Alexandra Sokoloff's Blog - Posts Tagged "screenwriting"
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors: THE MASTER LIST
by Alexandra Sokoloff
I’m very excited to be teaching one of the writing Master Classes for the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival next month, along with the brilliant Denise Mina, one of my all-time favorite authors and a major inspiration for my Huntress Moon thrillers.
I always like to give my workshop students some optional homework in the weeks before classes, so that we get the most out of our workshop time – and also so that those of you who can’t make the workshop can play along at home!
What I teach in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workshops is basic film story structure: the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence structure.
USC film school teaches it, the screenwriting story structure gurus teach it, all film execs and producers are aware of it even if it’s only in a vague way, and even screenwriters who claim not to follow this structure pattern do it to some extent or another. And it translates beautifully to novel writing. Not only does it make writing novels much easier – this is a rhythm of storytelling that readers (and audiences) are so used to that if you aren't using it to your advantage, they’re going to feel like something’s missing! You don’t want that to happen.
But I want my students to analyze examples that are meaningful to them, so the first assignment I give my workshop students is THE MASTER LIST: a list of ten novels and films that are specific to the story and genre you’re working on, and more importantly, that have had the maximum emotional and intellectual effect on you.
> ASSIGNMENT: List ten books and films that are similar to your own story in structure and/or genre (at least five books and three movies if you’re writing a book, at least five movies if you’re writing a script.).
Or if you’re trying to decide on the right project for you to work on, then make a list of ten books and films that you wish you had written!
And you people who feel like you’ve done this for me already – remember that it’s good practice to make a master list for every new project you’re working on! Your lists will be different for different books.
It’s very simple: in order to write stories like the ones that move you, you need to look at the stories that affect you and figure out what those authors and filmmakers are doing to get the effect they do.
Every genre has its own structural patterns and its own tricks. Screenwriter Ryan Rowe says it perfectly: “Every genre has its own game that it’s playing with the audience.”
For example, with a mystery, the game is “Whodunit?” You are going to toy with a reader or audience’s expectations and lead them down all kinds of false paths with red herrings so that they are constantly in the shoes of the hero/ine, trying to figure the puzzle out.
But with a romantic comedy or classic romance, there’s no mystery involved. 99.99% of the time the hero and heroine are going to end up together. The game in that genre is often to show, through the hero and heroine, how we are almost always our own worst enemies in love, and how we throw up all kinds of obstacles in our own paths to keep ourselves from getting what we want.
So if you’re writing a story like It’s A Wonderful Life, it’s not going to help you much to study Apocalypse Now. A story that ends with a fallen hero/ine is not going to have the same story shape as one that ends with a transcended hero/ine. (Although if both kinds of films end up on your list of favorite stories, you might find one is the other in reverse. That’s why you need to make your own lists!)
Once you start looking at the games that genres play, you will also start to understand the games that you most love, and that you want to play with your readers and audience.
I’m primarily a thriller writer, and my personal favorite game is: “Is it supernatural or is it psychological?” I love to walk the line between the real and unreal, so I am constantly creating story situations in which there are multiple plausible explanations for the weird stuff that’s going on, including mental illness, drug-induced hallucinations, and outright fraud. That’s why my master list for any book or script I write will almost always include The Haunting of Hill House and The Shining, both classic books (and films) that walk the line between the supernatural and the psychological.
But what works for me structurally is not necessarily going to do it for you.
If you take the time to study and analyze the books and films that have had the greatest impact on you, personally, or that are structurally similar to the story you’re writing, or both, that’s when you really start to master your craft. Making the lists and analyzing those stories will help you brainstorm your own unique versions of scenes and meta-structures that work in the stories on your master list; it will help you figure out how your particular story will work. And doing this analysis will embed story structure in your head so that constructing a story becomes a fun and natural process for you.
