Just because you can write a novel or a short story doesn’t mean that you know how to write a script. I’m an officer for Kennesaw State’s Screenwriter’s Association, and I cannot tell you how many people I have met who love writing short stories when they enter the club but think that incredibly descriptive prose writing will make a good screenplay.

They usually have action lines that are formatted in MASSIVE action “chunks”, which they usually write thoroughly and beautifully, but these chunks are often too much for a screenplay.

Whether you are an experienced writer or just starting, my goal in this article is to give five ways that will help you to write in this medium and to tell better stories. So, with that, let’s begin to talk about something that intimidates most people when they first start a screenplay, and that is…

1.) Formatting

Back in the old days, screenwriters would sit at a typewriter and have to determine where to put their slug lines (used for basic setting details), action lines, dialogue, transitions, and a million other smaller elements that are, frankly, a pain in the ass to format mechanically. Trust me, I have used a typewriter for writing a script.

It sucks.

Further in most cases, if you don’t have your screenplay properly formatted; it makes you look unprofessional and very few people will want to admit your script into festivals or help to produce your script. A script is like a blueprint for a film, and if you don’t have it structured the right way, it will be hard for people to know your plan and help construct your vision for the product; this is even more important when you are not the person directing the film.

In other words, formatting’s pretty damn important.

The beauty in writing a screenplay today is that most of the writing can be done on online software, making formatting incredibly easy and certainly less daunting. Most professionals use Final Draft, which can be expensive for some, but for those on a budget, you can use WritersDuet, StudioBinder, or many other screenwriting softwares that make the formatting process effortless. Another great point of advice is…

2.) Write with Visuals in Mind

In prose, internal thoughts and feelings are the primary drivers of a story. In plays, conflict and interest comes from relationships. However, in screenplays, visual symbols and expressions are what display a story’s conflict. That does not mean that conflict should not arise internally or interpersonally; it definitely should. Many great writers combine these forms of conflict with environmental conflict, usually making a thousand times more interesting.

But, in scriptwriting, a writer must always try to use visuals to convey these actions because filmmaking is a visual medium. That’s what makes the genre so unique. As the old saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In scriptwriting, there is no exception to this. That’s why we hardly see movies that are filled with voice-overs of someone’s thoughts and why a film usually has more than one setting. Spectacle is a crucial element to the success of a pure film. Lastly, there is…

3.) Be careful about how you use figurative language!

This goes back to how I began this post; figurative language is lovely and is usually at the heart of any great work of prose or poetry; however, in screenwriting, it is usually kept to a minimum.

There are many reasons reason why this is the case.

When an audience watches a film, they often don’t see your brilliant metaphors and metonyms that are sprinkled throughout your script, unless you have used them to express something that can clearly be captured with a camera. They will often not know about your beautiful poetic descriptions directly.

Second, you may create confusion among many of the film departments. For example, your first assistant director (AD) will have to read your script thoroughly to determine what resources will be needed to produce your script. If you use an abstract metaphor, it will probably confuse your AD, not because he doesn’t understand your metaphor, but because he would not know how to display that on screen or what objects would be needed to make this into something an audience can see. That’s why it’s important to use concrete language as often as possible.

Further, your cinematographer and production designer might interpret your metaphor differently. This could cause them to see the point of a scene or the story as a whole in entirely different ways. This would not be ideal because a production needs a unified vision to be successful. It’s already difficult to develop that, so adding flowery language and metaphors just makes things harder, from my experience.

I hope this helped y’all! Drop a comment if you have any questions!