Scriptwriting

Hi all! I’m so excited to be bringing you a workshop on scriptwriting. I considered the idea of making it in script writing format, but I’ve been so busy directing the play I wrote that I couldn’t. But, that means I now have the experience of writing and directing a play which I can now help share through this workshop. I’ve learned so much about the impact writing has on how the play is performed. Just a note, this workshop includes all types of scriptwriting, including others than just for a play. I’ve beta-read so many scripts for animated series, written some for narrative podcasts, so don’t worry! You’re in good hands ;)

What's the Point?
First, let’s go over the point of scriptwriting. Obviously, it’s important if you are writing a script for a movie, a play, etc, but why can it help you even if you aren’t writing for that purpose? Well, at the heart of scriptwriting is the dialogue and actions of the characters. That’s what the audience sees and hears if it were to be performed. By strengthening your script writing skills, you are also sharpening your dialogue and showing skills. In addition, scriptwriting allows for your writing to become a living breathing thing that could be performed by others or even just in your mind. It reduces your writing to the simplest form that could be interpreted by anyone. That being said, writing in a script format is no simple thing.

So what is scriptwriting? Well, a quick search result from Google will tell you a bit.

“Script writing (or screenwriting) is the process of writing stories in the screenplay medium. Script writing is writing down the movement, actions, expression and dialogue of the characters in screenplay, in screenplay format. The process of writing a novel, a poem, or essay, is entirely different than script writing.”

But that doesn’t really give us the full picture. When writing from a novel’s perspective, you consider how to paint the picture of the scene through detailed descriptions. You need to build a world around the character with words. Without even considering the formatting, the story is different. You aren’t telling it through words as much as you are telling it through interactions between characters and the world around them. You can’t just explain something to the readers unless a character is monologuing or discussing it with another character. The focus on scriptwriting falls more on interactions, especially dialogue and actions, rather than the words that describe them.

That seems pretty daunting, especially if you have never done it, so let’s focus on a few techniques for writing it. There isn’t one way to write a script, and they vary greatly based on what format you are writing it for. These are just general tips to help improve your scriptwriting.

Techniques and Tips
Since the heart of scriptwriting is interactions, imagine the conversation can help you write it out. You might do this when writing for something else, but the main thing to keep in mind is a bit different. You want to picture the characters' distance from each other, how they are standing, what they are holding, and most importantly, what and how they are saying.

Now, you don’t have to convey all these emotions into your script and certainly not all the details! Oh no, that would be so much. You want little cues that are brief but give actors and readers a hint to how they should be said (ex: (strained) or (annoyed)). The readers and actors then have the creative liberty to interpret that in a more powerful way than if you had painstakingly written out how it should be read. In a similar way, character actions should be simple, mentioned once unless needed more.

If you are writing in a room with other people, it may be better to follow the first technique, but otherwise, I found that acting it out (not necessarily standing up and big motions) can help. Even just sitting down, using your hands to express the emotions you want the script to convey can help. Saying each line aloud can help with the flow. If you are in a more private space, and maybe you enjoy acting, jumping around pretending to be the different characters can be very helpful.

Formating
Now, how we write scripts isn’t the only thing that’s different. The formatting of a script is shockingly different from that of a poem, novel, or essay. Of course, there are standards, but you don’t have to feel constrained to write perfectly in this format. This is just how they are generally writing.

One of the biggest changes is dialogue. The character’s name who is speaking should always be above on a new line. It should be in all caps and generally tabs 5-6 times over (2.5-3 inches). Scene directions such as actions should be on the line below or on a line in between the dialogue (depending on where you want it to be in effect). They should be in parentheses. There’s a lot more, but that’s just a basic idea (Honey’s example has some good ways to base it off). I’d also recommend utilizing the outline function on google docs since it can make navigating your script a lot easier (plus an automatically updating table of contents!). If you are looking for more in-depth information, I’d look at https://slugline.co/basics. Keep in mind that this isn’t the only way to do it, and in the end, what works for you is all that matters.