Another great benefit of making the master list is that it helps you “brand” yourself as an author. Agents, editors, publishing houses, publicists, sales reps, bookstores, reviewers, media interviewers, librarians, and most importantly, your readers — all of these people want to be able to categorize you and your books. You need to be able to tell all of these people exactly what it is you write, what it’s similar to, and why it’s also unique. That’s part of your job as a professional author.
Remember, the list isn’t written in stone! You can change anything on it at any time. And honestly, when you’re doing these lists, it’s often most useful to write the first ten films and books that come to mind. Doing it fast and without thinking about it too consciously might show you something you never realized about what you’re writing.
And I encourage you to splurge on a nice big beautiful notebook to work in. We writers live so much in our heads it’s important to give ourselves toys and rewards to make the work feel less like work, and also to cut down on the drinking.
Do your list, and share it in the comments if you feel like it – next post we’ll be analyzing the lists!
- Alex
All the material from my workshops and on this blog, and much much more is available in my workbooks: $3.99 ebook, $14.99 print textbook:
Print book US
Print book all countries
e book
Enter to win a copy of the book!
You can sign up for my mailing list to get free breakdowns of The Silence of the Lambs, The Wizard of Oz, Chinatown, and other classic movies as I analyze them for my students and blog readers.
I’m very excited to be teaching one of the writing Master Classes for the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival next month, along with the brilliant Denise Mina, one of my all-time favorite authors and a major inspiration for my Huntress Moon thrillers.
I always like to give my workshop students some optional homework in the weeks before classes, so that we get the most out of our workshop time – and also so that those of you who can’t make the workshop can play along at home!
What I teach in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workshops is basic film story structure: the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence structure.
USC film school teaches it, the screenwriting story structure gurus teach it, all film execs and producers are aware of it even if it’s only in a vague way, and even screenwriters who claim not to follow this structure pattern do it to some extent or another. And it translates beautifully to novel writing. Not only does it make writing novels much easier – this is a rhythm of storytelling that readers (and audiences) are so used to that if you aren't using it to your advantage, they’re going to feel like something’s missing! You don’t want that to happen.
But I want my students to analyze examples that are meaningful to them, so the first assignment I give my workshop students is THE MASTER LIST: a list of ten novels and films that are specific to the story and genre you’re working on, and more importantly, that have had the maximum emotional and intellectual effect on you.
> ASSIGNMENT: List ten books and films that are similar to your own story in structure and/or genre (at least five books and three movies if you’re writing a book, at least five movies if you’re writing a script.).
Or if you’re trying to decide on the right project for you to work on, then make a list of ten books and films that you wish you had written!
And you people who feel like you’ve done this for me already – remember that it’s good practice to make a master list for every new project you’re working on! Your lists will be different for different books.
It’s very simple: in order to write stories like the ones that move you, you need to look at the stories that affect you and figure out what those authors and filmmakers are doing to get the effect they do.
Every genre has its own structural patterns and its own tricks. Screenwriter Ryan Rowe says it perfectly: “Every genre has its own game that it’s playing with the audience.”
For example, with a mystery, the game is “Whodunit?” You are going to toy with a reader or audience’s expectations and lead them down all kinds of false paths with red herrings so that they are constantly in the shoes of the hero/ine, trying to figure the puzzle out.
But with a romantic comedy or classic romance, there’s no mystery involved. 99.99% of the time the hero and heroine are going to end up together. The game in that genre is often to show, through the hero and heroine, how we are almost always our own worst enemies in love, and how we throw up all kinds of obstacles in our own paths to keep ourselves from getting what we want.
So if you’re writing a story like It’s A Wonderful Life, it’s not going to help you much to study Apocalypse Now. A story that ends with a fallen hero/ine is not going to have the same story shape as one that ends with a transcended hero/ine. (Although if both kinds of films end up on your list of favorite stories, you might find one is the other in reverse. That’s why you need to make your own lists!)
Once you start looking at the games that genres play, you will also start to understand the games that you most love, and that you want to play with your readers and audience.
