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Screenwriting Tips - Establishing Your Story
Writing a screenplay is a lengthy process that requires an organized mind. It's not just about writing a great story, it's about pacing, characterization, and (most importantly) intertwining the scenes in a logical, story-telling format. And even if you do manage to get a script completed, the odds of getting it produced are slim to none.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to discourage anyone from writing their first screenplay, but you must realize it's a tough endeavor no matter how you look at it. You must be realistic with your goals. Only a handful of writers ever get their screenplay produced. But if you do things right, you could be one of those writers.
Your basic story idea is where everything begins. What's your story about? Is it a western? Or perhaps a modern day love story? Whatever it is, you must have a central character and a goal for him or her to achieve (or avoid). The more obstacles you can toss into the storyline, the better!
Let's say your story is about a small town girl who falls for a married man traveling through her Midwest town. He visits her mother's cafe where the young girl serves him banana cream pie and listens to him talk about his job, his life in Los Angeles, and his wife. He is thirty-something and she's just an innocent girl of nineteen. She becomes instantly infatuated with him and the possibility of a new life for herself outside of her little town.
That storyline would be a good start. She already has two things to overcome: he's married and he's obviously going to leave her town in a relatively short period of time. She must work fast to accomplish her goals.
What does she want from him? Maybe she just wants to have some fun for a few days? Perhaps she wants to establish a lengthy relationship with him and be his mistress? Maybe she wants to marry him herself? Or maybe her desires are a little more selfish and she only wants him to take her away from this small town of hers. Whatever her motives are, they are the driving force of your story.
We've already discussed a few good ideas for the story line. Let's pick one: she's a small town girl who falls in love with a traveling salesman. He's going to leave her town in three days and return to his wife in Los Angeles. No, not Los Angeles. Let's make it Beverly Hills. That should make it a little more interesting.
She doesn't want to be his mistress; she wants him all to herself and she wants to move to Beverly Hills with him. After all, life is boring in a small town. His lifestyle seems very exciting to her. She's tired of serving pie to strangers and listening to their wonderful stories about their exciting lives outside of her little town. It's time for her to change her life and head west to California, to Beverly Hills.
Now that we have a basic storyline, the rest of the story can be pieced together rather easily. The next step is to organize a series of obstacles that she must overcome. Given the storyline, I'm sure you can dream up an endless supply of problems that she must conquer in order to win her chosen man.
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