?
I cant believe they didnt pick up on my theme.
Why does she keep repeating that? I dont understand it!
Did they even read it?
They think Im a hack. I know they think Im a hack.
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Why is she getting so upset? This is embarrassing.
He cant even seem to hear what Im saying.
Do I need to be here for this?
I dont need to know why you wrote what you wrote.
I need you to accept that its not working.
I dont care how hard it is to x this problem. Thats
your job.
For writers, getting notes can be a terrifying, anxiety-ridden, and
depressing experience. Youve spent months, if not years, putting
everything you have into your script, agonizing over every transi-
tion and slugline. Your themes matter deeply to you, and often come
from your own personal struggles and failures. There is a little bit
(or a lot) of your own heart and soul in each of your characters. So
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now you have to turn over the baby youve birthed and nurtured to
a bunch of people who will spend a fraction as much time, effort,
and soul sweat as you have on it, and then hope that it will be
enjoyed and appreciated. And it usually isnt. Your precious project
is set on the altar of show business, awaiting sacrice.
When we give script consultations, invariably we notice the
writers sweaty palms and the tremor in their voices. Or else, there
is just way too much bravado, which generally is masking lots of
hurt and insecurity. Often, when were giving notes, the rst ve to
ten minutes is about getting writers to just calm down so that they
can hear us and hopefully trust us.
We understand. Were writers, too, and weve been on the other
end of that table. Weve gotten some of the most debilitating, humil-
iating, unhelpful notes ever. Want proof?
Barbara: One time a producer gave a note that she didnt understand
a certain line in my script. When I coughed that it was supposed to
be a joke, her voice got really disgusted. Well, it isnt funny. Get rid
of it. And you know what? You arent funny. So why dont you go
through the whole script and take out everything you think is funny
to just save me time?
Vicki: There was the producer who one week told me she loved my
script, thought it was awless. Then the next week, she called to tell
me it was terrible and that nothing was working. I hadnt changed
anything. The next several weeks I endured the same pattern of whip-
lash-inducing notes!
Barbara: Or the time I had a script optioned by a team of two
producers who happened to be husband and wife. They liked to read
their scripts one at a time, and have each give their own set of notes.
So the wife read my project rst and gave seventeen story notes. Not
wanting to be difcult, I made the changes she had requested. Then the
husband read the script and gave twenty of his own notes. And about
fourteen of his notes requested I reverse the changes I had made for his
wife! What to do?
Vicki: Or then there was the jealous cowriter who tried to boot me off
a project by telling our producers that I wasnt a real writer and she
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couldnt work with me. The producers called her bluff, but those were
some long days sitting in the room together working on the project
which, to no ones surprise, fell apart.
We could go on. Together, weve had producers pick up cover-
age notes from their interns (not having read the script themselves)
as theyre walking into the room to tell us whats wrong with our
story. Weve seen investors nitpick arbitrary details and ignore major
storylines. Weve had to go into notes meetings and explain to
wanna-be players what a turning point is.
We get it.
But weve also been on the other side of the table as producers
giving notes.
Weve tried and tried to get a writer to make a change that
everybody in a hundred miles knew needed to be made, only to
have the writer shrug: Thats not my vision. Weve had a writer
break into a defensive sneer: Well, my stories dont have endings!
Weve had students sniff that Aristotle wasnt as smart as some
people say. Weve seen writers insist that they have tried every pos-
sible way to x a problem and it just cant be xed, so we should
just accept it. Weve seen crying and emotional breakdowns, and
desperate spontaneous therapy sessions all because some writers just
didnt know how to take notes.
One word, writers: Relax.
Getting notes doesnt have to be quite so scary. In fact, it can be
quite exciting and afrming even when the script isnt working.
After all, a notes session means someone has at last been reading
your work. Someone else wants to hear about the characters and
situations with whom youve been alone for months or years. And
then there is the chance youll nd the rare treat of a reader or
producer who really values your work, and is eager to meet you
because of it.
When a writer knows how to properly decipher notes, it can be
a liberating experience. A writer wields power. You are the creator
of your story, and have the opportunity to make the work the very
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best it can be. You are literally the hero of your own stories. You just
have to realize it.
So why all the terror? Because even in surprisingly famous places
with people getting paid big bucks, the notes that are ying around
can be cryptic and confusing. Lots of folks who are working as junior
development execs or company gateways have law degrees or busi-
ness degrees but are otherwise completely unprepared to analyze a
screenplay. Lots of script buyers are only set up to say no and have
no interest in communicating why its a no, so dealing with them
feels like a series of mystifying and brutal slamming doors. Lots of
other folks giving notes have agendas coloring their comments that
are unbeknownst to the writer; for instance, the famous, We want
this to be more something we can give to our fty-eight-year-old
actress friend, so we need to lose all the skateboarding stuff. Finally,
receiving criticism is always hard. No matter how mature you are, it
hurts when someone tells you your characters arent interesting, your
theme is kind of lame, your imagery isnt working.
Its too much to ask writers to embrace the pitfalls and suffering
of the notes process, but we do have one golden rule that everyone
in the storytelling arena needs to hear:
Learn from everything.
The notes phase is bracing, but because it is necessary, a profes-
sional writer has to learn to cope with and benet from the process.
The good news is, notes from people who read a lot of scripts gen-
erally hold some truth to them, no matter how poorly constructed
they are. It is the job of the writer to interpret the notes and then
apply the right xes. A writer who is determined to make a notes
session part of his ongoing professional development rarely falls prey
to the emotional and psychological pitfalls therein.
Here are some guidelines to maximize the experience of getting
notes:
Keep the main thing the main thing. A notes session is
not about you. Its about the project. Dont waste the note-
givers time trying to explain or make excuses for your script.
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Dont expect to be praised and afrmed. Dont come in look-
ing to make a friend. The point of the encounter is to x the
problems with your project.
Dont make it personal. Even if it is. Dont focus on the
reasons the note-giver might have to want to hurt you or get
you to quit or ruin your screenplay. Never respond to a script
or story note with a personal comment about the note-giver.
That the note-giver might be being unprofessional doesnt give
you license to lose your dignity too.
Figure out the note-givers story language. Everyone has a
different way of talking about movies and stories. Everyone has a
different scale for what makes a movie good and what is a lesser
problem. Its a very good idea to get notes from a range of people
for this reason: Every new person will give you feedback on the
aspect of movies that is most important to them, and all of the
aspects are important in the end. If a note-giver says, That scene
really worked, it is up to the writer to nd out what they mean
and exactly how it worked. When you say worked, do you
mean it was emotionally satisfying? Was it a clever and surprising
payoff or reversal? Was it a moment of psychological revelation
or artistic adeptness? The writer has to place themselves into the
mind and mode out of which the note-giver speaks. It isnt up
to the writer to give the note-writer a lesson in screenwriting
jargon. You need to be an interpreter.
