Salinger in junior high school, and I was very affected by one of its passages – the story of the Fat Lady. And understand this: Usually what a character thinks, especially what the screenwriter thinks, and any “philosophical pondering” doesn’t play in film. Just make sure that when you turn in that script it’s not over 110 – 112 pages. If you are a brutal editor – meaning that you’re not afraid of red penciling and cutting your work – then overwrite, if you want to. Why your characters are doing what they’re doing is called “motivation” and while those motivations should be clearly understood by your audience (tip: show, don’t tell), avoid scenes talking about them. Here’s what you need to remember – Always think of writing for film as utilizing only two elements:ġ) Action (Show it, don’t tell us about it).Ģ) Dialogue (Skip the long speeches unless it’s an Oscar quality premise).Īs you develop a story always ask yourself: What are my characters doing and what are they saying? Nothing else should end up on the page. If you write books, short stories, or anything other than screenplays, you’re going to have to change your writing style. “How do you deal with the economic language supposed to reign in scripts?” Astrid wanted to know. “Every time I sit down to write a screenplay I find that I want to write all sorts of stuff (thoughts and philosophical pondering) that will never be transformed into action.” “I took only one screenwriting class during my BA and, to this day, I’ve only managed to complete very short scripts,” she wrote.

Astrid’s first question that she emailed me was a good one.

Young screenwriter