Scriptwriting For Newcomers

Step 1-

Write a Logline
A logline is a concise summary of your story that describes the heroines/heroes and their purpose, as well as the villains and their conflict, usually not more than a single sentence. The hero/main character is the story’s protagonist, while the villain/opposing force is the antagonist. A logline aims to convey your story’s premise as well as its emotional undertones. The logline was printed on the spine of the screenplay in the old days. This allowed producers to get a quick sense of the story, so they could decide whether or not to spend time reading it.

Step 2-

Write a Treatment
A treatment is a longer overview of 2-5 pages that contains your script’s title, the logline, a list of main characters, and a brief synopsis. Treatments are often used for marketing purposes, much like loglines. Before deciding if the script is worth their time, a producer can read a treatment first. Writing a treatment also gives you the ability to see your story as a whole and see how it reads on the page, and before you get into the specifics of writing each scene, it will help you understand what’s working and what needs to work.

Step 3-

Create your characters
Develop characters that will contrast with the core question and who will have to undergo a big transformation to answer it. There are plenty of online character profile worksheets that can help bring the personalities of your characters to life. When designing your characters, the most significant thing is that you make them empathetic and interesting. Even the villain needs to have a justification for being bad, even if it may be irrational.

Step 4-

Write a plot
Break down your story into its elements for the narrative-arc and map every scene bit by bit. The aim is to map the story out, the more detailed your outline is, the less time you’re going to waste down the road. When you plot, bear in mind that a story is guided by suspense. To keep the audience engaged and push the story forward, building and releasing suspense is important. Tension is produced when hope is met with fear and that’s what compels the hero to alter.

Step 5-

Write your first draft
Write your script scene by scene, including the dialogue and descriptive action, using your outline as a map. The most important are the first ten pages of a script. There are usually a lot of scripts floating around their desk for a reader or producer and they don’t have time to read them all. They’re going to send the first ten pages to reel them in. If the script has interesting characters and the correct components of the structure, they will possibly continue reading.