In the world of film and screenplay writing, there are literally hundreds of books and tutorials you can find to help you refine your craft. Every author has their own ways to help you get started. Many times this doesn’t equate to simple suggestions, but to actual rules and structures to make sure you are hitting the appropriate beats at the appropriate times.

But that’s not what I’m interested in telling you about. My “tips and rules” have very little to do with creating some sort of magical formula that will launch you into the stratosphere of famous screenwriters and more to do with making sure everything works on a fundamental level.

Screenplay writing is essentially no different than any other sort of writing. You have to make sure there is a solid story, that there are believable characters and that you give the reader (yes, reader) enough information to understand the world you’re creating.

I already have a sister piece planned for this article, “The 5 Pitfalls and Mistakes of First-Time Screenwriters,” but I may touch on a few of the “dont’s” here as well. Some of these will be simple, a few others will be more broad, but all are things that you should take heed of, because you’ll save yourself much heartache.

Let’s get started!

#1: Your Characters must be Alive

Plot is important. Action is important. But nothing you do in your screenplay matters more than having living, breathing characters. As Stephen King once said, there’s no such thing as the “hooker with the heart of gold” - every character in your film is the protagonist in their own story. You just may not be focusing on that particular story right now.

From your main protagonist to all of your supporting characters, you have to know who they are, what they do for a living, what their parents were like, how they grew up, what they do for fun, how they spend their downtime and on and on. Sound a little ridiculous? It’s not.

Time and again, when I’ve been in the middle of a screenplay and found myself stuck, I realize it’s because I’m trying to pigeonhole my characters into something plot related. I want something to happen in the story so I make a character do whatever it takes to get there. Inevitably, it will eventually lead me to a dead-end.

When I read back through my work, I’ll discover it’s because my characters aren’t living - they’re simply doing what I tell them.

Listen to your characters. When you know them forwards and backwards you won’t be in charge anymore. They’ll write themselves. And nothing’s more exciting!

#2: Every Character must Speak with their Own Voice

Here’s an exercise - go into your screenplay, look at the passages of dialogue. See them?

Now go through and start swapping the names around and then read through it again. Does it still make sense? Do you see any problems?

If not, then you do have a problem.

As writers, we find ourselves speaking through characters with our own voice, rather than letting them speak with theirs. If your a southerner, born and raised in the pine trees of deep East Texas, then you’re going to have certain jargon you’ll use. But you can’t turn around and put those same words in the mouth of someone from Iowa. Or California. Make sense?

On your first draft, don’t be shy with going out of your way to make sure each character speaks distinctly. You’ll help your reader differentiate who is who as everything unfolds.

You can always go back and tone down the jargon or colloquialisms in the next round.

#3: Action, Drama and Excitement!

What’s your screenplay about? Maybe some friends drinking coffee and dealing with relationship issues? Perhaps a group of high school students who are hell bent on destroying the incoming alien menace?

No matter what your screenplay, the most important part is making sure there’s action, drama and excitement in every scene. Now, this doesn’t mean that every scene must have someone getting shot, stabbed, or falling off a cliff. You’ll be surprised at how building simple tension between two lovers or friends can completely change a scene.

Each scene should have a character wanting something, trying to get it, and either succeeding or failing. This is the basic drama of real life and doesn’t require you to massively change your story to achieve it. 

Your main character may simply want to get a pencil from across the table, but the conversation from the person sitting opposite them makes it impossible. This is drama and it makes your film more interesting throughout.

#4: Give the Audience a Tether

For the last five years I have participated in countless writers roundtables. Time and again, I’m amazed at how often writers go out of their way to make their protagonist unlikable or difficult to connect with.

Audiences hate this!

This is one of the biggest ways that screenplay writing differs from writing a novel. In a novel, the author gets the chance to let the reader get directly into the characters head. If the main character is a jerk, is lazy, or someone who just lets life pass them by - a novelist gets to show us why.

In a film, everything is different. Audiences don’t like to follow a main character who we don’t like. I attribute this to the lack of time to get us necessary insight into the characters thoughts and motivations. We see his actions and what he does, but with the obvious exception of noir films, we aren’t let into the thoughts and motivations of why these actions happen.

When our hero acts like a jerk toward everyone that knows him, we don’t care why. We just realize we don’t like him. But what if you really want a jerky character, because you want to give him the chance to grow throughout the course of the film and eventually come out the other side as someone we will like?

Then you have to give us someone we like at the beginning. Maybe it’s our protagonist’s lover or best friend, but it’s someone who can give us an insight into our main character by asking the questions and expressing the thoughts of the audience.

Having a tether for the audience is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.

#5: Get Creative with your Exposition

One of the biggest dangers in screenwriting is trying to balance on the delicate tightrope between exposition and misunderstanding.

Audiences hate exposition and they can tell when they’re being blatantly told what’s going on in the story. The rule is to always show, never tell. If you want to tell, you write prose. Film and television are visual mediums and our goal is to always show what’s going on.

But sometimes you have to explain things that you can’t show. A film is a slice out of someone’s life - not their entire history. It’s a small portion in which an interesting, potentially life changing event happens. So much of what makes your character who they are will never been seen by the audience.

Use tip Number 1 to your advantage here. When you know who your characters is, you can use how they react to a situation to tell us something about them. This gives us an immediate background.

Your main character gets fired from their job. If they’re someone who’s always grown up poor they will react significantly different from someone who was raised with a silver spoon in their mouth. This tells the audience way more about who they are than having the character just telling us.

When you have to explain it, do it by creating an interesting scene around it.

If two characters are sitting at a table, with one explaining things to the other, then you’ve got a lot of boring talking. But if your two characters are climbing a mountain or lion hunting in deepest Africa, the audience is getting the information they need, but they’re also being entertained by the action around it.

Wrapping it Up

So those are the 5 Tips and Rules of Film and Screenplay writing. Are they the only rules? No. Hell, they aren’t even rules in the strictest sense. But they’re guidelines which I’ve found make a difference in your work.

They make things tighter, faster and more interesting to read.

Keep that in mind - a screenplay that’s brisk and enjoyable to read has a good chance of being a great movie. Producers recognize this and that’s what you want.