Screenwriting ideas... help?

M

Mr. Durden

Active member
Okay, so my biggest problem with screenwriting is that I get idea's for endings or opening sequences, but I can never stretch that beyond the begining or the end.

Does anybody have any idea's on how to get past this horrible form of what ever you want to call it?:dankk2:
 
I can tell you how I do it. It may work for you it may not.

Get a stack of index cards and a pencil. Get comfortable. Imagine your movie starting. Write one scene for one card. Label the first card 10, the second card 20, and so on. Eventually I get to a point where I know I want a sub-plot so I'll go back and add a card 65 so card 130 makes sense.

When the movie is done I post all the cards in order on my 'wall-'o-cork'. Sometimes I like the story, sometimes I don't. The ones I like, I write. The cards make it easy to add and delete scenes.

The cards are essentially my outline like EJ suggested you do. I’m a real visual guy so having them on the cork board works well for me.

Good luck to you.
 
Read more books, as well.

The Technique that R4FF just mentioned is inside of Syd Field's books.

Get Syd Field's books, ALL of them... if you do not have them.
 
I'd also advocate reading Robert McKee's STORY and Christopher Vogel's THE HERO'S JOURNEY. Both may give you ideas for filling out that pesky 2nd act.

Here's a quick way to think about it:

1st Act (25-30 pages) - Introduce characters, introduce problem, hit point of no return.

2nd Act (50-60 pages) - complicate problem, further complicate problem, complicate problem even more, reach rock bottom/most extreme complication

3rd Act (15-20 pages) - resolve problem in satisfyingly intuitive yet surprising fashion
 
Hairy Lime said:
I'd also advocate reading Robert McKee's STORY and Christopher Vogel's THE HERO'S JOURNEY. Both may give you ideas for filling out that pesky 2nd act.

Here's a quick way to think about it:

1st Act (25-30 pages) - Introduce characters, introduce problem, hit point of no return.

2nd Act (50-60 pages) - complicate problem, further complicate problem, complicate problem even more, reach rock bottom/most extreme complication

3rd Act (15-20 pages) - resolve problem in satisfyingly intuitive yet surprising fashion
Click to expand...

I'll second Vog's book. He's a buddy of mine and he really knows his stuff. Also, his book's take is quite different than what you might find elsewhere.
 
If you are having 'lenght' issues, you might want to aim your SP to be 90pgs.

So that's 25 first act.
40 second.
25 third.

EJ
 
Well thank you guys very much for all your help.

I'll keep everything in mind when I write the script.

Thanks again. Good luck to all of you in the future!
 
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