The proper writing format:

  • present tense
  • 3rd person
  • visual voice

why use 3rd person/ present tense?

  • a character is narrating the story as it is happening e.g: ‘Mark picks up the gun and holds it in his hand. it begins to tremble, as if alive’
  • it presents  more immediate and urgent feel to the material
  • commonly used in: screenplays: story unfolding and fosters a more urgent and immediate feel, thriller and suspense genres

passive voice v.s active voice

passive voice:

  • use weak verbs
  • tells what is happening in the character’s head
  • distances the reader from the story

active voice:

  • use strong action words
  • shows the action
  • uses an immediate sentence structure
  • conveys the story in a lively manner

Tips for writing:

  • everyone will not have a list of excuses for procrastination
  • the biggest problem is getting started
  • if you have a work in progress, never stop for the night if you are stuck
  • always solve the problem and keep going until you are inn safe water. a good night’s sleep is important. sleeping on problems is a myth…
  • if you cannot get started on a project, start writing anyway. to do this, you need to have some words to type
  • it does not matter what you write, you’ll soon begin to think and move in your own rhythm / pace.

EXERCISE 1A: OPENERS!

write with this opener: ‘Wearing a banana suit, Johnson walks towards the botanic gardens…’

he opens the doors, and strides in gracefully smiling with glee and is greeted with a spectacle of human-size fruits and vegetables. Looking left and right, his eyes gaze towards what looks like a massive fruit bowl and sees his best mate, Tomas waving his hands in the air unsuccessfully due to his plump and spiky durian suit. as he walks towards him, the corner of his left eye catches an image that stops him dead in his tracks. An embodiment of beauty embroiled in soft, pink peach. he looks at the image of beauty and sighs as his face turns redder than a bet-root.

  • note down questions you were asking yourself as you wrote it
    • - Whose story am i telling?
    • - what is the point of the story?
    • – how do you engage the attention of the audience?

EXERCISE 1B: OPENERS…

  • write 12 opening phrases in your blog under the openers page

Review exercise 1B: openers

Hans flies into a rage and starts destroying everything within his field of vision! He does not care about the innocent children that he will trample or the police officers trying to restrain him, anything that stands in his way would be destroyed and as if to prove that, he takes the first thing he sees, a blue mailbox and flattens it until its size is comparable to that of a giant pancake. A foolish man decides to be a hero and tries to stop Hans only to face his unstoppable wrath. The last memory of that foolish man is the sound of his spinal cord snapping in two as Hans splits the man’s body into two parts.

Elements of dialogue…

  • dialogue revels character
  1. a character will talk about himself and other people will talk about him.
  • dialogue establishes relationships between characters
  1. once you have established your main character’s POV, you can use dialogue with other characters to show that they have other attitudes, creating opposite POVs
  2. this helps to create and sustain the element of conflict between characters
  • Good effective dialogue will move the story forward
  • dialogue communicates faces and information to the audience
  1. it conveys essential exposition
  2. characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline
  • dialogue comments on the action
  • dialogue ties the script together
  1. it is one of the devices that you as a writer can use to expand and enlarge your characters
  2. dialogue should be used sparingly
  3. never tell the audience what they can see for themselves
  4. dialogue is never a substitute for action

In Hollywood when they look at a page and it’s got too much black, too much ink on the paper, they say “SHIT! IT’S FREEZE THE CAMERA TIME!”

Common mistakes:

  1. students sometimes never achieve a level of competence as they tend to reproduce conventional spoken language, long statements of real talking, and defend their decision by telling us that “it’s how the character speaks” good dialogue is not somebody’s ability to write authentic speech as heard in real life – if that was all there is to it, you can just push the button on the tape recorder and go up and collect an Oscar
  2. good dialogue is the illusion of reality – you need to know how to edit what people say without losing any of the spirit
  3. Students tend to create radio shows with images – film is a visual medium – A SCREENPLAY IS A STORY TOLD IN PICTURES!

Exercise: writing dialogue

scenario:

  • a middle-aged man returns home from work
  • he had stopped for a few drinks with his friends and forgot to phone his wife to tell her he’ll be late
  • dinner is ruined

the exercise:

  • write a short scene composed of dialogue between husband and wife

wife dialogue represented with ‘W’. husband dialogue represented with ‘H’

Husband returns home after having drinks with his friends. he returns home to see luggage bags on the floor near the door. on the sofa his wife sits waiting for him.

H: hi honey! i’m home!

W:…

H: what’s with the luggage bags? did someone come over to stay for the night again?

W:…

H: honey? what’s wrong? what’s with the face?

W:you reek off alcohol…

H: i went to have some drinks with the guys after work. is something wrong?

W: what did you eat for dinner?

H: i didn’t eat. i thought you…

W:oh you finally remember? thanks to you dinner was ruined and i for one have had enough of that!

H: would you relax? it’s just dinner, you don’t need to get that angry

W:i knew you say that. well then since you have not eaten, i’ve left that same dinner on the table for you to eat what’s left of it. as for me i am out of here! i’m leaving and i won’t come back until you are finally ready to change!

The real exercise:

  • repeat the experiment but using your own parents

purpose of the exercise: we write best what we know well

Storytelling tool 1: OBSERVATION

  • Adopt a keen eye
  • develop a natural sense of curiosity
  • an observed event, when subject to simple questions, can set up a sequence of possibilities that will develop into a story worth telling eg. whom am i writing about? / who is my character? / what is he or she like? / what does he or she do? / what happens to him or her in the story?

