Screenwriting : For my fellow scribes!!! by John Mezes

Make your protagonist active

Great note, Maurice Vaughan! An idle protagonist is a boring one. You'll lose a reader of your script quickly if events in the script are only happening to them, and there is no initiation or reaction. Actors want active protags.

My uncle who dabbled in screenwriting told me to only write in terms of what you can see or hear in a script and don't include redundant details like how hot it is in a scene. It does help me to kind of force myself to be more active when writing a screenplay.

You're right, John Mezes. I got that note during the first feedback I bought, and it changed my entire career.

"Learn structure!" A number of Film and TV writers I've met have said this.

Emotion. Emotion. Emotiion.

Your protag's journey has to have emotional relevance and resonance. And it must be sincere. Whether it's saving your wife from terrorists, your brother from an impending German attack, dealing with a parent's health issue, double-booking weddings at a hotel, etc. The emotional thread has to be strong, engaging and unwavering.

Move to LA.

don't listen to the "experts"

I agree about redundancy, Banafsheh Esmailzadeh. It's overkill in a script. Why mention it 3 or4 times in an action paragraph or dialogue when you don't have to? Imagination in writing can be profound, especially in world building and action. That can transcend just seeing and hearing. However, grounding yourself in those senses and building from them is important.

That's a great note, Lindbergh E Hollingsworth! Be a professional, write professionally, and learning structure is a fundamental to this.

Couldn't agree more, Pierre Lapointe. If your characters lack emotion, the story will also. We need that emotion to connect with and route for or against characters. Then they matter to us.

Join a screenwriting group.

But does that apply in today's world, Claude Gagne? So many great scripts have come from outside LA and with technology being what it is today, success can come from anywhere.

It's a bit of a tightrope, Helene Leff. As the old saying goes...opinions are like.........and you will encounter so much different advice from so many sources. I believe in the repetitive note. The one that comes from different sources but is the same note. There's value in those.

Understand structure, make your protagonist active, and find the emotion.

Master the format and get to writing!

This is paramount, John Clive Carter! So much support and so much to learn and teach your fellow writers.

Tell it with emotion. Some movies brought tears to my eyes.

Hi, Ingrid Wren! All 3 points are key essentials for a writer. Remarkably, they are interwoven necessities and have a domino effect on your writing.

Understanding the correct formatting in writing styles is critical, Gregory Bonds. I could not agree more on that note. Understanding the basic formatting allows you to get to writing. Well said.

100%, Marty Howe! Interesting and engaging are far better than boring and predictable.

Best advice? Fewer characters, combine them if necessary. keep the plot moving and use your words to illustrate what that movement looks like. If that means cutting dialogue, do it.

Couldn't agree more, Kevin Hager! It's a life-blood of character, dialogue, and scene execution. Well said.

A great piece of advice I received that makes sense is to give each character a different voice. Each character needs to be different, move differently, and act differently just like each one of us is!

All very good points, Robert Franklin Godwin III. Also, these are things you can accomplish in your writing without sacrificing quality of work.

Boundaries, Drongo Bum! Understanding the fundamentals of a screenplay, it's parameters, and what's expecting inside it. Then turning it into your own story and vision. Nicely put.

Absolutely, Alinser Hoyos. Avoid repetition and the same voice for your characters. Couldn't agree more. A great teacher for this is real life. Does everyone you encounter and interact with have the same voice and say the same thing? No, they don't.

Never give up on your stupid, stupid dreams.

Don't be afraid to hurt your characters.

Trying to please every feedback I get. Feedback helps me to learn and grow, but it's okay to stay true to your own voice still. So the best advice I got was to find balance between learning from feedback and still having my own voice. Especially since opinions can vary a lot and trying to please every single one is impossible. What one person considers good, can be negative points of another and the cycle goes on. Unless of course it's about major aspects like formatting, structure or grammar. :)

write what you know....write what is personal and want to go deeper into -- find yourself in your writing. ask the big questions. do that and I guarantee your writing will not just come from the pen but from the heart.

The best advice I ever received came from --- name-drop warning! sorry! -- Chris Columbus (writer of Gremlins, The Goonies; director of Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire etc) while on the set of Harry Potter. I had the enviable job of following him around from set to editing to rushes theatre to his office and so on, so had the chance to pick his brains quite often. During this time, I was learning all about the various paradigms that were out there back in 2001/2, thinking this was going to be the answer to screenwriting success. One particular day, we were talking paradigms, structure plans etc. and he stopped me and said: "Just write an entertaining story."