Keep it positive. Even if youre terried, cling to the good
news. While many note sessions are focused on whats wrong
with a story, absorb whats right about the story, too. If your
note-giver doesnt tell you whats to like in your project, ask.
Believe there are few bad notes. Some notes are more
helpful than others, but all notes are an opportunity to improve.
Your willingness to grow and improve as a writer is what will
set you apart and make you succeed in the long run, so con-
sider every opportunity a gift.
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When you do get a bad note, nod thoughtfully, write it
down, and imagine with which friend you can most enjoy
laughing about it later. With a beer. Never snap back, be sarcas-
tic, or get defensive.
Trust your note-giver. We know its hard to do this some-
times, but if you truly believe that the person has your best
interests at heart and really wants to help you tell a great story,
the way you take notes will dramatically improve.
Dont give up your babies too soon. Some writers are
so desperate to not appear difcult that they never explain
or defend the choices they made in their scripts. Remember,
the person giving the notes has probably only read the script
once or twice, while you, the writer, have brooded over every
comma for months or years. No one knows the script as well
as you. Some insights are worth ghting for, or at least defend-
ing in a non-argumentative way.
Clarify, clarify, clarify. Adopt phrases like, So, what Im
hearing is... Even if you think you understand a note, restate
it in your own words. Misunderstandings lead to lots of wasted
time rewriting things in the wrong way.
Ask questions. Its easy for writers to get defensive, which is
one step away from shutting down. If you nd yourself doing
this, try asking more questions. This will help you direct your
energies toward a more positive solution.
Thank your note-giver. Always. Even if you didnt think the
notes were helpful, treat your note-giver with respect.
Give yourself a treat. No, really, dont skip this. After a notes
session, plan a small reward for yourself. Go watch a movie
with a friend, or get some ice cream; whatever you want. It
makes a huge difference when youre in a meeting and you
know you have something to look forward to afterward. Try it,
and see if you dont leave your meeting more upbeat.
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I dont think this writer can go there.
This project needs someone steeped in Eskimo culture.
This writer just isnt funny / dramatic / weird enough
to be writing this.
There needs to be a lot more depth in a topic like this.
The writer needs more life experience.
Some writers are just wrong for some stories. Much of our script
and story consulting work comes down to problems caused by
writers working on projects that are too advanced for them, or
completely outside their voice. Generally, people who want to write
movies go out and buy Final Draft software and a couple of books
and then start typing away. Its worse than someone just buying
paint and a canvas and starting to paint. Its like someone with no
training buying drafting paper and starting to design a skyscraper.
Nobody wants to ride in that elevator.
Part of professionalism in a writer is to assess in each project
whether one has the skill set, voice / style, depth, and courage to
handle a story. But lets face it: Most writers are burning to write
something anything that has the potential to go somewhere.
Here are some ways to know whether you should option that book,
or take that job.
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Generally, a beginning writer comes to the craft with a passion
project glimmering in his or her imagination. The writer has already
written an Academy Award acceptance speech for the project, even
though its mainly just a few story moments in his head. Almost uni-
versally, the high passion project is not the one to use as a writers
rst or second spec script. Most newbies are just not good enough
to do their own passion project justice.
This is not to say that we should only work on projects that are
easy for us. Every script should see a writer advancing in his skills.
Screenwriting is a highly detailed, complex, and layered art form,
and everybodys rst efforts are bad. Having a bad rst effort doesnt
mean you are a bad screenwriter. It just means you are doing it.
Your writing will improve the more you do it. This is a profession
founded on perseverance. As a wise man once said, You cant lose
em all. If you have any talent at all, and keep producing proposals
and drafts, and keep expanding your network of contacts, and take
opportunities when they come, eventually you will see your work
forge ahead.
Having said that, there are levels of expertise in screenwriting, as
in any art form. Be careful of hubris that would have you take on a
project that will demand more of you than you have to give. It isnt
just about you. Taking money for a job that you arent good enough
to write reects a lack of integrity. Sometimes the project is going
to require the integration of more conicts than you can handle.
Sometimes its going to require a level of research that is beyond
your possibilities. Sometimes its going to require bolder cinematic
techniques than you can deliver. Sometimes its going to be in a
genre for which your voice and style are unsuited.
Its good to accept projects that will stretch you. Its bad to
accept projects that will break you. Its demoralizing to leave some-
thing incomplete or to be replaced because you just couldnt deliver.
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Its very discouraging to fail at something, so be careful not to set
yourself up for failure.
So, how do you know whether you are good enough to take
on a particular project? Think of it in the same way a runner knows
if they are ready for a marathon. That is, they start with a mile run
on roads. They get really good. Then, they try running in hills. They
decide roads are a better t. They add another mile. Then, they start
meeting with pros and stocking up on gear. They get better. One
day, they enter into a 5K race. They do badly but have some fun, so
they hire a coach. Soon, they are running lots of events, some longer
than 5K. They do better each time, and really start to enjoy all the
aspects of competition. Before they know it, somebody tells them
they should enter a marathon, and there they are.
Screenwriting is the marathon of the writing life. Beginners
should start with reading screenplays. A lot of them. As many as pos-
sible. Especially the good ones, which have won awards and stood
the test of time.
Now am I ready to write a feature screenplay?
No.
Now, you should read craft-oriented books to help you under-
stand what youve seen in the screenplays. Classes on screenwriting
are useful as well, of course.
Your goal in all this research and study is to identify the essential
skill sets required for the screenwriting art form. You need to name
the skills, have an always greater understanding of the nature of
those skills, and then begin to master them. Some will come easier
to you than others. Build on your strengths, but you cant ignore the
skills at which you are weak, especially if they are essential skills. You
have to minimally become competent in the essentials the way a
long-distance runner cant neglect his stride or breathing technique
or other muscle training.
As in running, good coaching is key. There are many screen-
writing gurus out there, and many of them are saying the same
thing in their own way. Find the one who speaks best to you. Your
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goal is to learn the universals of the craft. If theres a particular tech-
nique you like, study it until youve mastered it, and test it against
new information from other sources.
Now am I ready to write a feature screenplay?
Probably not. Get back to us after youve turned out a couple
of short scripts.
b. "O- 7,J P8, %M(I(QN
The writer, when he is also an artist,
is someone who admits what others do not dare reveal.
Elia Kazan
Theres an exercise we have used very successfully in our work with
new screenwriters that is derived from the book The Elements of
Playwriting by the late Dr. Louis Catron. Dr. Catrons insight was
that until a writer had composed a personal credo, his or her work
would feel at, derivative, and cheap. Moreover, without a credo,
most people would walk away from their dream of being a profes-
sional writer as soon as they realized how many considerably easier
ways to make a living there were.
The word credo means I believe in Latin, and it comes from
the list of Christian beliefs as found in the ancient Nicene Creed.
Everyone has a credo, even if they havent ever written one down
or put it into words. Our deepest convictions are inging us into all
the choices of our lives, even though we may never stop to think
why we do what we do. A credo is another word for a persons hier-
archy of moral values, the way they determine good from evil, and
their understanding of how human beings should dwell together.
