Each month, I lead a script breakdown webcast in the Stage 32 Writers Room where we see writers tackle their scripts and how it translates to the final production. We've covered aspects of screenwriting including writing: Action, Monologues, Horror/Tension, Creating World & Rules, Using Silence, Introducing Characters, Cutaways, and we're about to tackle montages.
What aspects of screenwriting do you struggle with most? I've mentioned it on here before, but I'm bad at writing dialogue with swearing, and would love to look at how the best curse-laden scenes weave it in naturally.
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Steve Martin at the airport car rental counter in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."
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Look at Dennis Farina's character in Get Shorty! "Bleep you, Bleepball!" LOL!
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Clarity. story throughline.
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All of it.
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Procrastination, lol.
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Act II. Act II. Act II...
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Owen, rum is also my solution for writing, lol. And crying.
About your your screenplay, I would watch The Prodigy, The Blade movies and I think Snakes On A Plane. To me the profanity in the dialogue comes out with finesse. About my screenplay, I have Writers Block further in the second act but I’m at least 33 pages into the script.
Jake Burgess, do you work from an outline and struggle connecting the dots/transitioning, or is it coming up with the outline/structure?
Tom Batha, you are not alone! Any specific issues with it? Difficulty filling it? Pushing the plot forward? Planting setups for climactic payoffs?
The selling.
I’m struggle with not mentioning an important plot point or dynamic without actually showing it to the audience. I’m trying to really focus on visual cues and auditory cues. Like I just fixed in my script where in the action I mention that the character needs to go to a town a few hours away and replaced it with something like "Reese whizzes through tabs online. She types in the address and Google maps shows 4 hours and 21 minutes.” I need to convey the action in the script to the audience visually when it’s not spoken in dialogue or actual action, if that makes sense. So I find myself rereading constantly and saying “Okay, how would the audience know that?” and then adjusting the scene to fit.
Allen, "difficulty filling it" is exactly what I come up against. So I outline to divide my Act 2 into a mini-3 act structure, and outline some more. I'm getting better at it but it's still a bitch.