Awareness level

  • people rarely observe familiar people or things closely
  • most people pass through the day with 20 – 30% awareness

mindless observation vs true observation

  • observe in a conscious way
  • develop the ability to see and record people
    • their movements
    • their physical characteristics
    • the setting/places they’re in

Exercise: people-watch

  1. walk into the canteen/library,etc and watch people pass by
  2. eventually, one will catch your attention
  3. write down as many details as possible through observation
  4. repeat above steps for 2nd character
  5. transcribe all these details into the ‘PEOPLE-WATCH’ page on your blog

Characterization: defining the character

  • a story starts with a character
  • a character is the heart and soul and nervous system of your screenplay.
  • it is through your characters that viewers experience emotions. it is through your characters that they are touched.
  • without a character, there is no action
  • without action, you have no conflict
  • without conflict, you have no story
  • without a story, you have no screenplay

when developing a character, ask yourself:

  • who is your character?
  • what does he want?
  • what is his quest?
  • what drives him to the resolution of the story?

developing characters

  1. establish your main character: characters should have a 3 dimensional structure
    • physiology: sex, age, height, weight, colour of hair, posture, appearance, defects, heredity
    • sociology: class, occupation, education, home life, religion, race or nationality, place in community, political affiliations, amusements
    • psychology: sex life or moral standards, personal premise, ambtion, frustrations or disappointments, temperament, attitiude towards life complexes personality, abilities, qualities, I.Q, what is the deep and personal secret this character has which he is desperate to protect / hide
  1. seperate the components of his life into 2 basic categories: interior and exterior
  • interior: the life takes place from birth until the moment your story begins
  • it is a process that forms character. when you start formulating your character from birth, you see your charavter build in body and form
    • how old is he when the story begins?
    • where does he live
    • does he have any siblings
    • what kind of childhood did he have
    • what was his relationship with his family
    • what kind of child was he
    • is he married, single, widowed, separated or divorced?
  • exterior: it is a process that reveals character
  • who are they and what they do?
  • are they sad or happy with their life?
  • do they wish their life was different?
  • you must create your characters in relationship to other people or things
  • all characters react in 3 ways:
  • they experience conflict in achieving their dramatic needs
  • they interact with each other
  • they interact with themselves

conflict – opposition of persons or forces, it is the interaction of opposing ideas, interest or wills and creates the plot

conflict is the central feature of screenplay

  • man vs man
  • man vs environment
  • man vs self

its the variations of sex, age, religion and culture which provide variety to conflict

  • plot cannot be constructed without conflict
  • as your character attempt to reach their goals, they come into conflict with each other
  • the end of the story nears when the protagonist and antagonist approach their goals and the conflict rises to generate maximum suspense and excitement

creating conflict:

  • the protagonist and antagonist must be locked together with no compromise between them
  • this is done by having characters of strong and purpose who will fight for what they want
  • the more evenly matched they are, the stronger the battle will be and the more suspense will be aroused

Exercise: 50 word stories

  • write an essay of 50 words
  • post 5 stories on 50 word stories page

Purpose of the exercise

  • Breaks down the myth of handling only 1 idea at a time
  • encourages precise and concise writing
  • teaches basic script editing skills, to focus and reveal the essential elements

dynamic action

  • story is action
  • action encompasses any kind of movement activity and interaction between characters and also between the characters and their surroundings
  • talking about how one feels is not as powerful as illustrating why one feels the way they do through action
  • film is behavior
  • action is the manifestation of behavior
  • the complexity of the human psyche and interaction is better understood when it is possible to watch the actions nuances and reactions of the characters
  • Dynamic action has the potential to enrich the experience of the audience by heightening the stakes and increasing the tension

the power of any story lies in the narrator’s ability to project a mental picture for the audience

Location is:

  • a physical location
  • a place in which events occur and characters interact

interactive location is:

  • a physical setting and surrounding that interacts with the characters of the film by positively heightening their action
  • it can enhance the impact of the action and heighten stakes

storytelling tool 2 : MEMORY

  • your memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you have experienced or have been told
  • these memories are points of reference to your own past existence
  • tip: write what you do not know because you will find some part of you that does know
  • there is always room for personal discovery

exercise: letter to your past

  • this might be to someone whom you can no longer speak to
  • could be someone you completely lost touch with
  • even to someone who is dead
  • describe yourself as exactly as you are in present time and then try and contrast that image with how you were earlier, when you and the recipient were together.
  • entries to be posted on your blogs under the page ‘letter to the past’
  • you can password-protect your page but inform relevant sources about the password or you get 0!

purpose of exercise: in dramatic writing, the very essence is character change

experience

  • a storyteller should be concerned with the potential of every experience
  • everything about you- where you are from, what you eat, the bump on your forehead – your experiences are unique and irreplaceable
  • many of your experiences are universal and translatable and can be used in any location
  • tip: if you don’t know what to do with a character, make him yourself for a while
  • see how he relates to the world he has been thrown into
  • plunder your own personal background the things that happen to you as you grow up and the things that are currently happening to you make terrific story sequences

true or false stories

  • write 2 stories
  • 1 is completely true…
  • the other is… ABSOLUTELY FALSE!
  • ONLY THE AUTHOR KNOWS WHICH IS WHICH