Chuck Slocum, who served for years as the strategic director of the
Writers Guild of America, is fond of saying, Every screenplay is a
work of theology. Even if the writer doesnt believe in God.
Writers do not have the luxury of an unconscious credo. They
need to bring to the fore all their most deeply held convictions,
because their point of view is half of what they have to sell. The
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other half is how they communicate what they believe. We always
recommend that writers set aside some time to ask themselves:
What do I really believe? What do I really know to be true?
and then write the answers down as a series of afrmative state-
ments like this:
I believe that in the end the truth always comes out.
I believe that while they have life, human beings have value
because they are always vessels of love pouring in and owing
out.
I believe that we cant carry the people we love, that we can
only move obstacles out of their way.
I believe that no one can have a more deeply vested inter-
ested in ones life than oneself.
I believe that suffering makes human beings deeper.
The usefulness of writing out a credo is to help a writer gure out
exactly what they bring to the table regarding recurring themes. If
youve done this, you will have a pretty good sense when a project
comes your way if it is appropriate for you thematically. If the proj-
ect isnt you, you can try and make it something you can do. But if
the material cant be stretched that way, youd better pass.
We once worked with a writer who had very strong views
about feminism and patriarchy. The producer who had hired her
called us because the writer just couldnt abandon her strident views
to write the lighthearted romantic comedy that was on the agenda.
We met with her and she kept agreeing to lighten her tone, but she
just couldnt stop harping on courtship as fundamentally sexist. It
had become a matter of integrity for her to always make her point.
In the end, the producer let her go and hired someone else.
Most people are too timid to put themselves and their beliefs
out there as fodder for the masses. Its the writers job to bear that
risk. And its hard. It requires courage. Some projects demand a level
of courage that put them outside the reach of some writers. You are
the wrong writer for a piece if you cant go there in telling the
truth and consequences of certain human choices.
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Once a writer brought us a script about conict between a
mother and daughter. The project was unsatisfying: the encounters
between the mother and daughter were far too supercial. In our
conversations with the writer, it came out that she personally had
serious therapy-indicated issues with her own mother. She said
to us, Im afraid where these scenes might take me. What if my
mother ever sees this? Clearly, she wasnt going to be able to be
honest in her scenes maybe ever, but certainly not in time to
meet her deadline.
One of the great truths of writing is that every project can be
a moment of grace. If, as Plato said, The unexamined life is not
worth living, then the storytellers life is excruciatingly worthwhile.
Stories are better if they have been an occasion of personal growth
for the writer. As Flannery OConnor said about her classic short
story Good Country People, One of the reasons this story pro-
duces a shock for the reader is because it produced a shock for the
writer.
Still, some projects are going to require more depth and courage
than the writer has in his toolbox. Its grown-up to acknowledge, I
cant write this script yet. Maybe ever.
c. 2(RS()*+-L 7,JI T,+)(
It should be fairly obvious that some projects are better suited to
a particular writing style. In this sense, a writers style indicates
the kind of genres he or she will take to most naturally. Are you
funny? Funny enough to write comedy? Are you weird and creepy
enough to write horror or suspense? Are you deep enough to write
a drama? Are you imaginative enough to produce a fresh fantasy?
Sometimes, a project really requires certain cultural or personal
history experience. Its hard to write a movie set in a country or
region in which youve never been. You can do it, but the project
gets elevated once you visit the place and watch the people engage
in the little details that make a script smarter and more alive.
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We once worked with a writer who had a script that was set
in Spain. But the writer had never been to Spain. The project was
okay in terms of plot, but something was missing to push it into the
worth a read category. Then the writer visited Spain. She came
back and rewrote the script such that characters were now munch-
ing on foie gras and smoky black paella, whereas before they had
just been eating food. She added Basque resentments and build-
ings half plastered over as scars from the revolution of seventy years
earlier. The project grew in arena, characters, and subplots because
of her personal experience in the place of her story.
Its not impossible to write a movie set in a Latino family if
you are a fourth-generation New England WASP. But it is a greater
challenge in what is already a challenging art form.
One of the things writers are always being told is, Write what
you know. On one level, this implies that a writer should be will-
ing to commit to whatever research a project is going to require.
The screenwriter should become a funnel into which ows the
information from various sources, and out of which ows the pages
of the script.
A harder sense of write what you know has to do with the
psychological or emotional depth of a piece, and whether the writer
has the vocabulary for that insight. Knowing what is wrong with
someone is a far cry from being able to express what is wrong. Its
another level too to be able to dramatize that problem. We tell our
writers to write what [their] soul knows, which means that they
have to have articulate insight into the struggles that they are going
to set before their characters. This means writers have to journey
into the darkness ahead of their characters to be able to visually
reect how the darkness feels and how it acts.
Our rule is to always ask yourself: Is there a way I can
make this project something that I can do? Can you gure
out a way to tell the story that is slightly more in your wheelhouse?
What life experience can you bring to the table that speaks to the
heart of the characters you are writing? Are the producers open to
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your making their story your own? If your pitch is well prepared,
fun, and smart, chances are the answer will be, Youre hired!
d. 7,JI 6ORR+,- 6I,U()*
Many writers start out inspired to write something so deeply per-
sonal to them, or so ambitious, that it can take years for them to
become the writer they need to be to properly execute their idea.
We often see new writers clinging to these projects, struggling
to nd the story in the idea, frustrated because no one sees their
vision for the project. What starts out as starry-eyed determination
to write something that truly matters to them often zzles into dis-
illusionment and disappointment. In fact, few writers actually stick
it out long enough to really see those projects come to fruition.
Passion projects are special in the sense that there is a deep
need for the writer to tell that particular story. Passion projects most
often relate back to the elements of a writers credo, what they truly
believe. They speak to the ber of a writers being.
We believe that if a writer has a burning desire to write their
passion project, then they must absolutely do so. However, if it is
the writers rst script, chances are that said project will probably
not come together on the rst try, or even the second. Many writ-
ers, including us, have learned the hard way that starting out with
a passion project means years and years of revisions to get it where
it needs to be.
If a writer has the self-restraint to start out with a story idea
that is much more manageable for their skillset, we highly recom-
mend doing so. We say this knowing that people who have passion
projects will probably forge ahead anyway. If you nd yourself stuck
on a story that you cant let go of, sometimes the best thing you can
do is stick it in a drawer, go write a different story, and come back
to it when you are a more procient writer. You are not abandoning
your project; you are becoming the writer you need to become in
order to do your material justice.
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These are the non-negotiables of prociency in storytelling for
the screen:
1. A Honed Story Sense Writers acquire the family resem-
blance of storytellers in the same way that kids start to act like
their parents. The talent is partially embedded in a writer the
way kids inherit genetic material. But starting to look and act and
think like a storyteller is equally rooted in hanging around other
storytellers. If you intentionally and consistently dwell in the com-
pany of people telling tales, chances are good that their sensibilities
will start to grow on you.