I’m primarily a thriller writer, and my personal favorite game is: “Is it supernatural or is it psychological?” I love to walk the line between the real and unreal, so I am constantly creating story situations in which there are multiple plausible explanations for the weird stuff that’s going on, including mental illness, drug-induced hallucinations, and outright fraud. That’s why my master list for any book or script I write will almost always include The Haunting of Hill House and The Shining, both classic books (and films) that walk the line between the supernatural and the psychological.
But what works for me structurally is not necessarily going to do it for you.
If you take the time to study and analyze the books and films that have had the greatest impact on you, personally, or that are structurally similar to the story you’re writing, or both, that’s when you really start to master your craft. Making the lists and analyzing those stories will help you brainstorm your own unique versions of scenes and meta-structures that work in the stories on your master list; it will help you figure out how your particular story will work. And doing this analysis will embed story structure in your head so that constructing a story becomes a fun and natural process for you.
Another great benefit of making the master list is that it helps you “brand” yourself as an author. Agents, editors, publishing houses, publicists, sales reps, bookstores, reviewers, media interviewers, librarians, and most importantly, your readers — all of these people want to be able to categorize you and your books. You need to be able to tell all of these people exactly what it is you write, what it’s similar to, and why it’s also unique. That’s part of your job as a professional author.
Remember, the list isn’t written in stone! You can change anything on it at any time. And honestly, when you’re doing these lists, it’s often most useful to write the first ten films and books that come to mind. Doing it fast and without thinking about it too consciously might show you something you never realized about what you’re writing.
And I encourage you to splurge on a nice big beautiful notebook to work in. We writers live so much in our heads it’s important to give ourselves toys and rewards to make the work feel less like work, and also to cut down on the drinking.
Do your list, and share it in the comments if you feel like it – next post we’ll be analyzing the lists!
- Alex
All the material from my workshops and on this blog, and much much more is available in my workbooks: $3.99 ebook, $14.99 print textbook:
Print book USPrint book all countries
e book
Enter to win a copy of the book!
You can sign up for my mailing list to get free breakdowns of The Silence of the Lambs, The Wizard of Oz, Chinatown, and other classic movies as I analyze them for my students and blog readers.
Nanowrimo Prep: What is a good story idea?
It's October first, and you know what that means....
It's Nanowrimo PREP month!
I always do a brainstorming and story structure review series in October, and continue throughout November with prompts and encouragement, based on my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks and workshops.
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
If you’re going to put a month aside to write 50,000 words, doesn’t it make a little more sense to have worked out the outline, or at least an overall road map, before November 1?
But even before that, it's important to come up with a sustainable IDEA.
When people ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” authors and screenwriters tend to clam up or worse, get sarcastic - because the only real answer to that is, “Where DON’T I get ideas?” or even more to the point, “How do I turn these ideas OFF?”
The thing is, “Where do you get your ideas?” is not the real question these people are asking. The real question is “How do you go from an idea to a coherent story line that holds up – and holds a reader’s interest - for 400 pages of a book or seven seasons of a TV series?”
Or more concisely: “How do you come up with your PREMISES?”
Look, we all have story ideas all the time. Even non-writers, and non-aspiring writers – I truly mean, EVERYONE, has story ideas all the time. Those story ideas are called daydreams, or fantasies, or often “Porn starring me and Benedict Cumberbatch, or me and Idris Elba.” (Or, speaking of Devil's Triangles, maybe both. )
You see what I mean.
We all create stories in our own heads all the time, minimal as some of our plot lines may be.
So I bet you have dozens of ideas, hundreds. A better question is “What’s a good story idea?”
I see two essential ingredients:
A) What idea gets you excited enough to spend a year (or most likely more) of your life completely immersed in it –
and
B) Gets other people excited enough about it to buy it and read it and even maybe possibly make it into a movie or TV series with an amusement park ride spinoff and a Guess clothing line based on the story?
