The Screenwriter Within

The Screen Writer Within - How to turn the movie in your head into a salable screenplay by D B Giles

What an excellent guide to have by your side - excellent for format, timing, drwaing chracters out, getting the play moving along

Suggests the use of 3 punctuation marks, 7 words and basic maths

ACT 1 - ends with a ? (question mark) - words 1 & 2 are INSTIGATING EVENT - so instigating event might be - man meets married woman - words 2, 3, & 4 are MAJOR DRAMATIC QUESTION - the pair start a torrid love affair - will they get caught?

ACT 2:  ends with an ! (exclamation mark) The man discovers his husband's lover is a hit man for the mob. words 6 & 7 are NEW INFORMATION - this is also a turning point for the hero - will he stay and fight for his love - or pack up and go?

ACT 3: ends with . (full stop)  The man must find a way to save the woman he loves. Hit man wants revenge - wants to kill his wife and her lover. The end of the story is the RESOLUTION.

MATHS: average screenplay is 105 - 120 pages long. Act 1 takes pages 1 to 28-35, Act 2 takes pages 28-35 to 82-90 Act 3 takes the rest. Ideally the ? should appear on page 30, the ! between pages 82 and 90

Don't have a first act ending too early - such as page 23, or too late, such as page 44

There are some wonderful quotes form famous people - also some 'nuggets' as a re-cap of each chapter.

Sandra definitely recommends this for reference - you never know when you'll get writer's block - a humorous section likens writing a screenplay to a love affair -

 

Suggested Reading

Writing and Submitting Screen and Radio Plays by Franklyn Davies revised edition 1997 as a composite with Unusual Television dramas.

Sandra's Review:   Very interesting read for the first 12 pages, these offer information and advice about writing for the screen and radio. The book contains 4 scripts with 'correct' layout, as well as abbreviation of terms and abbreviations. It also shows one page as a camera-script.

The advice to re-write an established drama/play seems to be fundamental in getting any new screen/TV writer introduced to this field. Basically, only the VERY talented new writers will be given an audience with those in the business. So to make a GOOD re-write of established work in order to get your foot in the door sounds like good practice to me, even if somewhat unfair to the wonderful talent out there.

The best advice I have read so far in this book: keep visual action to left and sound to the right of the pages. make the layout as professional and easy to read as possible. TV and film companies DON'T read badly laid out scripts or incomplete scripts.

Other suggested reading: not yet read by Sandra

How to Write a Selling Screenplay - Christopher Keane

 

Guide to Writing For Stage and Screen

The Writer's Handbook - Guide to Writing for Stage & Screen - edited by Barry Turner - contributions from James Roose-Evans, Kate Rowland, Timothy West, Hugh Whitemore and Mal Young

Another good reference book - it 's a collection of interviews with writers, and includes 'the worst possible radio play' written by Timothy West - (whom I greatly admire) - "This gun I have in my hand is loaded" - The book says of this play: 'as a teaching aid it is unrivalled ..... is reproduced here as a classic of misconception'.

The books also lists lierary agents, television companies, festivals, prizes, websites and so on.

This is definitely a reference book as opposed to a 'good read' - but the information therein is invaluable.