In essence, if you want to be a good writer, read! Read
the stories that have lasted for centuries: the Greek myths and
Aesops Fables. Read Homer and the best of the Greek dramas.
Read The Arabian Knights and The Canterbury Tales, the Brothers
Grimm and Shakespeare. And Shakespeare. Never stop reading
Shakespeare. Read the classics of American and British liter-
ature, and study the writings of one or more of the masters
such as Dickens, Hawthorne, Austen, Melville, and the Bronts.
Read the best of the moderns: Undset, Faulkner, Fitzgerald,
OConnor, Greene, and Hemingway. And Shakespeare. Did we
mention Shakespeare?
Also, watch! Know the canon of great cinema. Watch
Metropolis, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and On the Waterfront, Rear
Window, and The Godfather. Watch all the Academy Award and
Golden Globewinning lms in the Best Picture and Best
Screenplay categories. Stay current on critically acclaimed lms.
Watch the best work in the genre for which you are writing.
If you take on this company as your friends and mentors, it
will form your inner story sense. You will begin to feel in your
spirit when a plot point just isnt high stakes enough. You will
know in a way you might not be able to verbally articulate that
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a character would never make a certain choice. You will disdain
characters who are supercial and lacking in quirky appeal.
2. Technical Formatting A screenplay is a technical document
very much like an architectural blueprint. You cant skip learning
how to correctly write sluglines any more than an architect can
skip how to include electrical outlets in a clients dream house.
3. Economical, Descriptive Prose Good use of language
is a skill that all writers require. In screenwriting, language and
vocabulary skills are complicated by the need to be strictly concise.
Generally, a location should be described in a line or two of key
details. A characters visual style needs to be conveyed in about the
same. With only 120 pages or fewer in which to tell a whole story, a
writer needs to have exactly the right words at hand to set the tone
and clearly delineate the action.
4. Visual Imagery In movies, pictures do the bulk of the work
of storytelling. The soundtrack can powerfully complement what
the audience is seeing, but the main information about character
and story has to be told through the characters look and what
they do. An essential skill for screen storytelling is nding the
right choices for characters to make things visual and provoc-
ative such that the true stakes and the characters psychology
can be read right through them.
5. Character Design There is a genius to creating quirky,
admirable, fascinating characters that are awed and needy from
the same springs from which they are brilliant and powerful.
They have to drive their own arc of transformation at the same
time that they are ghting an inner battle with the darkness that
just might overwhelm them. Beginning writers tend to create
characters that are too pathetic or too perfect, too dark or too
regular. Mastery in character design means creating someone
who is real enough to be relatable, but better than the real
enough to be entertaining.
6. Dramatic Structure After guring out what the plot of the
story will be, the next biggest decision a writer makes is how to
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tell that story. Probably nothing requires as much thought from
a screenwriter as structure does. This is because the needs of the
audience are pretty much xed, and there isnt a lot of exibility
in serving those needs. They need to be hooked in the rst few
minutes. They need rising suspense and major reversals in the
rst half hour. They need a pulse of steady beats, and then they
need a cathartic, purging peak. And, as Aristotle notes in The
Poetics, it all has to happen before they have to get up and go to
the bathroom!
Structure can provide the smartest spectacle in a story, but
only because the writer has broken her brain nding the clev-
erest way to deliver the plot. People learn structure by playing
with it. A lot. A writer who doesnt know how to play is not
going to master screen storytelling.
7. A Sense of the Moment When we think about movies that
we love and that haunt us, the recollection is always tied to key
moments in the story. In Titanic, it was the scene on the bow. You
know the one? Of course you do. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, it
was Indy shooting the Arabian swordsman. Remember? In The
Godfather well, there are many, but who doesnt remember
the discovery of the horse head in bed, or the don playing with
orange peels with his grandson, or the baptism in which Michael
becomes the Godfather?
A great movie is a series of great moments. The story leads
in and out of them. They deliver action or character psychology
with a richness that separates story from anything real life has
to offer. A good writer needs a keen sense of the moments in a
story, how to set them up, how long to stay in them, and how
to transition the story to the new height that the moment has
taken us.
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A surprising number of writers live in terror of the act of writ-
ing itself. The fear is that the well of creativity is going to run dry.
Even after twenty-ve years of working on top television shows like
M*A*S*H and Moonlighting and Judging Amy, and having won a slew
of industry awards, writer / producer Karen Hall noted to one of our
classes, Every time I start on a new script, I hear a voice inside saying,
Youll never be able to do this. This one will show you are a fraud.
We have found that half of writers block has its origin in a
writer not having made a project his or her own. Commerciality is
at the intersection of a relevant theme and one of the writers most
robust passions. This is the true meaning of write what you know.
The trick for a writer is to make writing more of an experience
of recollection, and of description of a storys emotions and psy-
chology, than one consisting of guessing what those same moments
might feel like for a pieces characters.
When we hear that a writer is having writers block, we encour-
age them to answer a series of questions from an exercise called
The Look Within by the late writer and screenwriting professor,
Delle Chatman, of Northwestern University. Its been very helpful
in allowing writers to rediscover their passion and their sense of
narrative writing so they may solidify their own story. The questions
can help you get a sense of the genres and themes to which you are
naturally geared. But most of all, the exercises get you writing in a
way that reveals your unique voice and passions as a storyteller.
1. You are standing on the front stoop of a house to which you
have been invited as a dinner guest. You knock and are admit-
ted. You meet the family one by one; you eat and observe the
family dynamic. Write a rst-person account of being a guest in
this home. One thing: The house is your house when you were
twelve years old.
2. Their beloved child is engaged to be married. There is a dinner
to meet the future in-laws. Afterward, they are in the car driving
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home and talking about their impressions of their in-laws-to-be
the little things they noticed and what they think their
child marrying into that family will mean. Write the conversa-
tion. One thing: The future in-laws are your parents.
3. You raise your eyes out of your hands. You look up from the
bench and scan the room. You close your eyes, lean back, and
exhale. I was always afraid that someday this thing would land
me in jail.
4. They used to hang out date? but they dont anymore. Ten
years later, one of them sees the other across the room at a social
event and hesitates before crossing over to reconnect. Write that
persons inner conversation. One thing: The person is the one
who used to be your friend, and its you who they see across the
room.
5. Whenever the phone wakes me out of a deep sleep, I see your
face. There is a moment of panic until I am sure it isnt someone
calling me to tell me something has happened to you. You are
one person who must not die before me.
6. Im still not laughing about it. I dont think I ever will.
7. I knew I was in trouble the rst time he / she walked in. Why is
it that this is the kind of person I always fall for?
8. Theyve been married for nine years. One of the partners has
realized that that thing about the other is never going to change,
and it is very boring. It is scary to think of living with it for-
ever. Write the conversation between that person and God. One
thing: That person is your future spouse.
