by Anasofia Aceves

Created on: February 11, 2010   Last Updated: March 17, 2010

Whether you are planning on being a Hollywood screenwriter or just write as a hobby you must know the basics of this medium.

Characters

One of the most common mistakes the new screenwriter makes comes about during the description of the reactions of the characters.

Its is very frequent to encounter sentences like ¨she was thinking how good it was to be there¨ or ¨she knew this was something she would never do¨, which are very valid sentences in telling a story but not in showing it, which is what screenwriting is all about.

As screenwriters we need to show what it’s going on with the story and a thought is very difficult to translate to screen, unless you have a great director and a great actor ready to translate you screenplay into an image.

Instead of saying ¨she was thinking how good it was to be there¨, you should give some dialog to your character saying ¨Its so great to be back here¨ or if you want to show and not tell, maybe you can describe the scene a different way, ¨ she entered with a big smile on her face, she put her luggage down, sat on the couch and sighed relieved¨.

Creating dialogue is a difficult task to take in; in order to make your characters as real as possible you need to know how they speak.

Again, reading screenplays it is very easy to find the lack of experience or research the new writer makes as they writes something they are not familiar with.

If your character is fifteen years old, he or she won’t talk like the writer unless the writer is fifteen years old and from the same time and town as the character. A fifteen year old from Tijuana Mexico will not think, act and talk the same way as a fifteen year old from London England, or from Beijing China or Tucson Arizona. To that add the social economic background of the character and they could be completely different even if they are from the same town.

You must know who you are writing about, take the time to make a biography about your characters, where were they born, who do they live with, who are their friends, what happened during their childhood, where to they live, how do they live, the more information you can collect about them the better.

This will not go into your screenplay, but when you reach that inevitable white wall, where there’s no inspiration, you will be able to answer a simple question that will definitely take you out of your slump, what would he/ she do in that particular scenario?

Motivation

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