Jessie Coleman - Writing Screenplays

Your mission, if you should choose to accept it, is to select the most interesting period of your life that will appeal to a large audience. Your movie can be a drama, comedy, romance, etc., but if you want the movie to sell, you need to be aware of what the marketplace is buying. If you want your script to appeal to a movie audience, it must resonate with them; it must ring true with a theme that is universal, with characters the audience can recognize as believable and real.

True-life stories continue to cast a spell over people who want to learn from the experience of others, and for that reason, true-life stories with universal appeal will always be in high demand. For example, an adaptation that was powerful and had universal appeal was The Fighter, about the real-life battles of Irish Micky Ward and his rise to a boxing championship despite his dysfunctional family.

There are always moments or dramatic events in our lives that are so fascinating or memorable that they scream to be shared with the world, and we think, This could be a movie! Though that may very well be true, how do you go about finding that moment in time worth writing about and sharing with the world?

You may feel that the challenge is to choose the story that would appeal to the largest number of people. You want to be aware of what will sell, but if youre writing this for the audience alone, it wont be much good. You need to channel what I believe Judith Malina once said, First I think about what it is I want to say. Then I go about saying it. The point is that the story youre writing must resonate with you; its a story that you need to write, not one that will draw the largest number of people.

Remember, a story is not necessarily interesting because it really happened. Its an interesting story simply because it is, whether it really happened or not. Think of your life story as a work of fiction. If your life story were pitched as a novel, would people line up to purchase a copy, or would you have to say, based on a true story to capture their attention? You want your life story to be so interesting that even if it were not a true story, it would be compelling all on its own.

While you are in the planning stages of your story, it might be a good idea to view a few true-life stories on film to get an idea of how the subject matter is handled. After you have viewed some movies, you will probably have a better sense of how different stories are executed based on theme. If you have already decided upon the story you wish to tell, congratulations! If not, I offer you a piece of advice: Look for the hot spots of your life, the moments of the greatest change, greatest lessons, and sometimes the greatest loss. Do this and you will find the story that only you can tell. Heres a golden opportunity to share with the world the story that is unique to you and demands to be told.