9. If I have to end up a lot like my parents, there is one thing I
dont want to inherit from them.
10. Its been awhile, but when I remember it, it still gives me chills.
I remember the whole thing like it was in slow motion, or like I
was hovering over myself, watching. It still scares me.
11. I will know I am a success as a writer when...
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would labor in the hot sun or cold frost so that together, they could
sustain themselves with the basic needs of human life. But there
was one member of the community who didnt go out and sweat
beyond the village gates. This was the storyteller. He or she would
sit under trees and brood. He would observe the tribe members at
their work, and in their relationships with each other. The story-
teller would sit around all day and stare and think. Then, at night,
after everyone had come in from their work, and had eaten in their
tent, the storyteller would wait for his brethren around the re or
near the gates. Now he was on. He had to earn his keep by giving
the community one more thing it needed besides food and shoes:
a whopping good tale.
The ancients gured out pretty fast that the healthy and pro-
ductive functioning of their little communities had everything to
do with the stories that they shared and enjoyed together. A story-
teller was successful if she kept everyone enthralled while providing
something important to learn and take away. Stories worked if the
hearers found in them something to take to their tent and dream
about, providing fuel to head back into the elds and forests the
next day. Stories also worked if they allowed the community to
jointly process the notions that would make for brotherhood and
order in the village. What are the foibles of human nature? What
is a virtuous and heroic life? What is true happiness, and where do
we nd meaning and satisfaction? How should we live together in
peace and prosperity?
These basic realities about our need for good tales havent
changed. We still reach for stories in the same way our ancient
brothers and sisters did. We still need to engage our imaginations to
help us recommit to the mundane parts of human life and responsi-
bility. We still need to discover together what our shared values are.
We need to be bonded by the experience of story thrilled by
suspense; amused by the absurdity of the human comedy; saddened
by anguish and suffering; terried by evil; and curious about the
mysteries in the cosmos and in our own hearts.
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A big part of a writers job is to serve the needs of the audience
in the same way as did storytellers of old. The audience has certain
expectations when they buy a story, the way they have expectations
when they buy a sh or a cake. Insofar as a writer gives them what
their hearts are searching for, he will nd success. The storyteller
who has the ability to entertain and impart wisdom nds near wor-
ship from his society. Its what we today call a fan base. Storytelling
requires respect for the common human nature of the audience, and
respect for the nature of story itself. A talented writer stretches the
storytelling form into new possibilities, but still delivers a story. Its
ne for a writer to pursue their own therapy or catharsis in their
work, but they shouldnt count on the general public needing to
subsidize that enterprise. The good news is: In crafting a solid story
to serve the audiences need for wisdom and catharsis, invariably a
writer will nd his own.
a. $ &'()* +, -.''.) /012 '0. 3.14
I nd that most people know what a story is
until they sit down to write one.
Flannery OConnor
We have read many screenplays in our years as directors of devel-
opment, readers for independent production companies, readers for
various script and lm contests, and mentors for many, many students.
Most screenplays that survive the initial test of industry-standard for-
matting soon fall by the wayside because of problems with the story.
Sadly, the number-one note that really should be given on
most screenplays is, Sorry, but this script should never have
been written! What fuels such a note is that a particular project has
failed in its basic essence. Despite the presence of creative spectacle,
intriguing moments, quirky characters, and witty lines of dialogue,
the piece never became the thing it was meant to be: a story.
There are many denitions of and formulas for conveying the
essential aspects of story. One we like is: A story is the series of
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choices that lead someone from what they want to what they need.
This idea points to the essential notion that story is an internal
and external transformation of character, and probably of location.
Other people speak of story as a lesson, or as a puzzle. But to practi-
cally help writers get to the heart of what the audience enjoys and
expects in a story, we say, Story is better than the real.
On its most basic level, a story is good in every way in which
it is not real life. Stories need to be at least as good as real life, but
to be successful they must be much better. This is why we reach
for them! We already have real life in all its ambiguity, confusion,
complication, and disorder. We want stories because they offer
something better, a respite from the real that allows us to see aspects
of reality in sharper focus. But in a fun way!
Real life is one long mishmash of lessons and impressions
coming at us without any order or coordination. We are simultane-
ously learning how it feels to experience jealousy and how that
scourge makes us act out... while we are learning that elderly people
have wonderful perspective... while we are learning how not to
wear dark socks with tan shoes... while we are learning how to
recharge a car battery, et cetera. There is no reason or order to real-
life experience. It comes at us in a jumble, like a tsunami of urgent
lessons, most of which wash over us and dont really change us until
weve been laid low by them many, many times.
When writers hear us say that a story needs to be better than
the real, sometimes they think we mean that we want stories to be
fake. No! If real life has its moments of discomfort, stories need to
be relentlessly gritty. If real life sometimes has a moment of irony
or humor, stories need to be sidesplitting catalogues of the absurd.
Stories need to be at least as good as the real, but a great story tran-
scends real-life experience and imbues it with meaning.
We seek story because it offers us the smorgasbord of life in
digestible servings. Story selects strains of experience and compiles
wisdom about that experience for us in an emotionally engaging
and intelligible way.
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Where people in real life are guarded and mysterious to us,
story characters are open and accessible. We can know with cer-
tainty their hopes and dreams, their foibles, the trail of their failures,
and the motivations for every choice they make.
Where people in real life are sheepish, unenlightened, incon-
sistent, and shiftless, story characters are heroic, quirky, driven, and
always entertaining.
Where real life seems to be an endless sequence of the mundane
and the repetitious, story appeals because it presents high-stakes,
original drama with all the boring parts cut out.
Finally, where real life is disordered, messy, and meaningless,
great stories offers beauty: a whole and harmonious unity that deliv-
ers wisdom. A great story is always about a mess, but can never be a
mess. A good one is a wondrous thing that lifts the audience high
above themselves and their problems so that they can look down
and see everything with a new and truer perspective.
b. &'()* 71, 1 81'9).
Twenty-ve hundred years ago, the brilliant natural philosopher,
Aristotle, plunked down a few pennies for the ancient equivalent of
a Coke and some popcorn, and set about the task of watching plays.
Really watching. He was sure that plays and stories were important
to human culture, so he wanted to know what made a play work
technically, and what factors caused an audience to become disinter-
ested and disengaged from a story. He wanted to know how stories
impacted audiences and societies for good and evil, and why human
beings were drawn to them.
His treatise, The Poetics, remains the seminal work on the nature
and purpose of story; and although the rhythms and style of classical
philosophy are a struggle for the generally crippled and underedu-
cated postmodern brain, we encourage every storyteller to spend
a lot of time sitting at the feet of Aristotle with this work. In the
end, when a screenplay fails, it tends to be because it ignored some
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concept Aristotle so blithely dropped in a few words here or there
in The Poetics. Woe to serious storytellers who disdain this work.