A) is good if you just want to write for yourself.
But B) is essential if you want to be a professional writer.
Let's start with A),
The best advice I ever got about what to write about came from one of my favorite writers, Denise Mina. I heard her say it at the San Francisco Bouchercon in 2010 and it instantly coalesced the idea for my ongoing Huntress Moon series.
Write about what makes you angry.
Now that's a theme for a rage-filled week, isn't it?
It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear at the time. I find rage a great motivator. I get tremendous inspiration from things that make me angry. Social injustice especially. My supernatural thriller Book of Shadows, was partly inspired by the gross miscarriage of justice that resulted in the accusation and conviction of the West Memphis Three in Arkansas: three teenage boys wrongly accused of the murders of three little boys. I am especially outraged by crimes against children and women: rape, abuse, trafficking. Before I sold my first screenplay, I worked in the Los Angeles County prison system, teaching juveniles, mostly teenage gang kids and very young girls who had been arrested mostly for prostitution. Yes, they arrested the girls instead of the men who were trafficking and abusing them. The whole experience taught me a lot about the vicious circle that the so-called justice system is. We are failing our next generation, and it’s heartbreaking. I know I write crime thrillers because of that early experience, and I draw on the emotion of it – and the criminal procedure I learned during that period of my life - all the time. My Huntress/FBI Thrillers - the books and the TV series I'm developing based on the books - constantly draw on my rage about those crimes and my anger at society for not making their elimination a top priority.
Now, I'm a crime writer, so this works particularly well for me. Writing what makes you angry may not work for you. Don't worry, we'll talk about other jumping off points, too.
Now back to writing and calling my senators and reps.
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $13.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
---------------------
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
<!-- /*
It's Nanowrimo PREP month!
I always do a brainstorming and story structure review series in October, and continue throughout November with prompts and encouragement, based on my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks and workshops.
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
If you’re going to put a month aside to write 50,000 words, doesn’t it make a little more sense to have worked out the outline, or at least an overall road map, before November 1?
But even before that, it's important to come up with a sustainable IDEA.
When people ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” authors and screenwriters tend to clam up or worse, get sarcastic - because the only real answer to that is, “Where DON’T I get ideas?” or even more to the point, “How do I turn these ideas OFF?”
The thing is, “Where do you get your ideas?” is not the real question these people are asking. The real question is “How do you go from an idea to a coherent story line that holds up – and holds a reader’s interest - for 400 pages of a book or seven seasons of a TV series?”
Or more concisely: “How do you come up with your PREMISES?”
Look, we all have story ideas all the time. Even non-writers, and non-aspiring writers – I truly mean, EVERYONE, has story ideas all the time. Those story ideas are called daydreams, or fantasies, or often “Porn starring me and Benedict Cumberbatch, or me and Idris Elba.” (Or, speaking of Devil's Triangles, maybe both. )
You see what I mean.
We all create stories in our own heads all the time, minimal as some of our plot lines may be.
So I bet you have dozens of ideas, hundreds. A better question is “What’s a good story idea?”
I see two essential ingredients:
A) What idea gets you excited enough to spend a year (or most likely more) of your life completely immersed in it –
and
B) Gets other people excited enough about it to buy it and read it and even maybe possibly make it into a movie or TV series with an amusement park ride spinoff and a Guess clothing line based on the story?
A) is good if you just want to write for yourself.
But B) is essential if you want to be a professional writer.
Let's start with A),
The best advice I ever got about what to write about came from one of my favorite writers, Denise Mina. I heard her say it at the San Francisco Bouchercon in 2010 and it instantly coalesced the idea for my ongoing Huntress Moon series.
Write about what makes you angry.
Now that's a theme for a rage-filled week, isn't it?
