The Writing Process - Part 2

Who are you writing about? - An interesting lead character is integral to an interesting narrative and script. You will make the writing of your script so much easier if your main character has numerous facets.You then just have to make sure you don't surround them with boring, lifeless characters.

Where are they? - You now need to place your multi-dimensional characters into a world which allows them to flourish and which they can explore. You don't need to think too big here, remember, if you only need one location to tell your story then use one location, but use it wisely. If you put them into an interesting environment you give yourself more scope for them to explore and discover. Don't fixate on the idea that you won't be able to find a suitable location. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, you will almost certainly have an interesting location just waiting to be explored within 15 minutes of your home. Just because you see something every day doesn't mean it isn't interesting. Nor does it mean that people across the world will think you've tried to save money by shooting locally, because they'll probably never know.

Hook the audience - You need to make the audience not only sit up and take notice of what's happening in front of them, they also need to question it. You want them to think about what is going to happen to each of the characters and in the narrative as a whole.

Finish with a bang - that's not to say you need an actual explosion, but what you do need is a strong ending. If you watched a 2 hour film which had a brilliant beginning and middle but terrible ending, most people would consider it a bad film. If you're writing a short or low-budget feature you probably don't have to worry about keeping it open for a sequel but that doesn't mean you should just tie everything up in a neat little bow just at the end. Make the audience work for it, make them think that anything could happen. Will they survive? Will they find each other? Will they win? If you keep asking yourself these kinds of questions you will find yourself writing the answers.

Aim for 100 - of course, I'm talking about pages. Depending on what is happening in your script; action, dialogue, depends on how long your film will be. Different sources tell you different things but I've always been told it works out at about 1 page per minute. Obviously this isn't precise and with a feature-length script you're likely to be just under that. So let's assume 100 pages is around 90 minutes once parts of scenes, or entire ones, have been left on the cutting room floor.

If you're making a short film you don't need to aim for anything when it comes to pages but do remember that it's roughly a page per minute and a short film is a completely seperate entity to a feature. Too short and you may not have enough detail but too long and you may have trouble keeping your audience hooked.