Screenwriting Tip #136
Vampires and werewolves are over and done with. Come on, show me some swampmen and mummies!
October 2009
31 posts
Screenwriting Tip #135
If you change the setting of your script, you have to change the dialogue too. People in the US do not talk like people in Britain or Australia.
Screenwriting Tip #134
Scenes after the end credits: Just don’t. If I liked your script, it’s unnecessary. If I hated it, you’re just inflicting more pain.
Screenwriting Tip #133
Your logline has to be something you could actually say out loud. Don’t just jam clauses together and pray that it makes sense.
Screenwriting Tip #132
Don’t drink and write. It does not work.
(It does make you feel like Hemingway, though.)
Screenwriting Tip #131
Your character descriptions are so quirky and overly elaborate that I have no idea what the characters in question are supposed to look/act like.
Screenwriting Tip #130
It should be ‘fourteen’, not ‘14’. Write the actual word. This is a screenplay, not a text message.
Screenwriting Tip #129
Let your voice into the script. Have fun writing it, and chances are I’ll have fun reading it.
Screenwriting Tip #128
Please stop making characters repeat stuff back to each other. It’s not snappy back-and-forth, it’s a waste of space.
Screenwriting Tip #127
You can make your character’s voices sound different by giving them less to say. Too much yakity-yak tends to blend together into a big mediocre soup.
Screenwriting Tip #126
Either capitalization is for ALL SOUNDS or it’s for SHIT YOU WANT TO EMPHASIZE. Pick one, not both.
Screenwriting Tip #125
‘Pension’ and ‘penchant’ are not the same thing.
Screenwriting Tip #124
Don’t write scenes that feel like videogame cutscenes — you know, where the protagonist’s control is arbitrarily taken away so you can advance the plot.
Screenwriting Tip #123
Do you have the life rights/book rights to go with your biopic script about a real person? And if not, why would somebody buy your script when they could just write their own version?
Screenwriting Tip #122
Car chases and gun fights are not inherently cool. You have to make them cool by writing them properly.
Screenwriting Tip #121
People will say they can tell in the first 10 pages whether or not they’ll like your script.
They’re lying — they can tell by Page 1. So make Page 1 a thing of beauty.
Screenwriting Tip #120
Always remember that funny trumps everything. Your script could be written in crayon with your name spelled wrong on the cover, but if it’s genuinely, screamingly funny, none of that matters.
Screenwriting Tip #119
Don’t be a grumpy misanthrope who obviously hates life.
Yes, I know most writers tend towards this state, and I know Warren Ellis can pull it off… but try not to let it taint your script.
Screenwriting Tip #118
This is nitpicky and technical as hell, but…
A dash is almost always a better choice than a semicolon, because if someone’s reading quickly, the larger symbol helps to separate the two sentences/sentence fragments in the reader’s mind. Also, most people are scared of semicolons.
Screenwriting Tip #117
You can’t have an entire conversation where the characters communicate only in text messages. How uncinematic is that? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but at least put some voiceover in there.
