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Golden Brad Awards WRITING TIPS:General Writing Advice from our well-informed judges
1. Jump into the story early on. Don’t Dawdle. Many beginning writers make the mistake of spending valuable early pages establishing characters and situation (status quo) and beginning the story too late. In years past audiences might tolerate slow starts and multiple getting-to-know-you scenes before the main action begins. These days, it’s best to jump into the story immediately and establish character simultaneously. If things aren’t heating up by page 10 or so, rethink the beginning with a view towards getting the story going earlier.
2. Rewriting means compression. Admittedly, rewriting is a broad subject and covers much, yet strangely one thing that almost always improves the material is paring down pages, scenes, dialogue. Compressed writing means reducing to irreducible minimum and results in tighter writing. You are asking for an audiences/reader’s indulgence; reward them then by making your point(s) early and often and trim bloat at every opportunity. Many good writers do a long first draft then cut down as they go in successive rewrites. One guideline is if a character, scene, page etc can be removed from the story and it still works, chop it. Chop it now!. Perhaps a bad analogy, but illustrative is reduction in cooking; the more a sauce is reduced then the richer the flavor, conversely, the more water content the blander. Don’t be bland.
3. Overpopulation / people blur Too many characters introduced too early leads to a blur in the reader’s head. It is hard to keep track of even a limited number of characters unless they are very distinct. Try to limit the characters to a manageable number. For the writer, each of the characters are crystal clear because he/she has been living with them over the course of writing the story; but the audience/reader doesn’t have this advantage and it’s easy to overwhelm with a top-heavy roster of characters.
4. Conflict is bad in real life but great in story. Do you avoid conflict? It’s human nature to avoid pain and seek pleasure; however storytelling (drama –same thing) demands conflict to even function. And conflict on as many different levels as possible. Some people confuse the term “drama” just to a specific genre. Drama is a genre, like comedy, action, family etc, but it is also a term used to describe the essense of story telling. Imagine populating a story with characters who are very similar in class, age, outlook, morailty etc and put them together for a story, they would agree on most everything because they are so similar. How nice….How boring. Look for polar opposites, or people likely to create friction with each other, especially in group/ensenmble pieces.
5. Study the genre you are writing in. Think your script transcends genre? Think again, every story shares at least certain elements with others. Many potential fans of your story will be well versed in others in the same genre. Writing a horror but have only seen one horror movie, won’t do. Watch as many films of the same genre as you can, partly so can make sure you are not inadvertently including a “seen-it-befofe” scene in your own script, and partly for inspiration.
6. Page count. Shoot for a script between 90 and 110 pages. Often beginning writers will overwrite and end up with longer or much longer scripts. While it is true that movies still get made based on long scripts, these are almost always from famous writer-directors who enjoy serious latitude at studios or at least are considered a proven commodity. For everyone else, seriously consider limited page count between 90 and 110 pages. If you find that you can’t reduce your script to fit in these limits, most likely you aren’t being ruthless enough in your cutting. While we accept scripts up to 130 pages and even a few pages beyond, it’s definitely to your advantage to do this.
7. Read some good books on screenwriting. There are many great books on the subject, but some that stand out include: Linda Seger's "Making a Good Script Great" (excellent primer on rewriting and fundamental and advanced screenwriting techiques). David Trottier's "Screenwriter's Bible" (superb all-in-one book that covers all the basics with an emphasis on formatting). James N. Frey's "How to Write a Damn Good Novel" (more about how to write a dramatic novel, but this practical, passionate book covers important, often overlooked concepts applicable to all storytelling.) Alex Epstein's "Crafty Screenwriting"(told from a producer's point-of-view - how to write for Hollywood with great description and discussion on the importance of story concept as the leading force in whether your script gets read let alone purchased). Note: we are not affliated with any of the above authors and recieve nothing for plugging their works.
HOW TO BIND YOUR SCRIPT
Correctly bound screenplay
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