How to Write a Screenplay (According to Me): Part 1

This is not a definitive "How to Write a Screenplay" blog post. This is a "How I Wrote My Screenplay, What I Did Wrong, and What I'll Do Again" post. It is my goal to provide a case study of one way (out of bazillions) to get an idea from brain to final draft.

1. Teach Myself the Proper Screenwriting Format, etc.

I read The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script* pretty much from cover to cover weeks before I started this project. I thought it was very informative. I tabbed and highlighted the heck out of it. I even created worksheets based on the information the book contained to streamline my writing process. I didn't end up using the worksheets for this script, but I think they will be helpful for something that doesn't hit me like this one did.

Another edition has been released, but I used the 5th edition blue one.

2. The Idea

I've had several ideas for a screenplay percolating for months. One's even been kicking around in my head for over a year. However, none of these ideas started a fire under me quite like the one I experienced for this story.
I was up, unable to sleep, "what if, what if, what if" circling around my brain and messing with my beauty rest.
And that's just it. I thought about "what if" and out came scenarios, reactions, ways to combat the problem. No real life life solution manifested, but I had an absolute ball running with what could happen.  

3. Getting It Out of My Brain

I wrote a huge chunk out in Microsoft Word in a single night. The day after next, I had to drive six hours to attend a wedding. Most of that trip was spent improvising dialogue into an audio recording app on my iPhone. For some reason, long car trips help my brainstorming immensely. 

In between wedding festivities, I was transcribing what I had recorded and adding new scenarios. 

I used the following format in word:

• What's Happening in the Scene 
• Describe the setting (if I knew)
• Character 1: Talky talky talky.
• Character 2: Reply reply reply.
• This is action happening.
• Character 1: Babble babble babble.
• Action Action action
• Character 2: Ruminate ruminate ruminate
• Next scene
• Repeat above.

A note on why I wrote it out in Word first: My screenwriting program of choice is Celtx (because it's free). The program, however, does not lend itself, in my opinion, to easy editing and rearranging. Word, on the other hand, is incredibly easy to finagle with. Also, I used the transfer process from Word to Celtx as a way to do some initial re-drafting, but more on that later. 

The word count for my screenplay was 13,385 words (pre-Celtx transfer). After fleshing out the writing, this translated to roughly 90 pages of screenplay. As you may or may not know, in general, one page of script is equal to one minute of screen time. That, of course, made me as pleased as Punch.

4. Playing with the Scene Order

After I had it all typed out in Word, I made each scene its own page. I adjusted font size to make it fit onto a single page if necessary.

I then printed out two written pages to every printed page and cut them in half so I had a bunch of scene cards that I could physically see and play with. I also made blank cards so I could add scenes as I needed them.

Next, I sat on the floor and laid out my film. I rearranged, cut, and added scenes where there were holes in the story.

Once that was done, I went back into Word and cut and paste my new order and wrote out the scenes that had been missing.

|A Note on Thinking Ahead|

I wrote this screenplay for eventual production. Specifically, I wrote one of the parts for me. One of my many life's ambitions is to pull a Brit Marling and make my own way. 

This means that even if this is the best screenplay ever (which let's be real, even though I'm actually really liking where it's going, Casablanca it's not) getting this produced is going to be an issue. I tried to keep it as inexpensive as possible. I also made sure that there were plenty of Chicago shout-outs scattered throughout the script. 

5. Transfer to Celtx

I printed out another copy of my script and then started to type it out, scene by scene, into Celtx. 

This was an incredibly tedious process. I'm sure it would be more efficient to just do the whole thing in the program, however, during the transfer I fleshed out my scenes, added dialogue, cut things that I didn't think worked, etc. By the time I typed "The End" in Celtx, I was really on my third draft of the script (1. pre-arranged draft 2. post-arranged draft 3. Celtx draft). 

6. Reading Out Loud

I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Some of my dialogue didn't sound like something my characters would say: sometimes it was too stilted, sometimes it didn't make sense off the page, etc. I sat there and acted out 92 pages, by myself, making changes as I went. 

I also fixed regular typos in this phase as well. I read EVERYTHING aloud, even the action and scene headings.

7. Read It Again and Fix the Nuts and Bolts

I fixed my errors in spelling, typos, and formatting. For example, I played with my montage format a few of times, so I needed to decide on a consistent approach. Also, I have a couple of phone conversations so I needed to figure out how to write those effectively. The resource that I turned to repeatedly was this fantastic free PDF called How Did They Write It, which is a compilation of how writers have dealt with issues ranging from phone conversations to on screen text. I also referenced my tabbed pages in The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script*. (Especially pages 136-138 which contain a sample script.)

8. Sending It to First Round Beta Readers

At the end of last week, I sent it to my first round of beta readers. These are the people who I trust to rip it apart and tell me what they think. None of my first round readers are in the industry or have studied film. However, most really love entertainment and are close friends. I've gotten initial comments back from one reader thus far and they've been beyond helpful.
Once I get those comments back, I'll take them into consideration, change what I agree with, ignore it if I disagree, and send it out for another round with my next group of victims friends. Again, these will be close friends and people I trust to eviscerate my writing.

This is where I am with the script. I will do another post as I take steps toward getting that final draft completed. Hang with me.

* I have become an Amazon Associate to monetize my blog. When you see an asterisk, it means that the link could put money in my pocket if you decide to click it and make a qualifying purchase from Amazon. I do not include products on my blog that I have not personally used. If I find them valuable, I'll let you know. If I hate them, I'm probably not going to write about them because of that whole "If you don't have something nice to say..." thing.