Aristotle lists the essential parts of a story in this hierarchy:
1. Plot
2. Character
3. Theme
4. Dialogue
5. Music / Tone
6. Spectacle
All of the parts are necessary. Story notes often reference the absence
of some of these parts. There is no theme in this piece or there is
nothing fun for the audience in this project indicate that a writer
has left out one of the dening elements of story. It would be like
an architect building a house and forgetting to include the door. Its
not going to work.
The order is critical. In a hierarchy, the entities at the bottom are
subservient to the elements that are above them. Hence, in a story,
all the other parts serve the plot. Certainly, one of the reasons that
Hollywoods offerings have become increasingly unsatisfying in the
decades since the emergence of the blockbuster is that spectacle
and character (read: celebrity) have become the most prevalent
elements of the story pyramid.
Knowing the individual parts is essential to understanding the
larger nature of something. But we need to go further and give a
denition that expresses the sum of all of these parts.
A story is the artful telling of an event that happens to a
certain individual or group of individuals that is organized
around a theme. Each of these phrases is key.
A story is the artful telling...
A story is not a slice of life. It is not a camera, pasted to the wall of
a bank, watching people listlessly or urgently walk by all day. One
of the mediums masters, Alfred Hitchcock, rejected the cinma vrit
trend of the 1950s that had lmmakers trying to make movies as
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close to real life as possible. Hitch noted, Some people want to
make movies that are a slice of life. I prefer to make movies that are
a slice of cake.
A cake is put together by a baker choosing certain ingredients
for their quality and according to the overall kind of cake that is
being made. Elements are brought together like the batter, the ll-
ing, the frosting, and the toppings each in themselves delicious,
and together, harmonizing to produce a delicious whole.
Movies and the stories they bear need to reect the same kind
of thoughtful selection of details through a process we call creative
control. The teller of the story begins making choices right after
typing the words !"#$ &'. What point of view will I use? What
details will I stress? What details can I gloss over? What sequence of
telling the details of the story will be most involving for my readers,
or in the case of lm, my viewers? Is this character twenty or thirty?
Do I use the word shady or shadowy?
Artful means skilled. It means that talent is involved. It means
that someone has labored over the details of craft; theyve practiced
and acquired some kind of mastery. It means that a storyteller is
an artist.
Artful also implies that a story is meant to be a work of art,
as in something that is trying to bring a new epiphany of beauty
into the world. Beauty, in the classical sense, doesnt mean
pretty. It means that a project incorporates wholeness,
harmony, and radiance.
1. Wholeness All the parts are present; nothing is added on
or extra. Wholeness in a story means that all six of Aristotles ele-
ments are present, and that all of their constituent parts are present
as well.
So, in order for a story to work, the plot needs to have several
parts, among which are the beginning, the middle, and the end.
Lets just focus on the beginning by considering wholeness. A
beginning in a story has several parts, including: the establishment of
the arena; the introduction and development of the main character;
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the suggestion of the theme; the introduction of the principal inner
and exterior conicts; the introduction of supporting characters
(which may include an antagonist); and an inciting incident which
launches the action of the plot. All of these are constituent parts of
the beginning that are required for the project to be whole so that
it might be beautiful.
And it needs to be said that each of those parts of the beginning
have several smaller parts. Storytelling is a complex craft, and the
beauty of a piece is heightened by complexity.
Wholeness provides a sense of satisfaction to the audience and
gives a feeling of rest.
2. Harmony All of the parts are related in a complementary
way. Complementary relationships are those in which the excel-
lence of every part is magnied by how each one brings out the
best in the other parts. In a beautiful story, the goal is to have the
parts not necessarily be perfect in themselves, but rather be perfect
in doing their contribution to the whole project.
The key factor in determining harmony is a projects theme. It
is the theme around which all the parts must be harmonized. It is
impossible to have harmonization without a controlling idea.
Harmony provides a sense of delight for the audience.
3. Radiance The intellectual, moral, or spiritual enlighten-
ment that inheres in a project and gives it the gravity that is a mark
of the beautiful. The radiance in a work of art is more or less articu-
late, depending on the wordiness of the art form. A story is probably
the most articulate kind of art and, hence, can be the most specic
in terms of communicating wisdom and truth.
Radiance satises the audiences desire to know.
... of an event...
Something has to happen for there to be a story about it. If some-
thing is going to happen, then it is happening in time. The event
has a moment in which it begins, and a moment in which it ends.
A good screen story sweeps the readers in from the beginning, lets
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them travel through an event, and then leaves them shaking their
heads at the end of the event, like they just stepped off of a roller-
coaster. In screenwriting, the standard rule is: Movies move!
At the end of the screenplay, a reader should be able to sum up
in a few lines what the event around which you crafted your telling
was. A reader will describe a good screenplay by being able to say,
This is a story about the Titanic sinking. You may not know how
you are going to craft your telling at the beginning of your writing,
but you must know what event you are going to feature as the heart
of your tale. You have to know what is going to happen and how it
is going to change the arena.
Most beginning screenwriters dont know when to begin their
stories. We recommend the rule of good tennis playing: Hit the
ball when it is on the rise. That is, begin your story well into the
action. Avoid providing all the backstory and history before your
story gets started. Telling a good story on the screen requires brief-
ing the audience about the lives of the characters as though they
were going on before, and will continue to go on afterward. We are
walking alongside them for a few hours. Let the backstory of the
characters unfold with the action, not as a precursor to it.
A good story has resolution and provides satisfaction. Its ne
to keep your audience guessing all the way up to the last page. But
you have to stop the guessing game on your last page. The audience
has to know what happened, and there has to be a sensation of
nality to the story. As we say in the business, Ambiguity good.
Confusing very bad.
... that happens to a certain individual
or group of individuals...
All good stories are character driven. Screenplays are about how
certain individuals experience an event. People in Hollywood are
fond of repeating, There isnt any new story. Its all in the execu-
tion. That is, the three-line story summary matters far less than
how that storyline is executed on screen. In most cases, the details
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of what happens are not the catchy part of your screenplay idea. Its
all about the person to whom the event is happening that makes the
what intriguing.
For example, a good pitch would run, This is a story about a
group of people who shipwreck on a deserted island. Now heres
the clincher: The people who get shipwrecked are youre going
to love this a professor, a movie star, a bumbling captain and his
rst mate, the girl next door, a millionaire, and his wife. Its not
about the shipwreck. Its about the people who are shipwrecked.
Even more than just an event happening to a person, a story is
a particular persons slant on a particular event. A story is all about
point of view.
An example is the story about the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Take a
few moments and imagine the Pied Piper, at the age of 80, looking
back on his life and recounting the events that led him to walk into
the mountains with a crowd of young children behind him. Seen
through the Pipers recollection, who is the villain of the piece?
What about the town impels the Piper to abscond with the chil-
dren, rather than, say, the livestock?
Now tell the story from the point of view of one of the chil-
dren. Now tell it from the point of view of one of the parents. Now
tell it from the point of view of a travelling visitor who picks up
the details here and there, years after the event has happened in the
town. Every time you switch the point of view, you end up working
out a whole new story.
