About screen writing...

selenawemiss said:

I used to write scripts. That is basically how I got into writing. I always used to get frustrated at my scripts because I always had something wrong. Badly. It would always ether be that the action was too much described as if it were a book or something similar. I want to get back to screen writing but what are good websites to help me with the issues I've had?

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One site I'd suggest is Site link removed per request of other site's Webmaster, which is the creation of screenwriters [Redacted--JDM] and guys who've been around the movie industry for a long time and know their stuff. Go right to [Redacted--JDM] articles, of which there are some 35, each of which addresses some particular angle or facet of the craft. A wealth of information on the craft.

You should also download as many screenplays as you can from the web and use them as study guides. Be sure to get writer's drafts and not shooting scripts or transcripts. Use Google, there are several sites that mount scripts for free downloading. Try to get one's that are in PDF format, they retan their formatting whereas many that are in text files do not.

And let me suggest two books that you will find helpful:

"THE WRITER'S JOURNEY" by Christopher Vogler and

"SCREENWRITING 434" by Lew Hunter.

Mr. Vogler is a long time movie guy and big time story consultant. His book elaborates the hero story paradigm and was written for screenwriters.

Mr. Hunter was at UCLA Film School for many years and his book encapsulates his Screenwriting 434 class, which was for students in the MFA program.

Screenwriting is an apprehendable craft, it just takes a lot of dedicated study and practice. When you get a script done get it critiqued by some acknowledged analyst so that you can get some good insight on where your problems are, can learn from that and improve your work and develop your competence.

I've been around this thing for some time and my experience tells me that competence usually only comes after you've written a half dozen scripts, more or less. I mean, the screenwriting MFA program at UCLA Film School is five years in duration. You can probably beat that time-frame, but probably not by a whole bunch.

There's no such thing as a "born screenwriter," we've all had to learn it.

Perseverence furthers, however.

Good luck and do enjoy!

Goodwriterguy said:

I've been around this thing for some time and my experience tells me that competence usually only comes after you've written a half dozen scripts, more or less. I mean, the screenwriting MFA program at UCLA Film School is five years in duration. You can probably beat that time-frame, but probably not by a whole bunch.

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It took me 13 with a lot of critiques and knock backs and tons of rewrites to get my first paying gigs. That took about 3 years. I might have been able to do it faster had I gone through a program or bought books or visited the above websites, I don't know. But it probably would have cut down some of my more bumbling written pieces.

icerose said:

It took me 13 with a lot of critiques and knock backs and tons of rewrites to get my first paying gigs. That took about 3 years. I might have been able to do it faster had I gone through a program or bought books or visited the above websites, I don't know. But it probably would have cut down some of my more bumbling written pieces.

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You averaged four a year, which is more productive than most can achieve. Many beginnners have day jobs and are hard pressed to be that productive, you must have burned a lot of midnight oil! But quite obviously you worked very hard at it and persevered. Hats off to you for that!

Goodwriterguy said:

You averaged four a year, which is more productive than most can achieve. Many beginnners have day jobs and are hard pressed to be that productive, you must have burned a lot of midnight oil! But quite obviously you worked very hard at it and persevered. Hats off to you for that!

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And here thought I was a rather slow writer because I was *only* doing about four features a year. Go figure.

icerose said:

And here thought I was a rather slow writer because I was *only* doing about four features a year. Go figure.

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Well, I dunno, estimates vary all over the map but I think it takes six to nine months to write a good solid feature. I'd be ecstatic if I could do four in a year. So be happy!

are you nuts icerose? Four a year! You're not a slacker at all. lol

Well I've only optioned three and have a scheduled conference call with a producer for another so I don't think I could claim quality on all of them.

Read scripts. There are a ton of script filled download sites. Find some recent scripts from similar genre's as yours (the more recent the better) and dive into them.

New script showcase HW trends and also could show you how best to handle action descriptions in your particular genre.

Yu can read scripts at Script o Rama , Script buddy , simple scripts ..Yu can post yur script in Zoetrope and read scripts posted there.
Padma