It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear at the time. I find rage a great motivator. I get tremendous inspiration from things that make me angry. Social injustice especially. My supernatural thriller Book of Shadows, was partly inspired by the gross miscarriage of justice that resulted in the accusation and conviction of the West Memphis Three in Arkansas: three teenage boys wrongly accused of the murders of three little boys. I am especially outraged by crimes against children and women: rape, abuse, trafficking. Before I sold my first screenplay, I worked in the Los Angeles County prison system, teaching juveniles, mostly teenage gang kids and very young girls who had been arrested mostly for prostitution. Yes, they arrested the girls instead of the men who were trafficking and abusing them. The whole experience taught me a lot about the vicious circle that the so-called justice system is. We are failing our next generation, and it’s heartbreaking. I know I write crime thrillers because of that early experience, and I draw on the emotion of it – and the criminal procedure I learned during that period of my life - all the time. My Huntress/FBI Thrillers - the books and the TV series I'm developing based on the books - constantly draw on my rage about those crimes and my anger at society for not making their elimination a top priority.
Now, I'm a crime writer, so this works particularly well for me. Writing what makes you angry may not work for you. Don't worry, we'll talk about other jumping off points, too.
Now back to writing and calling my senators and reps.
- Alex
=====================================================
All the information on this blog and more, including full story structure breakdowns of various movies, is available in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks. e format, just $3.99 and $2.99; print 13.99.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $13.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
---------------------
You can also sign up to get free movie breakdowns here:
Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns
<!-- /*
Nanowrimo Now What?
So you did Nanowrimo! Huzzah!! Or maybe you didn’t, but whether you did it through Nanowrimo or not, you now have a rough draft—maybe a very, very, very rough draft— of your book or script. Huzzah!!
So now what?
First of all, I hope you’ve had a good long break. If at all possible, when you’ve finished a first draft - Take a break. As long a break as possible.
You should keep to a writing schedule, start brainstorming the next project, maybe do some random collaging to see what images come up that might lead to something fantastic - but if you have a completed draft, then what you need most of all is SPACE from it. You are going to need fresh eyes to do the read-through that is going to take you to the next level, and the only way for you to get those fresh eyes is to leave the story alone for a while.
And if you’re here in this New Year and you still haven’t gotten through to “The End” then my advice is always - Keep going. You must get through to The End, no matter how rough it is (rough meaning the process AND the pages…). You can slow down your schedule, set a lower per-day word or page count, but do not stop. Write every day, or every other day if that’s your schedule, but get the sucker done.
You may end up throwing away most of what you write, but it is a really, really, really bad idea not to get all the way through a story. That is how most books, scripts and probably most all other things in life worth doing are abandoned.
But once you have bashed through to the end of your opus, and have that dreaded first draft done…
Ah, now comes the fun part. At least, I think so! No matter how hard the subsequent drafts may be, nothing is ever as hard as that sucky first draft.
But whoever said “Writing is rewriting” was oh-so-right.
While I almost never print out anything anymore, I still recommend printing out your book or script to do your read through.
Don’t get hung up on trying to rewrite. In your first read you are reading all the way through to get a sense of the book overall. You might want to do it in 50-100 page sessions at a time— it’s useful to read through one Act at a time so you can absorb each Act before you move on to the next reading session and the next Act.
Have a pencil or pen to scribble a quick note or slash out something that very obviously isn’t working, but then put the pencil down and keep reading. Again, you’re not rewriting yet, you’re getting a sense of your book.
And this is key: What you wrote is NOT what you thought you were going to write. It never is! So you need to see what you actually did write. And then approach the story that you have, as your own editor.
Once you’ve done your read through, I suggest you sit in a quiet and comfortable place for several hours and make all the notes you can without looking at your pages at all. Just download all your impressions of the book. Make sure you’re making notes on all the good stuff as well as bad! This step might take several sessions, and it’s worth it.
To help you launch into the rewriting process, here are some next steps that can be taken in whatever order is useful to you.
