by Jared Vineyard

Created on: January 05, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

Everyone talks about the formula for writing screenplays. Let me tell you, the formula is for selling your screenplay. Being able to describe your piece in acts and with the pivotal moments of climax makes you sound like you know what you're doing. But when you're writing a piece, you're probably not thinking or chanting, "Act one, pivotal moment, act two pivotal climax, act three!"

When you sit down to write, please do not concern yourself with structure, structure, structure. Get a program like Final Draft or Hollywood Screenwriter that takes care of your formatting and start writing your story.

In the movie Finding Forester, Sean Connery has the line, "The secret to writing is writing." If you are so caught up in the format and structure your screenplay should have that you're intimidated to write, you'll never end up with a good script. Not only will you never end up with a good script, but you'll never end up with any script. Just write.

How do you start writing with no formula? Who cares! Maybe you have a story idea. Start typing that idea out. Maybe you don't have a story idea. Maybe you have an interesting character or know a really odd person (don't we all). Start there. What is that character named; what do they look like; what would they do if they had the horrible day that I just had? Something will get you into a story and then you just go with it.

Eventually, you may end up with some kind of formula for your writing. Perhaps you'll learn a way to clunk out scripts more efficiently, but hopefully, you won't ever make that your focus. Hopefully, every time you sit down to a new project, you start fresh. You try to write something you've never written before. Then you have fun with it and create a great story that is new and exciting.

Even though it is so important, a great story is not where a screenplay ends. Remember, you're writing to create a movie. Your story can only be conveyed in two ways: what the audience sees and what the audience hears. So once you have your story on the page, go through and make sure you're telling it through visual and audio means. Therein lies your true formula. Learning to write visually and aurally. This can only be done through practice. The more you do it, the more natural it will become. Your first pieces will probably require you to go back and rewrite and rewrite simply to get your story so it can be told as a movie. Eventually, you will automatically write that way-your formula will be set. Then, you can get back to what is important: telling a good story with good characters that people want to see.

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