Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Writing Screenplays
    Writing Screenplays
    Writing Screenplays
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    Writing Screenplays

    By Jessie Coleman and Paul Peditto

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Find your voice -- write your unique story that sells!

    Everyone has a story. Whether it is a drama, thriller, comedy, or horror, writing a screenplay is about finding your voice as a writer and writing your own unique story that will come alive through plays or movies.

    This book will show you the fundamentals that are essential to writing a compelling screenplay that will pull the readers in, and sell, by using your own memoirs, or life, as a starting point.

    Whether you are a hopeful wordsmith or a seasoned screenwriter looking for a new approach, you will find sound advice within these pages.

    Learn how to --

    Find your story using your own life
    Establish an effective schedule
    Decide which format of writing is right for you
    Plan, write and revise your memoir-based screenplay
    Receive help from script consultants
    Find a market and sell your story

    In addition to sample screenplay, Writing Screenplays also includes helpful questions and answers, as well as additional resources for further assistance in creating your successful story.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSelf-Counsel Press
    Release dateOct 1, 2012
    ISBN9781770409187
    Writing Screenplays
    Author

    Jessie Coleman

    Jessie Coleman is an author, screenwriter, and freelance writer whose book Sex on the Side debuted with glowing reviews. She has been featured in several Chicago newspapers and on numerous radio stations.

    Related to Writing Screenplays

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Online Screenwriting Classes with Industry Professionals

      Dec 21, 2020

      The world of the feature film is booming and you are gushing with ideas. TEN WEEKS TO YOUR FEATURE FILM will give you the tools to get the ideas out of your head and into a completed screenplay by introducing you to the methods that professional scre

      1 min read

    • Article

      Take Two

      Jun 15, 2020

      Screenwriting executives look for a lot of “white on the page.” It’s just what you think it means. Less words, more white. Every page of script represents one minute of film. We must write to fit that time frame, meaning no flowery prose and rambling

      4 min read

    • Article

      How Do I (Quickly) Write a Screenplay?

      Apr 12, 2021

      A majority of budding screenwriters toil away for years on a screenplay and wonder if there is an end in sight. They’re lost in plot and character and have written themselves into a corner. Their first 20 pages are a slog, the second act is vapid, an

      5 min read

    • Article

      Royalties: The Long Tail

      Oct 18, 2021

      When I first signed with my agent, I joked that I wanted my advances to be paid in the form of solid gold toilets,1 and that’s been our code for good news ever since. When I get an email with the subject line “Gold Toilet Incoming,” I know we’ve sold

      4 min read

    • Article

      Less Is More on the Page

      Aug 16, 2021

      Screenplays are meant to be transformed to a visual medium, such as into a movie, a television show, a web series, or a short film—at least that is the dream for us hopeful scribes. However, when it comes to writing a screenplay, less is more on the

      5 min read

    • Article

      Subplots Aren’t Secondary

      Jun 19, 2019

      Subplots Aren’t Secondary
      6 min read

    • Article

      Screenplay Story Structure

      Oct 30, 2019

      Screenplay Story Structure
      5 min read

    • Article

      Set the Hook With Great Beginnings

      Oct 18, 2021

      As a novice fisher, I’ve only caught a few fish, but I’m already thinking about better ways to hook more. Likewise, as a writer, I think a lot about how to write beginnings that will hook readers. Just as fishing advice abounds, so too does writing a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Beat Sheet Or Cheat Sheet?

      May 5, 2022

      If you’ve not yet encountered the Save the Cat! books you will, because the original book Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need (2005) proved so successful it led to a franchise which now includes at least seven volumes, inclu

      8 min read

    • Article

      Better writing NOW

      May 6, 2021

      Better writing NOW
      5 min read

    • Article

      12 Foolproof Ways To Fail As A Writer

      Dec 21, 2021

      Whether you’re just now launching into writing or you’re an old pro, here are 12 surefire ways to fail this year as you pursue your dreams within the writing world. You’ll be tempted to compare other authors’ sales figures, reviews, likes, comments,

      4 min read

    • Article

      5 Lessons Fiction Writers Can Learn From Playwriting

      Jun 13, 2022

      Sometimes I look around, and I am gobsmacked by the world. For entertainment alone, I have a smorgasbord of choices: YouTube, Netflix, TikTok, not to mention being determined to get out of the house after being cooped up for two years. I wonder in th

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Specificity of Art

      Oct 10, 2022

      Like most writers, Jill Madden Melchoir has been putting pen to paper for as long as she can remember. But perhaps unlike most writers, Melchoir’s writing didn’t start with stories or poems: “It was writing lists of stuff I liked, literally just list

      8 min read

    • Article

      Five Writing Tips from Mark Bowden

      Apr 8, 2019

      The question most in my mind when writing is: What exactly are you trying to say? A clear answer to that question will help you avoid confusion and cliché. The post Five Writing Tips from Mark Bowden appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      What Agents Wish Writers Knew

      Dec 21, 2021

      What Agents Wish Writers Knew
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Starter Kit For Writing Memoir

      Jun 20, 2020

      Sorry, are you writing an autobiography? If so, you’re right – you should tell us all about your childhood, your middle-grade years, your high school experience, etc. But unless you’re famous – and we mean really famous – your odds of selling an auto

      9 min read

    • Article

      Getting Creative With Reality

      Oct 1, 2020

      What do H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Notes on a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Tall Stories and Wee Tales by Billy Connolly have in common? They all belong to the increasingly popular genre of creative non-fiction writing. When creative non-fic

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Unique Estate Planning Idea: How to Write Your Memoir