Now that we’ve talked about the formatting and what to focus on when writing it, let’s talk about the dreaded thing… editing! I hate it, you probably hate it, we all hate it (unless you like it, and in that case, please be my editor!).

Proofreading
The best tool for proofreading for any writing is always going to be reading it aloud. This is not only going to catch grammatical errors or left out words (hey it happens!), but it will also help you understand how the words flow. Hopefully, you’ll have already been acting it out loud, so this won’t surprise you with how each line sounds.

Now, for a play, some of the most powerful ways of editing can be the most uncomfortable. Peer review! Okay okay, but not exactly that. You don’t need someone to look through the script and give suggestions (though it would help!) What will really show you if you achieved what you meant in the script, especially in dialogue delivery, is having someone reading/performing it for you. You would be really surprised how many different ways something can be read. By doing this, you are able to see if there is anything that warrants clarification. I know finding a willing participant can be hard, but it’s even better if they like acting or are willing to act out the motions too.

If you are writing for something that will be performed (and let’s say you are directing it!), your script can become so much more natural if you allow your actors to be loose with the lines and change the script to match.

Habits to Break
Finally, we’ve talked all about scriptwriting, but we never talked about how you know you are doing it right. Well, that’s one of the joys of writing, be it scriptwriting or not. It’s your writing, so you can’t mess up! That said, let’s wrap up by running through a few bad script writing habits.

We’ve probably all heard “show don’t tell” (or maybe it’s just me and y’all are amazing authors already ). Believe it or not, telling exists in scriptwriting too. Now, like everything we’ve gone over, it’s not the same as “telling” in a story. Generally, it exists in dialogue. Frankly, your character's actions and description of the set should be very blunt. It helps avoid confusion particularly if your writing is going to be performed. When you write a story, you want your audience to know what’s going on. You want them to know the details, but the problem with detailed dialogue writing in scripts is that it tends to lead to awkward lines and the characters saying things that are obvious. There are ways to hint at details, but as a general rule, if two characters are having a conversation, and there is something that they both should already know, a character shouldn’t say it.


And finally, one of the biggest problems you can find yourself having (and this is mainly if you are writing for a specific medium, mainly plays) is how you write each scene. We dream in movies, we imagine as omniscient viewers, but writing for a play isn’t like that. You need to think about how you are going to view it as the audience and what the limitations are. This of course applies in reverse. Surprisingly, plays have something that movies don’t. Imagine seeing the actual Hamilton verse watching the movie on the screen. There are dimensions to a play that a movie can’t capture and that of a movie that a play can’t come close to. The main thing is to keep this in mind if you are writing for a specific type of script.

Thanks for reading it through!
And that’s it! We covered why we write in script format, how it’s different from novel writing, how to format, how to proofread, and what not to do. I hope you find this useful. Even if script writing isn’t for you, there is still so much you can learn from it. Thank you so much, and have a great day <33 Y’all are amazing!

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Question: Would the words be for the script,or the original work?

featheredge wrote:

Question: Would the words be for the script,or the original work?

For the activity? You are supposed to take an old piece of writing (the length for the original work is up to you, but a story with 800-1000 words is recommended). Then, the word count that matters is the script format which should be at least 700 words long.

So the script, to answer your original question

THIS IS AMAZING FINLEY <3

Cherrie_Tree wrote:

THIS IS AMAZING FINLEY <3

THANK YOU ZURA <3333

this is so helpful ahh <33

THIS IS GREAT AAAA AND SUPER HELPFUL THANK YOU <333

THANK YOU GUYS <33

So do we use this workshop to help us complete the weeklies? We use this for help and inspo and then we put our work into this thread; https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/6084597

this is awesome!

Hi, A doubt regarding this script writing activity. I do not have any story this long made by me yet so can I take an already made story or make a scriptwriting directly by forming story in mind?