... that is organized around a theme.
The theme is the unifying idea that gives the whole project its
reason to be. The theme is the answer to the question, What is
this movie really about? Confusion in theme makes a project feel
incoherent and disjointed. In your rst few pages of clever setups
and red herrings, you can get away with your reader wondering,
Hmmm, what is this story going to be about? But if after ten
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pages a reader is still shaking his head and wondering, What is this
story about? your screenplay will most likely get a pass.
The theme is the thing that determines the structure. The theme
determines which choices are the ones that drive the characters arc
of transformation. The theme makes the movie about much more
than what Casablanca called the problems of three little people,
and instead makes yours a story for every human being.
c. ?(@A. &'()A., 71@. 1 &B.CA14 81'9).
You begin with the possibilities of the material.
Robert Rauschenberg
A movie needs all the elements that go into a story, plus several
others that reect the additional potentials that make up the cin-
ematic art form. A very common story note is: This writer
wants to be making a documentary. Another is: This
writer wants to write the next War and Peace. Both these
notes indicate that the writer doesnt understand the limits and pos-
sibilities of screen storytelling.
A movie story needs to include considerations of genre and
scope, and needs to be cinematic, dramatic, and economical.
Genre
Genre will be covered more thoroughly in Chapter 8. For our pur-
poses here, know that people tend to make the kinds of movies they
like. Audience members tend to buy tickets for the kinds of movies
they like. Genre is a commitment to the industry and audience
that this story is of a certain type and will pack a certain kind of
emotional experience. As a rule, the industry doesnt know how to
market cross-genre material, and tends to avoid it. It is the writers
job to set the tone of the project early on in the script and then lead
the viewers on a dance around a particular emotion.
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Scope
Movies tend to be an expensive art form to realize. Hence, a screen-
writer needs to have a sense when starting out just how big a piece
is going to go. Some stories are epic, and require casts of thou-
sands and monumental set pieces. But no one wants a $200 million
script from a beginner. First efforts should be geared to quirky, small
human stories that pack a wallop of emotion.
Once a writer is working for a producer, the question of scope
becomes very important. If the producer tells you they want a $15
million movie, then it is up to the writer to have a sense of what
that means. The story will be shaped partly by these budget con-
siderations in the same way that Michelangelos Last Judgment was
dependent on the shape and size of the Sistine Chapel.
Cinematic
There are several ways in which a movie story needs to be cin-
ematic, and these will be covered more thoroughly in Chapter 11.
But no matter what, a lm story needs to depend on the things that
only movies can do to be executed fully. This means that when a
writer is adapting a book, serious consideration should be made to
what the potentials of the screen offer that will heighten the stuff
of the story.
A cinematic story is one that relies on visuals. It utilizes tech-
niques unique to the art form like intercutting, montage, voiceover,
non-diegetic sound, camera movement, ashback, and transition. A
cinematic story will be layered to take advantage of the fact that a
movie can give an audience several different kinds of information
at one time.
Dramatic
Cinema draws hugely from theatrical form in terms of structure.
Movies dont all need to be written in three acts, but a writer needs
to have mastered the three-act structure before straying off this
tried-and-true formula. There is something organic in the tri-part
formula that works with the rhythms of the human mind. Dramatic
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structure means that a movie needs to be sensitive to the natural
rhythms of the viewer, who needs things like inciting incidents,
plateaus, turning points, foreshadowing, setups, and payoffs.
Economical
Cinema is an art form in which the sizes of the canvases are pretty
much xed. Basically, there are short lms and there are feature lms.
Time will tell what might come next, but for the bulk of cinema
history, audiences have been served up movies that run around two
hours long. Short lms seem to be getting shorter all the time, but
the norm is somewhere between fteen and thirty minutes.
A writer needs to conceive a story that can be told in either of
these two timeframes. If it doesnt t what Aristotle referred to as
a magnitude problem the story wont work as a movie.
d. $ &'()* 71, '( ?1''.)
Stories are equipment for living.
Kenneth Burke
A story needs to offer the world something to learn, something to
feel, and something to dream. Delivering these is the purpose of
the storytellers efforts. They are the core of the contract with the
audience, and also the key to story doing its job in a world driven
obsessively to whopping good tales.
Story as Something to Learn
Human beings are innately curious and driven to know. If you dont
believe that, lean over in a crowded room and say in a muted voice,
So, last night, I happened to walk by the window, and youll never
guess what I saw! It was unbelievable! There, right smack in the
middle of the driveway was I promise you that if you stop and
look up at that point, there will be several people craning their
heads to hear the next part of your story. They want to know what
it is you saw. They dont even know yet why they might care, but
their interest has been piqued.
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As artful depictions of men in action, stories are the privileged
way in which human beings learn. That is, the privilege refers to the
fact that they are our favorite way to learn. They offer a fun way
to grow and collect the wisdom that will make life more navigable,
and more comprehensible.
The primary lesson that people want to learn in story
has to do with a better way to live. They are setting themselves
down at the storytellers feet, hoping that at the end of the fun and
frenzy, they will walk away a deeper, more enriched person. This
means that the storyteller needs to think of the fruit of their labors
as a parable. It needs to be a vessel channeling wisdom and under-
standing, or it just wont feel worth it to the audience.
If you are hearing the note, I dont know what this story
means, its possibly because your characters are failing at
point of view. This is a story that refuses to express any values. The
audience is puzzling over whether the characters choices are good
and healthy, or destructive. The writer needs to know. Sometimes a
failure in point of view happens when a writer is not putting himself
into the storys key moments and really plumbing his psychological
mindset. Storytellers are not propagandists, but one reason writing
requires courage is that the individual must put him or herself out
there and stand in front of society and say, This is what I believe.
The arena of a tale offers the audience a fun and free way to
absorb knowledge. Its fun and free for the audience, coming along
as background ourishes in the story. But satisfying this kind of
detailed learning is anything but fun and free for the writer. It can
require hours of research to pull off an in-depth understanding of
the arena that backgrounds your tale.
Think of the lm The Perfect Storm and how it opened up the
unseen world of the North Atlantic sherman. What does he eat at
sea? And where do they store that sh on the boat? And how do
they keep it from rotting? And what is the honor code among the
scruffy lot of boat hands? And what does it mean to be trapped in
a perfect storm? Its only through hours of research that a writer
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can possibly expect to nuance out all the fascinating details that
underlie a great story.
So, if you are hearing the note, This script is a little boring,
before you go and add an action sequence, consider deepening the
details of your characters profession and environment. It might add
the smart factor that the whole project is missing. And chances are
that as soon as you do, youll end up nding a smart new direction
for the story.
Story as Something to Feel
If the notes coming in about your script are, Boring!