      Jul 6, 2018

      Do you sometimes feel like your life isn't valuable? Everyone does at one point or another. I've interviewed all kinds of impressive people about their legacies, and you know the most-common response I get? "My life isn't that interesting." Some of t

      6 min read

    • Article

      Truth And Consequences

      Sep 18, 2019

      Truth And Consequences
      8 min read

    • Article

      Springboard To Success

      Jul 6, 2023

      Springboard To Success
      6 min read

    • Article

      Lulu Wang

      Feb 16, 2024

      Lulu Wang
      2 min read

    • Article

      REAL LIFE, Great Stories

      Mar 7, 2024

      REAL LIFE, Great Stories
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Next chapter

      Aug 11, 2022

      92% of Brits enjoy reading, but 6.4 million can’t remember the last time they did for fun There’s nothing more satisfying than putting your phone away, turning off the TV and snuggling up with a cuppa to settle into a story. When you’re engrossed in

      3 min read

    • Article

      Everyday Humor

      Jun 19, 2019

      Everyday Humor
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Truthteller’s Toolkit

      Apr 25, 2020

      Once upon a time, a writer might contact an agent and confess their desire to publish an essay collection. And once upon a time, an agent might have resisted an urge to laugh in the writer’s face. As a form, essays had fallen out of favor, hard, and

      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Writing Screenplays

    5/5

    1 rating1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Very thorough and informative. I highly recommend for all wishing to commence a film writer's career.

    Book preview

    Writing Screenplays - Jessie Coleman

    Introduction

    Everyone has a story to tell. Never before have personal narratives gushed so profusely in North America as they do this present day. It seems everyone wants to tell his or her life story. Is it because we believe our lives are all unique, or is it that we think people can learn from our drama? Is it a combination of both? Regardless of the reasons writers have for wanting to tell their life stories, as long as people exist, there will never be a shortage of people wanting to put forth their life woes or adventures.

    Do you think your life would make a good movie? Most people do, and the reason is simple: There is a story to tell in all of us.

    The truth of the matter is, everyone does have a story worth telling, if he or she knows how to do it. That’s what this book is about — helping writers find that crossroad, locate that milestone, and hone in on that moment in time that has lessons for everyone. However, just because something has happened to you doesn’t necessarily mean it will make a good movie, but there are moments in everyone’s life that, with the right spin, could make for a dramatic work of art.

    It’s also true that there are many books on the market regarding the subjects of screenplays and memoir writing; however, Writing Screenplays dares to be different. This pioneering how-to guide walks the reader through a step-by-step process of telling the true-life tale in screenplay format, which is uniquely different from the standard book format. The screenplay version of your life story will cut to the meat of your story and highlight the message you want to share. You could say this book is two books in one:

    • It’s a book about honing in on your life’s most dramatic moments and fleshing out the story into something people would want to know.

    • It’s a book about how to craft a story made for the screen (whether TV or the big screen).

    It is our wish that you enjoy the adventures of Writing Screenplays and, at the very least, experience the wonderful and fun process of discovery by connecting with the moments in your life that made you the person you are today. Here’s a golden opportunity to share with the world the story that is unique to you and demands to be told.

    The following are some of our favorite movies based on true stories:

    Jessie’s picks:

    • Antwone Fisher

    • Men of Honor

    • The Assassination of Richard Nixon

    • Mississippi Burning

    • Black Hawk Down

    • Not Without My Daughter

    • Deliberate Intent

    • The People vs. Larry Flynt

    • Introducing Dorothy Dandridge

    • Seabiscuit

    Paul’s picks:

    • Bobby

    • Marie Antoinette

    • Capote

    • Primary Colors

    • Donnie Brasco

    • Sylvia

    • Factory Girl

    • United 93

    • GoodFellas

    • W.

    The Appendix contains coauthor Paul Peditto’s screenplay Pictures of Baby Jane Doe. It is a graphic story, based on a real person he knew. Real life is graphic so it was important to include this screenplay as an example.

    1

    Finding Your Story

    Your mission, if you should choose to accept it, is to select the most interesting period of your life that will appeal to a large audience. Your movie can be a drama, comedy, romance, etc., but if you want the movie to sell, you need to be aware of what the marketplace is buying. If you want your script to appeal to a movie audience, it must resonate with them; it must ring true with a theme that is universal, with characters the audience can recognize as believable and real.

    True-life stories continue to cast a spell over people who want to learn from the experience of others, and for that reason, true-life stories with universal appeal will always be in high demand. For example, an adaptation that was powerful and had universal appeal was The Fighter, about the real-life battles of Irish Micky Ward and his rise to a boxing championship despite his dysfunctional family.

    There are always moments or dramatic events in our lives that are so fascinating or memorable that they scream to be shared with the world, and we think, This could be a movie! Though that may very well be true, how do you go about finding that moment in time worth writing about and sharing with the world?

    You may feel that the challenge is to choose the story that would appeal to the largest number of people. You want to be aware of what will sell, but if you’re writing this for the audience alone, it won’t be much good. You need to channel what I believe Judith Malina once said, First I think about what it is I want to say. Then I go about saying it. The point is that the story you’re writing must resonate with you; it’s a story that you need to write, not one that will draw the largest number of people.

    Remember, a story is not necessarily interesting because it really happened. It’s an interesting story simply because it is, whether it really happened or not. Think of your life story as a work of fiction. If your life story were pitched as a novel, would people line up to purchase a copy, or would you have to say, based on a true story to capture their attention? You want your life story to be so interesting that even if it were not a true story, it would be compelling all on its own.

    While you are in the planning stages of your story, it might be a good idea to view a few true-life stories on film to get an idea of how the subject matter is handled. After you have viewed some movies, you will probably have a better sense of how different stories are executed based on theme. If

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1