I know this sounds over-simplistic, but what it did was stop me going too far down this particular rabbit hole. Like so many developing writers, I was guilty of becoming obsessed with structural formulae. And what Chris did was show me I shouldn't lose sight of what I was trying to do: at the end of the day, the story needs to entertain, plain and simple. To a fledgling writer starting out who was always so focused on the minutiae, this was invaluable advice and I am always passing it on to others, like I am right now!

John, I learned right here on Stage 32 to put the accent on conflict.

Find out where the conflict in your story is...and you'll have a better chance of resonating with readers/TV viewers/filmgoers.

"Nobody knows anything! So, take advice from everybody but with a grain of salt, and forge your own path so people will try to follow how you did it one day."

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier

"Writing is just a job. Like digging ditches." Screenwriter Ian Hunter, Oscar winner (with Dalton Trumbo) for "Roman Holiday". Ian was one of my screenwriting teachers at NYU.

To give yourself grace

Get rid of the fluff. If a scene doesn't advance the story or reveal anything new about the character and his/her situation, get rid of it, as much as you love it. Same with dialog. Keep things moving and purposeful.

The "stupid" dreams are the ones never explored, Rick. That's a great note of yours.

Absolutely Bill Albert! Our characters are our family, and even they have to experience tough times and challenges. Good note.

You lose the identity of your story, Lucy Addams, if you take EVERY note to heart and try changing your work to suit EVERY note. The ones to value are the repeated ones from different sources. Great note.

This is a super note, Alejandro Lalinde! Personal experience from any writer is the literal fuel for our work. Then we take these experiences and transport them into our created world and characters, but the fundamental foundation, the experiences, are always present.

What a great experience that must have been, Phil Clarke! You must have had fun on that job. The note itself is so simple, yet so profound. Don't overthink your work. Outline it, research it, and stick to the fundamentals in formatting, but don't wallow precious creative time in over-thinking it.

Folks want to love/hate characters, Jim Boston. Placing them in conflict and their responses to said conflicts often can "speak" volumes. It basically drives the script. Good note.

While there is truth in forging your own path in your career, Danny Range, and choosing which advice to listen to, and not EVERY piece of advice, is important as well, I would add to your great note to find the value of advice when it is present, and identify how does it apply to your own writing.

Wow, Staton Rabin, what a great teacher to have! Yes, many writers approach the careers as a job, which is true, but I believe that it is much more than "digging ditches." For me, its a passion, and a conviction in what I write and why I write it that transcends to job title. It's a job, but a fun one! Thank you for your reply. It's a true note for sure.

How true, Sydney S! Finding that balance is super critical in your professional life. Making the choice to interact with the world – and yourself – with goodwill and kindness often rewards itself. Great note to share.

Nice note, Pierre Lapointe! What we as writers put into our stories, characters, scenes, dialogue, etc., should be advancing to the goal of the script. Well said, sir.

Thanks so much, John Mezes . Yes, Ian Hunter was an amazing, principled guy and taught us "work ethic" from that line of advice-- which to me meant that being a screenwriter is not about waiting for "inspiration"; you just do the hard work. There's an amazing backstory about Ian Hunter, blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and the writing of "Roman Holiday", which folks can find online. The full credit on the film eventually became: "Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton".

Write in a brief, concise manner...A note sadly I don't think many other screenwriters ever received. (I know of what I speak, having worked as a freelance story analyst for nearly three decades.)

Hi everyone! One piece of advice I received and really liked was: Write dialogue in a way that if you remove the character names, you can still tell who is speaking. This helps deepen character development by giving each one a distinct voice shaped by their background, personality, and worldview.

Just write. Dreaming about it, reading about it, researching about it is not writing. Don't analyze what you write because none of this will get you to finish a screenplay.

John C. Bounds Great advice! Sometimes, we read a lot of books and scripts but still feel like we're not ready to write. In reality, though, the best way to improve is simply by starting to write. There's no substitute for practice and learning through the process.

Less is more. Go straight into action because we don't have time for unnecessary dialogue. And it has helped me

Less is more.

Nice note, Anush Har! Very true, if every character sounded the same in dialogue, where is the individuality? What would make them stand apart from each other?

Too true, John C. Bounds! Just write is a great note, because how else does it get done? Prepping for a script is important, but it's the groundwork, and not supposed to consume all of your time. Writing has that honor.

You got it, Pamela De Nicolo! Aspects of your script should drive it to its goal and conclusion. Filler materials with no direct association will be edited out eventually, by you if you edit yourself with rewrites, or by the studio who buys your script.

I echo that oldy, but goody note, Francisco Castro!