Building Your Story

Building Your Story…

After you’ve drummed up an initial story idea with a strong main character it is time to build your story.

The first thing you need to be sure of is that your story idea and main character are both strong enough to carry a two hour movie. The way to do this is to ask yourself if the story and main character interest you. If you’ve done little background research then the answer is probably no. An interesting story and main character require a lot of work and research before they become marketable.

Avoid writing a script about a current big news event unless you have an interesting twist or a unique angle on it. Hollywood producers don’t like making movies about current news affairs. This is because by the time a movie is written, produced and then post-produced the event is already at least a year or two old. Yesterday’s news doesn’t sell at the box office.

You’ll want to be sure that your story is a visual one, and action driven. If you want to write about a character where a lot of the story is told through their thoughts then the medium for that is a novel. If you want to write a story that is driven through dialogue, then script writing is the correct medium. Always remember that film scripts are visual pieces which are action driven.

The Story Itself

Just like I discussed in my Create A Captivating Scene article, you want to start your story at the latest possible point. Thrust the audience straight into the action. If your story starts off with a character leaving their home, popping into a friends, then going to the bank only for a couple of criminals to hold the joint up then the audience will quickly grow bored. You can cut a lot of that out and start the movie straight at the bank robbery. The audience will instantly sit up and take notice.

You should also aim to set the story in a recognisable location. Even if you’re writing a sci-fi screenplay there are ways of doing this. You could have recognisable buildings “updated” for the future, or load cities up with adverts for the latest popular media. Of course the easiest way to get the audience to identify with the setting of your story is to set it in an iconic city. This is why so many movies are set in New York.

It is very important that you have passion for the story you are telling. This is why there’s the old adage of “write what you know”. If your main hobbies are playing hockey and watching comedy movies then it’s a lot easier to write a comedy movie about hockey than a period drama. There will be times when it becomes real work to write the next page of your script, that’s when the passion you have for the subject carries you through.

The biggest thing to think about though is the plausibility of your story. You need to iron out any plausibility flaws in your screenplay otherwise the story will be hard to believe, and impossible to “get into”. If anything in your movie seems unbelievable to you then it will probably seem ridiculous to the audience.

How The Characters Relate To The Story

A great character is one that the audience can root for and empathize with. You achieve this by having horrible events and huge obstacles thrown at the character. The character’s life should be so tough that the audience feel bad for them and desperately want them to achieve their goal.

Because the character has to go through so much there better be a big pot of gold for them at the end of the story. If they go through absolute hell just to find that $5 bill they lost then the character is an idiot. If you feel your character’s goal might be too small then there are two things you can do. You can either give them a bigger goal, or put them in a position where they have to achieve that goal.

One thing is sure, at the end of your screenplay your character will have changed. Everything they have been through will have changed them for the better. They’ll have achieved their goal and improved in many ways. They could improve emotionally, financially, mentally, physically and/or spiritually.
Consider The Budget

If you’re a first time scriptwriter it is a lot harder to get a big budget screenplay produced. After you have finished your first draft try to trim any money eating scenes. The easiest way to do this is cut down on exotic locations. A character probably doesn’t need to jet around the world, they can probably find what they’re looking for in their home town. If you need to use SFX then use them, but try to do so sparingly. A forty million dollar movie is a lot more likely to get picked up than a one hundred dollar movie.

Building your story up carefully is the foundation of your screenplay.

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