Film Courage: How should a writer
start a screenplay? Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan
E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): Oh! So there are several different ways
you can start a screenplay and a lot of that goes back to whatever your idea is
there's probably thing that's going to come to you first but you should
definitely then start trying to figure out what all the rest of those elements
are so figuring out what the world is knowing what the tone is a lot of people
may not think about tone but tone matters
tone is that that that that that feeling that makes this different from slapstick
comedy regular comedy romantic comedy into kind of a comedic drama that is now
more regular drama family drama that ends up now this gritty thriller thing
so it's kind of like the the nuance between the genres right like what that
tone is and then knowing who your characters are knowing who's gonna go on
this journey figuring out why we should care about them figuring out how we're
gonna relate to them and relating to them doesn't have to mean liking them we
just have to relate then knowing what goal they're after because anything
that's on TV anything that's on anything that's a feature is about a character
reaching a goal that's why we're here we don't want to just see people go through
their day to day lives right we want to see like their act or something or
something's after then you know whatever it is but they have a goal figuring out
what the stakes are the stakes are gonna be the why why am I here why do I care
what's what's going on what are they gonna win what are they gonna lose
because if not then why do I care if they reach the goal if they don't if
there's nothing at stake for them then I am gonna be that much less invested and
people usually know what the end is people usually kind of know what the
setup is and they kind of know what the resolution is right
it's the second act where everyone kind of falls apart and it's because we
really don't start acting our quick asking ourselves how how are they gonna
get from A to B so I personally feel like everyone should write an outline
they're gonna be writers who are reading this like ha I've never written an
outline and I've done great that's great you might have that special skills but
you know you also might be a person who doesn't mind rewriting fifteen times
because no matter what you're going to right right I think by writing the
outline and cut down the number of rewrites because your first draft isn't
as terrible because you actually plotted out what it is you're going to do so you
didn't just start at the blank page and start writing and just like you know oh
well maybe they'll go this way maybe they go that way because as soon as you
change one thing what does it do changes everything else there's a domino effect
if you're doing that in outline form for some people that's putting it on cards
some people that's putting it on a whiteboard you know now you just erase
that one little part and write it write it back or you move your your cards
around because you realize this scene could probably be best there and it
heightens the stakes if we make this thing happen here I do mine in a Word
document and I put the actual scene heading on
top and then whatever is happening in that scene so I can copy and paste that
whole little thing all over the place if I want to so it's easier to kind of see
your story on paper and move it around as much as you'd like before it gets
into script format it becomes a little harder to do that so if you have an
outline and you really understand how does this person get from A to C what
happens during B what do they physically do so I'm always asking how and so
people will then answer that with with a general answer and I'm gonna know I want
to know what the characters physically doing like what am i watching them do
can you say well they're saving the world how are they saving the world by
going to Starbucks are they saving the world by having to go confront a bad guy
yes they have to confront the bad guy how how did they find him where was he
was he just down the street you know in another country he's in another
country how do they get there you know do they take a bus do they take a train
do they have to fly do they swim you know like all of these little details
about how we actually get from A to C are the things that people don't think
about until they're on the page and then they're stuck and they stop and they're
like I can't get past this part and it's like yeah cuz you didn't think about
that part until you got here but if you took some time to figure it
out before you get to the writing part now the writing is fun because you got your
notes so you're like okay this is what's supposed to be happening right now
okay I get it and now it can happen a little more clean than it would have if
you just went straight to the page and so now maybe instead of doing five
rewrites you only have to you too so I teach a whole class called
no writer's block and that's what we do we learn screenplay structure and by the
end of it you have an outline so that you can go write whatever it is you want
to write also because you're learning screenplay structure
now you can outline anything now you know the structure of anything so it's
not just oh well I figured the outline out for this idea now what it's like no
any idea can fall straight into that same place so that you feel more
confident because that's the other that's the where writer's block comes
from is that you just you're not confident in what you're doing but if
you have a plan already right it's like we were talking about earlier if I
already printed out my directions or if I have my Google Maps on my phone then I
know where I'm going I say yes I can't this is not a good example I was gonna
say I could say I want to drive to Louisiana but if I don't look it up I
can't get there I happen to know where Louisiana is from here so I could
probably get there but there are other people who are like who would have no
idea that they can get on Interstate 10 and get all the way to Louisiana some people
might not know that but so they would need to have those directions if you
don't have those directions now you're veering you know left and now you've
taken a wrong turn and now you've done X Y & Z and you've wasted however many
hours trying to get there when you could add a straight shot it could just had
the directions so to me that's what an outline is it's your Google Maps so that
you know where you're going so I think beginning writers should definitely
start in that place well start by learning structure right start by
understanding what elements it takes to have a story and then outline what if
they say well I'm good at outlining the my first few but now I just know I don't
need to know anything yeah I mean if that's
everybody has to every writer has to find their own process so outlines don't
work for everybody Beach sheets don't work for everybody
treatments don't work for everybody you have to figure out what works well for
you because I'm always thinking about what's efficient and effective for me
most of the time because if I'm writing a short I only need to know the big
beats right I don't have to outline the whole thing you know if I'm writing a
feature I need to outline the whole thing is I don't I don't want to get
stuck in the screenplay part that's frustrating for me in my process
but if that's the part of the process that you enjoy you can do it that way I
don't I don't tell people that it's like a must but I do tell people especially
people who are learning or people who aren't learning but they've been writing
for a while and they're trying to make it more efficient you know so it's like
no I've never outlined before but I always end up getting there it's like
yeah but do you get there in a year because you might be able to get there
in three months you know maybe depending upon wheels you have going on in your
life you know so definitely people don't have to do it that way I think you have
to figure out what your process is and and make sure that that process is
efficient for you again if you're trying to be a professional writer because
you're trying that means you're trying to write more than one thing a year
maybe sell more than one thing a year you can't do that if everything that you
write takes you know 15 drafts in two years to write so you want to look for
something that's more efficient and for me writing the outline is just more
efficient
you