Top Ten Things I Know About Editing
1. Cut, cut, cut.
When you first start writing, you are reluctant to cut anything. Believe me, I remember. But the truth is, beginning writers very, very, VERY often duplicate scenes, and characters, too. And dialogue, oh man, do inexperienced writers duplicate dialogue! The same things happen over and over again, are said over and over again. It will be less painful for you to cut if you learn to look for and start to recognize when you’re duplicating scenes, actions, characters and dialogue. Those are the obvious places to cut and combine.
Some very wise writer (unfortunately I have no idea who) said, “If it occurs to you to cut, do so.” This seems harsh and scary, I know. Often I’ll flag something in a manuscript as “Could cut” and leave it in my draft for several passes until I finally bite the bullet and get rid of it. So, you know, that’s fine. Allow yourself to CONSIDER cutting something, first. No commitment! But once you’ve considered cutting, you almost always will. It's okay if you bitch about it all the way to the trash file, too - I always do.
2. Figure out your SETPIECES, and start to shape those.
This is such a hugely important part of rewriting that I’m going to do a dedicated post about it this week. But as you’re looking to cut and combine, you’re also looking for those genre-specific, thematic, climactic scenes that will sell your book or film and make it come alive and live on in every reader/audience’s imagination. Stay tuned for more!
3. Find a great critique group.
This is easier said than done, but you NEED a group, or a series of beta readers, who will commit themselves to making your work the best it can be, just as you commit the same to their work. They may not admit it, but most editors and publishing houses expect their authors to find trusted readers and colleagues to give them that initial intensive feedback. Really.
4. Do several passes.
Finish your first draft, no matter how rough it is, and give yourself a break. Then read, cut, polish, put in notes. Repeat. And repeat again. Always give yourself time off between reads if you can. The closer your book is to done, the more uncomfortable the unwieldy sections will seem to you, and you will be more and more okay with getting rid of them. Read on for the specific kinds of passes I recommend doing.
5. Whatever your genre is, do a dedicated pass focusing on Genre.
For a thriller: thrills and suspense. For a mystery: clues and misdirection and suspense. For a comedy: a comedic pass. For a romance: a sex pass. Or “emotional” pass, if you must call it that. For horror… well, you get it.
I write suspense. So after I’ve written that first agonizing bash-through draft of a book or script, and probably a second or third draft just to make it readable, I will at some point do a dedicated pass just to amp up the suspense, and I highly recommend trying it, because it’s amazing how many great ideas you will come up with for suspense scenes (or comic scenes, or romantic scenes) if you are going through your story just focused on how to inject and layer in suspense, or horror, or comedy, or romance. It’s your JOB to deliver the genre you’re writing in. It’s worth a dedicated pass to make sure you’re giving your readers what they’re buying the book for.
6. Know your Three Act Structure.
If something in your story is sagging, it is amazing how quickly you can pull your narrative into line by looking at the scene or sequence you have around page 100 (or whatever page is ¼ way through the book), page 200, (or whatever page is ½ way through the book), page 300 (or whatever page is ¾ through the book) and your Final Battle at the end. Each of those scenes are SETPIECES: they should be huge, pivotal, devastating, game-changing scenes or sequences (even if it’s just emotional devastation). Those four points are the tentpoles of your story.
7. Do a dedicated DESIRE LINE pass in which you ask yourself for every scene: “What does this character WANT? Who is opposing them in this scene? Who WINS in the scene? What will they do now?”
8. Do a dedicated EMOTIONAL pass, in which you ask yourself in every chapter, every scene: What do I want my readers to FEEL in this moment?
9. Do a dedicated SENSORY pass, in which you make sure you’re covering what you want the reader to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and sense.
10. Read your book aloud. All of it. Cover to cover.
I wouldn’t recommend doing this with a first draft unless you feel it’s very close to the final product, but when you’re further along, the best thing I know to do to edit a book or script is to read it aloud. The whole thing. I know, this takes several days, and you will lose your voice. Get some good cough drops. But there is no better way to find errors — spelling, grammar, continuity, and rhythmic errors. Try it, you’ll be amazed.
