Hauge Explains Screenwriting
Michael Hauge. 2011. Writing Screenplays that Sell: The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts into Movie and Television Deals. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra
When I worked on research as a government economist, I started new projects by visiting with someone on staff who had previously worked on the subject. Almost no projects were wholly new and important projects were often seeded to multiple individuals in completing divisions. If there was a well-established framework for looking at the subject, it was better to learn about it upfront and save later embarrassment. It is no different in genre writing and writing for film.
Introduction
Michael Hauge’s book, Writing Screenplays that Sell, reiterates my experience as an economist in the Hollywood context: “Hollywood does have standards and it is possible to know what those are and write screenplays that meet them.” (xxvii). It is one of the ten principles that he lays out in his goal of destroying ”those common myths of failure and [replacing] them” with his principles (xxvi).
Hauge’s other nine principles are:
“Anyone with talent who sticks around long enough will succeed.”
“What’s import is whether you want to write a screenplay.”
“Your objective should not to learn creativity, but to stimulate it.”
“The foundation of any successful film will always be a good, well-written story.”
[cited above]
“Commerciality and artistry are not mutually exclusive.”
“The screenwriting process can be broken down into a proven series of steps and stages…”
“You can be a working screenwriter and live anywhere.”
“You can launch a career as a screenwriter even if you don’t know anyone within a thousand miles of southern California.”
“You can make a bundle of money doing all of this.” (xxvi-xxvii)
The underlying theme in all of this is that screenwriting may be difficult, but it does not have to be impossible, if you adhere to industry expectations.
Hauge writes for screenwriters in early stages of their career. He focuses on screenwriting for “mainstream film and television: narrative feature films that are distributed nationally, prime-time (network and cable) TV movie and episodic series, and short fictional films.” (xxix) The sales aspect of his title implies that a common thread running through his exposition is his focus on writing commercially viable scripts and selling them.
Background and Organization
Michael Hauge received his Bachelor’s degree from University of Oregon and a Master’s degree from the University of Georgia. He lists his occupations as story consultant, author, mentor, and speaker.
Hauge writes his book in twelve chapters divided into four parts:
PART ONE: DEVELOPING THE STORY
The Goal of the Screenwriter
Story Concept
Character Development
Theme and Character Arc
Structure
PART TWO: WRITING THE SCREENPLAY
Scene Writing
Exceptions to the Rule
An Analysis of Avatar
PART THREE: THE BUSINESS OF SCREENWRITING
Marketing Yourself as a Screenwriter
The Screenwriter’s Deal
PART FOUR: THE COMMITMENT TO SCREENWRITING
The Life of the Screenwriter
The Power of Screenwriting (xv-xix)
These chapters are preceded by two introductions and a discussion of the audience. They are followed by frequently asked questions, a sample treatment, an index, and an about the author statement.
Writing the Screenplay
The writing advice portion makes up roughly two-thirds (64 percent, 227/351 pages) of the Hauge’s text, which makes such advice a good place to start a review. Hauge reminds the reader frequently that a screenplay consists of only three components: action, description, and dialogue (e.g.139, 140). However, he does not dwell on the mechanics of writing. Quite the contrary, Hauge writes that style does not matter in a screenplay—what goes on the page must appear on the screen.
Hauge writes: “All filmmakers…have a single goal: to elicit emotion in an audience.” (3). Pursuing this goal, the screenplay seeks to: “Enable a sympathetic character to overcome a series of increasingly difficult, seemingly insurmountable obstacles to achieve a compelling desire.” (4) The components (stages) of a screenplay are accordingly: the story concept, the characters, the plot structure, and the scenes. (5)
Hauge encourages his readers to watch movies. For compelling films, he suggests watching them two or three times to analyze what makes them tick (10-13). The idea is that before you can systematically construct something, you really need to understand the construction building blocks. Can you image building a house, but forgetting to pour a foundation or framing a wall without accounting for the electrical wiring? I suspect from Hauge’s presentation that most successful screenwriters outline their work, even if they masquerade during daylight hours as pantsers.
Writing Scenes
Many writing books assume that the reader knows what a scene is and how to write one, which can lead to some serious head scratching. By contrast, Hauge stands out for having written forty-five pages on writing scenes. He offers this checklist for a successful scene:
“How does the scene contribute to the hero’s outer motivation?”
“Does the scene have its own beginning, middle, and end?”
“Does the scene thrust the reader into the following scenes?”
“What is the character’s objective in the scene?”
“What is each character’s attitude in the scene?”
“Does the scene contain action, and not just dialogue?”
“Does the scene serve multiple functions?” (164-166)
Hauge offers numerous writing tips that I have not seen elsewhere. For example, do your minor characters interact with each other, not just the main character? (179) This insight impressed me because gossip between minor characters can be used to fill in backstory on your main character. Who doesn’t enjoy eavesdropping on gossip?
Assessment
Michael Hauge’s book, Writing Screenplays that Sell, is a must read for aspiring screenwriters and an interesting counterpoint for novelists who rely too heavily on description. While I have focused on Hauge’s comments on writing, aspiring screenwriters also need to know about and be responsive to the commercial side of screenwriting. The intense commercial awareness required of screenwriters distinguishes screenwriting from novel writing, something Hauge does a good job of hammering into his readers.
Footnotes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hauge. https://storymastery.com.
Hauge Explains Screenwriting
Also see:
Books, Films, and Ministry
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
Other ways to engage online:
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