Diane Drake - Get Your Story Straight: A Step-by-Step Guide to Screenwriting by a Million-Dollar Screenwriter

PREFACE

A word after a word after a word is power.

~ Margaret Atwood

S ometimes it seems as though each new screenwriting book on the market, perhaps in an effort to offer some new ground-breaking, sure-fire formula, contains ever more complex graphs and charts and elaborate jargon and theories of writing. These things make my head spin. I become hopelessly mired in trying to even understand the concepts set forth, let alone apply them to my own work. And if they do that to me, somebody whos actually written and sold screenplays and had movies produced, I can only imagine how daunting they must be to writers just starting out.

Having worked as a screenwriter of major motion pictures, in development as a Vice President of Creative Affairs for Academy Award-winning director/producer Sydney Pollack, as a story consultant, and as a writing instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers Program, I wanted to share what Ive learned to help empower other writers. So one of my main goals here is to try not to make matters any more complicated than they already are, because theyre already complicated enough.

Ive boiled down what I believe are the most essential principles and elements that go into writing a satisfying story and successful screenplay. Ive also put a lot of emphasis on story structure, as I think creating a solid one is challenging, yet key to crafting a great script. And since screenwriting is a spare art, Ive endeavored to take novelist Elmore Leonards advice and have done my best to leave out the parts people skip.

All of that said, Ill be the first to admit that there simply is no single rock-solid formula to this craft. Would that there were! There are principles, but this is art, not math, and one of the big challenges of creating something original is that its the prototype every time out. On the plus side, you are free toin fact, I would say you are charged tocreate something the world has not yet seen.

And on that note, I salute you. The creative path in life is often not an easy one. It can sometimes feel like the path of most resistance and it takes courage to pursue. But as the Zen proverb tells us, The obstacles are the path. It is in the process of striving to overcome the challenges in life that we and, not at all incidentally, our fictional heroes, grow.

May you, like any good protagonist, allow the creative and personal challenges in your life to help bring you to a higher realization of yourself. And may this book help encourage you to do that. May it provide you with some useful tools with which to share your own unique voice and vision and, as Tolstoy advised, Add your light to the sum of light.

INTRODUCTION

To make a great film you need three things the script, the script and the script.

~ Alfred Hitchcock

I have structured this book to provide an insiders guide to what it actually takes to get your story straight as a screenwriter. I will take you on this journey from the outside in, first discussing story and movies, then zooming in on the specifics of screenplay construction, and finally describing what its really like to work in the industry.

In the first couple of chapters, I address the larger topics of why we write and what movies are really about. In Chapters Three and Four, Ill take a step closer and describe how to choose a concept, and how to distill a short but pithy log line from that concept. Creating a log line is imperative in crafting your story, as it serves as an abbreviated map or spine for your script. Its also a tool required in the business; an intriguing log line can help sell your screenplay.

In Chapter Five, I give you an overview of the classic three-act structure of screenplays: what it is, how it works, and why its necessary. Its so important that even if you choose to abandon this traditional paradigm of storytelling, you need to understand it before you discard it. As the saying goes, you need to know the rules before you can break them.

In Chapter Five I also begin my analyses of ten screenplays that were each the basis of successful movies. In each chapter thereafter, I use these Structurally Speaking sections to illustrate the concepts I cover in the book. I also deconstruct the three acts in each script to expose their working parts. In teaching screenwriting Ive found that explaining a concept is great, but demonstrating it in action is even better. I endeavor to show how the same screenwriting concepts and elements are used time and again in different ways in well-known, commercial films. Please refer to the section at the end of this Introduction entitled Suggested Movies to Watch for more information.

Starting in Chapter Six and continuing through Chapter Eight, I explore each of the three Acts in greater detail. I cover their specific aims, elements, timing, and how they fit into the larger picture. The diagnostics I provide in these chapters are intended to enable you to create your strongest work possible. Theyll serve a roadmap as you write, or a guide as you re-write, and help you pinpoint and correct problems that may stem from issues specific to each Act.

For the following few chapters, I explain how to populate those Acts: with interesting characters, especially heroes (Chapter Nine) and villains (Chapter Ten); with well-structured scenes in Chapter Eleven; and with evocative dialogue that keeps the story moving in Chapter Twelve.

Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen focus on the business. I discuss what you can expect in Tinseltown, how best to try to break in, and how to protect yourself and your work. Finally, in Chapter Fifteen I close with a few words about what its really like to be a content creator, and how to keep the inspiration flowing.

Stylistically, youll note that throughout I use the default pronoun he whenever referring to characters or writers, something which honestly kind of bothers me. Id hoped to use the more gender neutral they and their, as I do in my teaching, but my copy editor slapped my wrist for that impropriety and I fell back on traditional he. I promise to level the playing field and invoke Title IX in my next book.

Finally, you will see that at the end of each chapter I include a summary list of Takeaways as well as a list of thought-provoking questions or exercises to help keep your creative juices flowing. Throughout the book, Ive also included links to relevant videos and other websites which accent or illustrate my points. The videos offer advice, insights and humor from some giants in the industry, most of whom have faced the same sorts of challenges you will face as a screenwriter.