And all the way along -
Use the essential elements of story structure to pull your story into dramatic line.
In the Stealing Hollywood workbooks I’ve compiled a extensive checklist of essential story elements, Act by Act (with plenty of examples of each element) that I use both when I’m brainstorming a story with index cards and a story structure grid, and I use the index cards, structure grid, and story elements checklist again when I’m starting to revise, to make sure I’m hitting all of these points. In the online workshop I help writers work through those elements Act by Act. https://screenwriting-tricks-for-auth...
So this is a big, big topic, that will take a lot more posts. Or you can get the books and get started.
https://screenwriting-tricks-for-auth...
Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II
More Screenwriting Tricks for Authors: https://alexandrasokoloff.substack.com
So now what?
First of all, I hope you’ve had a good long break. If at all possible, when you’ve finished a first draft - Take a break. As long a break as possible.
You should keep to a writing schedule, start brainstorming the next project, maybe do some random collaging to see what images come up that might lead to something fantastic - but if you have a completed draft, then what you need most of all is SPACE from it. You are going to need fresh eyes to do the read-through that is going to take you to the next level, and the only way for you to get those fresh eyes is to leave the story alone for a while.
And if you’re here in this New Year and you still haven’t gotten through to “The End” then my advice is always - Keep going. You must get through to The End, no matter how rough it is (rough meaning the process AND the pages…). You can slow down your schedule, set a lower per-day word or page count, but do not stop. Write every day, or every other day if that’s your schedule, but get the sucker done.
You may end up throwing away most of what you write, but it is a really, really, really bad idea not to get all the way through a story. That is how most books, scripts and probably most all other things in life worth doing are abandoned.
But once you have bashed through to the end of your opus, and have that dreaded first draft done…
Ah, now comes the fun part. At least, I think so! No matter how hard the subsequent drafts may be, nothing is ever as hard as that sucky first draft.
But whoever said “Writing is rewriting” was oh-so-right.
While I almost never print out anything anymore, I still recommend printing out your book or script to do your read through.
Don’t get hung up on trying to rewrite. In your first read you are reading all the way through to get a sense of the book overall. You might want to do it in 50-100 page sessions at a time— it’s useful to read through one Act at a time so you can absorb each Act before you move on to the next reading session and the next Act.
Have a pencil or pen to scribble a quick note or slash out something that very obviously isn’t working, but then put the pencil down and keep reading. Again, you’re not rewriting yet, you’re getting a sense of your book.
And this is key: What you wrote is NOT what you thought you were going to write. It never is! So you need to see what you actually did write. And then approach the story that you have, as your own editor.
Once you’ve done your read through, I suggest you sit in a quiet and comfortable place for several hours and make all the notes you can without looking at your pages at all. Just download all your impressions of the book. Make sure you’re making notes on all the good stuff as well as bad! This step might take several sessions, and it’s worth it.
To help you launch into the rewriting process, here are some next steps that can be taken in whatever order is useful to you.
Top Ten Things I Know About Editing
1. Cut, cut, cut.
When you first start writing, you are reluctant to cut anything. Believe me, I remember. But the truth is, beginning writers very, very, VERY often duplicate scenes, and characters, too. And dialogue, oh man, do inexperienced writers duplicate dialogue! The same things happen over and over again, are said over and over again. It will be less painful for you to cut if you learn to look for and start to recognize when you’re duplicating scenes, actions, characters and dialogue. Those are the obvious places to cut and combine.
Some very wise writer (unfortunately I have no idea who) said, “If it occurs to you to cut, do so.” This seems harsh and scary, I know. Often I’ll flag something in a manuscript as “Could cut” and leave it in my draft for several passes until I finally bite the bullet and get rid of it. So, you know, that’s fine. Allow yourself to CONSIDER cutting something, first. No commitment! But once you’ve considered cutting, you almost always will. It's okay if you bitch about it all the way to the trash file, too - I always do.
