Sunday Picture Post 17 / Style
photo credit: Kevin Goebel
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: STYLE
A good way to stand out from the pack is by having your own recognizable writing style.
Your writing should feel natural, honest, and comfortable to you, not forced or contrived.
Try to come up something different that has not been done and do it in all of your scripts.
Example: An enormously wealthy and successful screenwriter I know made his mark 30 years ago by writing scripts in a conversational way, as if he was talking to the reader.
Cultivate your unique writing voice.
Sunday Picture Post 16 / Upkeep
photo credit: iowa_spirit_walker
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: UPKEEP
For lawyers and doctors, it is mandatory by law and industry to continue learning, for which we are thankful because our lives occasionally depend on these people and what they know.
Writers also affect people’s lives greatly, yet screenwriters and novelists do not have anyone to say to them, “Learn and stay current on industry breakthroughs, or you will be disbarred!”
It is up to writers to educate and improve on their own or one day the public might disbar them by no longer buying their product.
If you neglect a house, it does not stay the same, it deteriorates.
What is popular and fabulously new will one day be old and tragically unhip.
Time and nature bury that which goes without maintenance.
Learn, be curious and open-minded; it will extend your career.
Sunday Picture Post 15 / Fruit Loops
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: FRUIT LOOPS
Think about Fruit Loops for a while and go write something original.
Sunday Picture Post 14 / The Manimal
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- A title for this movie
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: THE MANIMAL
A fun technique that I call the MANimal for building characters is to either 1) attribute animal traits to a human character, or 2) attribute human traits to an animal character.
The manimal technique is usually best used with comedies, but can be done with any genre, mystery, crime, and romance.
You can practice with the above image.
Of what type of dog does the man make you think?
What type of human does the dog summon to mind?
Now make up some new traits for both the dog and the man.
Give the dog some human traits — he clearly likes to ride scooters.
Give the man some dog traits — say, he likes sniffing butts, which gets him into trouble with the authorities.
It’s fun. You try it now.
Let’s see if any of you can come up with a story more interesting than the true story of this guy, which I will add as a comment here next week.
Sunday Picture Post 13 / Flaws
Image sources: Off Grid Living and Otherpower.
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: ADD FLAWS
Add flaws to your hero.
Flaws make the hero believable and relatable. Your hero can and should make mistakes and blunders.
All superheros have weaknesses and failures.
I love the old James Bond movies starring Sean Connery, because even though he was super sexy, slick, and smart, he would trip on the sidewalk or get smacked by a lady, and that added believability and comedy.
-
Subscribe
-
-
content rss