Draggy! As far from a page-turner as possible! your
project is failing to make an emotional connection. Stories
are meant to provide a variety of human experience. Especially
emotional experience. Our psyches are programmed for a wide
spectrum of emotional sensations, ranging from sidesplitting laugh-
ter to gut-wrenching sobs, and from the thrill of wonder to the
goose bumps and shrieks of terror. When we feel intense emotions,
they can act as a cathartic release or purge.
Peoples lives are mostly dull. I remember a reghter telling
me that he wanted out of his profession because the drudge factor
[was] too high. I responded to him, Except for those times you
are storming burning buildings, right? He shrugged and said, That
happens a few times a year, but most of the time we are cleaning
our trucks and checking peoples gas lines. As a rule, human life
settles into patterns of experience that tend to be free of emotional
peaks and valleys.
Stories afford us the opportunity to experience the wide range
of emotions of which we are capable. By taking on the adventures
of a character, we share in their emotional responses; and, if the
experience is intense enough, prot from the characters School of
Hard Knocks as if it was our own. Tolkien noted that stories allow
people to break free of the prison of their workaday world so as to
experience the full breadth of their human nature.
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A story can fail to engage the audience if it is all movement
and plot twists and turns, but lacking any real human moments.
Finding the deep and universal emotions in the most pivotal choices
the main character makes is crucial. A moment is an emotional
watershed. If you cant pinpoint them in your story, the audience
wont nd them either.
If you are hearing the note, The story never engaged
me, consider rethinking the kinds and intensity of con-
ict in your story. Conict is the soul of all drama, the center
of all emotional experience, and the motivator of all of a charac-
ters choices.
Story as Something to Dream
The societal point of story is for audience members to watch the
trials and tribulations of a made-up character, and then through
their imaginations, import the lessons of that fake man into their
real lives. People go into a story to nd something useful to take
back to their real lives.
Notes that reference problems in this area will be expressed like
this: This script doesnt amount to anything, or, There is nothing
for the audience to do here. Generally, novice writers leave noth-
ing to the imagination of the viewer. There is no mystery, nothing
below the surface, nothing for the viewer to chew on while he or
she is driving home.
If a story is solid, its deepest meaning is exportable and requires
the audience to enter into it and to make it their own. Think about
a lm like Schindlers List. This is a lm that was haunting and
inspiring for many people, even though none of us today live in
the world of Nazi concentration camps. Watching Schindlers self-
less courage, the audience had to use their imagination to consider
if they would make such a sacrice in their own, modern lives.
Hearing the message, If only I could have saved one more, the
audience wondered in a vitally important way which person
or people in their real world could be saved into a great destiny.
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";
In storytelling, a good ending will feel like a new begin-
ning to the audience. This means that the viewers will return
repeatedly in their thoughts to the world of the story. This requires
imagination as well as memory. A good story will have people
wanting to talk to their friends about it, and buying games based
on it, and writing fan ction about it. And then the industry will
make a sequel! And another! And you will soon have a beach house
in Malibu!
e. D7AE0 &'1F.,G ?.12 H.1'0
Death is the ghost in the attic of everyones mind.
Father Ellwood Bud Kieser, film producer
One of the most frequently given notes is, This story at-
lined; it just didnt have high enough stakes. Ironically, a
story that is missing a pulse is probably missing a little bit of death.
Because of our inescapable mortality, and the uncertainty we have
about what happens after our eyes close for the last time, there is
nothing that generates more emotion than death. A good movie is
the story of someone warding off some kind of death.
The early Christian saint Irenaeus wrote, The glory of God is
man fully alive. This indicates that there are several different kinds
of death possible to a character in a story. It is the task of the writer
to make the audience feel that each of these carries stakes as high
and irrevocable as physical death.
a) Emotional death Because of trauma, and then a choice to
avoid connection with others, a person loses the ability to feel.
A character that has suffered emotional death is incapable of
compassion and empathy. He has no awareness of the feelings
of others. This person is often cruel.
b) Psychological death A character that loses their psy-
chological life loses contact with reality. He has no reliable
meter of what is true, and substitutes alternate realities to
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account for his experience. This person is unstable, irrational,
and unpredictable.
c) Spiritual death Generally because of a cultivated relation-
ship with evil, the character that loses his soul is someone
who has no hope. He has no certainty of anything that is not
material, and is grimly aware that the material world is slipping
away. This person despairs.
d) Moral death The character that loses his moral sense can
no longer distinguish right from wrong. He has no pole for
his choices outside of his own wants and needs. This person
is ruthless.
e) Social death Because he has been so hurt, the character that
has experienced social death has lost the ability to relate to
others. He doesnt trust, so he cant communicate. This person
becomes a recluse.
f) Intellectual death A character that is perpetually in doubt
can eventually lose the ability to process at all. Doubt becomes
the only certainty, and all growth becomes impossible. This
person lives in paralysis.
g) Physical death The characters heart stops beating and the
brain dies. The soul separates from the body. Its really the least
of all the possible deaths.
f. ?..'A2E '0. $9IA.2C.J, 8..I,
A note that is not given nearly enough in Hollywood today is,
How will this help the people who see it? The pastoral and pro-
phetic aspect of the storytellers vocation has been nearly forgotten
in the mad rush for money and spectacle that started with Jaws and
has dened the blockbuster-movie craze ever since. But it is unde-
niable that stories have power; and wherever human beings have
power, as Spiderman taught us all, comes great responsibility.
Aristotle lays out in The Poetics the main reasons that human
beings love and need stories, and why they matter to the healthy
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functioning of our society. Basically, he says that stories provide the
journeys that either lead us into wisdom and solidarity with others,
or into darkness and disconnection.
From the standpoint of the screenwriter, Aristotles key insight
is that people are driven to stories by two fundamental instincts: the
instinct for imitation, and the instinct for harmony. A writer needs
to have both of these in mind when crafting a screenplay.
The Instinct for Imitation
Imitation is the preferred way we humans learn. We learn how and
what to do by watching other people doing. Hence, to satisfy this
instinct, a story needs to have a character doing things. In the movie
Juno, we follow the title character through the experience of an
unplanned pregnancy so that we dont have to nd out what its like
in real life. This is the famous show, dont tell requirement that all
writing books stress. As Aristotle says, a good story showcases men
in action.
Secondly, for a movie to really be satisfying to an audience, the
imitation needs to be profound. The more psychological depth is
reected in the characters choices, the more the piece resonates with
the audience. In Junos case, she recognizes her own immaturity in
becoming a mother, but selessly agrees to go through with the preg-
nancy because she realizes that her child is a human being with
ngernails. The audience loves it when a movie talks up to them
by asking them to really enter into psychologically deep motivations.
The audience learns about themselves through this resonance.
A writer needs to have some depth to write deep. Flannery
OConnor called it the writers ability to stare. The writer needs to
be staring xedly at all of life, taking in how things look and how
unseen things manifest. This will allow the writer to magnify and
replicate these things on the page.
So if you are getting the note, This project just wasnt
worth my time. It didnt have anything to say, chances are
you are failing to satisfy the instinct for imitation.