2. Figure out your SETPIECES, and start to shape those.
This is such a hugely important part of rewriting that I’m going to do a dedicated post about it this week. But as you’re looking to cut and combine, you’re also looking for those genre-specific, thematic, climactic scenes that will sell your book or film and make it come alive and live on in every reader/audience’s imagination. Stay tuned for more!
3. Find a great critique group.
This is easier said than done, but you NEED a group, or a series of beta readers, who will commit themselves to making your work the best it can be, just as you commit the same to their work. They may not admit it, but most editors and publishing houses expect their authors to find trusted readers and colleagues to give them that initial intensive feedback. Really.
4. Do several passes.
Finish your first draft, no matter how rough it is, and give yourself a break. Then read, cut, polish, put in notes. Repeat. And repeat again. Always give yourself time off between reads if you can. The closer your book is to done, the more uncomfortable the unwieldy sections will seem to you, and you will be more and more okay with getting rid of them. Read on for the specific kinds of passes I recommend doing.
5. Whatever your genre is, do a dedicated pass focusing on Genre.
For a thriller: thrills and suspense. For a mystery: clues and misdirection and suspense. For a comedy: a comedic pass. For a romance: a sex pass. Or “emotional” pass, if you must call it that. For horror… well, you get it.
I write suspense. So after I’ve written that first agonizing bash-through draft of a book or script, and probably a second or third draft just to make it readable, I will at some point do a dedicated pass just to amp up the suspense, and I highly recommend trying it, because it’s amazing how many great ideas you will come up with for suspense scenes (or comic scenes, or romantic scenes) if you are going through your story just focused on how to inject and layer in suspense, or horror, or comedy, or romance. It’s your JOB to deliver the genre you’re writing in. It’s worth a dedicated pass to make sure you’re giving your readers what they’re buying the book for.
6. Know your Three Act Structure.
If something in your story is sagging, it is amazing how quickly you can pull your narrative into line by looking at the scene or sequence you have around page 100 (or whatever page is ¼ way through the book), page 200, (or whatever page is ½ way through the book), page 300 (or whatever page is ¾ through the book) and your Final Battle at the end. Each of those scenes are SETPIECES: they should be huge, pivotal, devastating, game-changing scenes or sequences (even if it’s just emotional devastation). Those four points are the tentpoles of your story.
7. Do a dedicated DESIRE LINE pass in which you ask yourself for every scene: “What does this character WANT? Who is opposing them in this scene? Who WINS in the scene? What will they do now?”
8. Do a dedicated EMOTIONAL pass, in which you ask yourself in every chapter, every scene: What do I want my readers to FEEL in this moment?
9. Do a dedicated SENSORY pass, in which you make sure you’re covering what you want the reader to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and sense.
10. Read your book aloud. All of it. Cover to cover.
I wouldn’t recommend doing this with a first draft unless you feel it’s very close to the final product, but when you’re further along, the best thing I know to do to edit a book or script is to read it aloud. The whole thing. I know, this takes several days, and you will lose your voice. Get some good cough drops. But there is no better way to find errors — spelling, grammar, continuity, and rhythmic errors. Try it, you’ll be amazed.
And all the way along -
Use the essential elements of story structure to pull your story into dramatic line.
In the Stealing Hollywood workbooks I’ve compiled a extensive checklist of essential story elements, Act by Act (with plenty of examples of each element) that I use both when I’m brainstorming a story with index cards and a story structure grid, and I use the index cards, structure grid, and story elements checklist again when I’m starting to revise, to make sure I’m hitting all of these points. In the online workshop I help writers work through those elements Act by Act. https://screenwriting-tricks-for-auth...
So this is a big, big topic, that will take a lot more posts. Or you can get the books and get started.
https://screenwriting-tricks-for-auth...Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II
More Screenwriting Tricks for Authors: https://alexandrasokoloff.substack.com
