Is it good? Is it great? Or is it useless? Should I show it to anyone? To whom? Is it ready to sell?

I have found that as someone’s experience grows, often so does their insecurity about the state of their scripts. Many newbies are overeager to market undercooked scripts.

Why?

They don’t know their own abilities. They don’t understand what constitutes a great script, and they hope someone else will tell them.

If you feel this strong intuitive urge to get validation from a producer or agent, you’ve got to ignore it. Do more work yourself: read great scripts, keep writing, and over time you’ll separate the wheat from the chaff.

True intuition is built upon experience.

What Does Your Screenplay Need To Achieve?

Whether you are ready to sell your script – or not – has a lot to do with your intended objectives. If you need to make a living from your work, perhaps you have no choice. Cashflow forces you to get it into the market. Sometimes even premature scripts sell. (Seen any superhero comic book adaptations, lately?).

Suppose you’re not 100% happy with the story, but your writing style is supreme. If you need work urgently, your script may become the writing sample that will get you other work. So you go and sell. Story ready or not.

In all other cases, if you can afford to wait, then do so while you perfect story and script.

No Such Thing As The Honest Truth?

Each has their own opinion about when a script is done.

If you ask a script consultant, they may argue that your script needs more development. It is in their interest to keep taking money from you. Never ask a consultant who is desperate for clients. Instead, go to the busiest consultant you can afford.

Better even, affiliate yourself with an industry professional who can read scripts.

In fairness, not many can. And those who can, are often too busy. Find someone you can trust. This could be a producer, a director or an actor.

Your English teacher friend is not the person to ask. You may turn to them for a proofread on typos, spelling and grammar, but don’t expect them to understand the intricacies of a screenplay.

Everyone has an opinion. Not everyone has a clue.

Ready To Sell Your Script? Here Are The Signs

1. Your mom/partner/best friend loves it

   Non-professional readers will read a script like a novel, without understanding the nature of drama and tension. Their feedback is hardly vital.
   There is a good reason to have your fans at home read your work, though: to keep your confidence up. They should support you, and encourage you to rock on when times are tough.

2. Your gut tells you it’s ready to sell
   

   It may be more reliable than your mom, but it’s surely not the #1 indicator to go by. Your gut instinct will give you a clue as to whether you have a gem or a dud. But don’t bet the house on it. Your intuition will get better over the years.

3. Your friend/manager/agent/producer is excited
   

   No industry friends (yet)? Get networking! If you’re lucky enough to work with a manager, it’s easy. They will give you useful feedback, and tell you when they are confident the script will generate results.

4. It’s a really fast read.
   

   The quickest reads are typically the best. I have found that really bad scripts can take up to a day to read, partially because it takes time to decipher, but also because of reader procrastination.

5. Feedback is about taste, not technique.

   If most of the feedback comes down to a matter of the reader’s taste rather than specific craft-based notes, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re being unprofessional. Everyone has a subjective opinion, even pros. And everyone will try to give you some advice, even if they’ve run out of objective notes. Could this mean it is time to sell, and send your script into the world? Possibly…

6. You are shortlisted in a big screenwriting contest

   There are many contests, and thousands of writers enter every year. Fortunately you don’t need to worry about most of them, as only a few are truly relevant.
   The best will introduce winners to agents and producers, and some real players do keep an eye on the award lists.  So, winning an important contest is a big deal. Keep entering every year, and make sure your results keep improving.

7. Everyone talks about it.

   You are very lucky when you find people become aware about your script, and talk about it. When I hear industry folk bring up my clients’ projects in conversation, it’s mostly a good sign.

There are probably tons of things about your script you can still improve. If you didn’t read any screenwriting books until this point – Good! You didn’t need them – this may be the time to check a few things that matter to readers. Look at the ebb and flow of your tension in the story. Weigh up the balance of description vs. dialogue. Check, double-check and triple-check grammar, spelling and punctuation.

These are the areas most beginning writers can improve the most without professional help. Use apps, take online  classes. Become the very best.

You Make The Call

When you feel that the law of diminishing returns is taking its toll, it may be time to consider the 7 points above. And remember: you will never get unequivocal proof that your script is market-ready… until it is sold.

Until then, it’s merely a decision.

And that decision is yours.

-Karel Segers

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

If you are one of this talented few, script formatting applications like Celtx, Movie Magic and Final Draft are great productivity tools. These take the hassle out of capitalising, indenting and laying out a script in the format demanded by the Hollywood movie moguls.

They also remember the names of your characters and scene locations. They’ll check your spelling, allow you to classify and rearrange scenes, and produce shooting scripts and script reports for your production team.

Final Draft has fought its way to the top in the screenplay formatting wars. If you believe the hype, it is “used by 95% of film and television productions.”

But for most of us, writing a screenplay begins long before we sit down at the keyboard with that real or virtual clean sheet in front of us. If you follow The Story Department’s advice, and have visited Logline It, you know the drill. You will have refined your logline, described the inciting incident, and developed a 3-act structure. You will have laid out the main beats and arcs and possibly covered your wall with scrawled library cards before you type EXT.

There are a few computer applications that can help you with this early stage. Pre-scripting is by definition a messy job with lots of redundancy.

Final Draft 10 aims to pull the whole process together into a single software package. (Declaration of interest: I’ve been a voluntary beta tester on Final Draft 10 for the past 18 months, but I have no financial interest in the software.)

In this review I’ll assume that the script formatting aspect of Final Draft needs no explanation or comment. I’ll confine myself to the meta-script aspects and the new and improved pre-scripting tools.

NAVIGATOR

This tabbed panel is not new — it’s been part of Final Draft for the past 3-4 versions at least, but its utility has been improved.

If you’re already using Final Draft you’ll be familiar with how use it to jump to, drag, rearrange and colour-code scenes. You know how to keep track of characters and define their arcs; and add script notes.

Now the Navigator is linked to The Story Map, which multiplies its usefulness.

STORY MAP

While the Navigator provides a running overview of your screenplay as you are writing it, the Story Map is an omnipresent, interactive view of your story.

It is a horizontal bar at the top of the window, providing an overview of your script at a glance.

Before you begin, you set a target length in pages, define Structure Points (eg. acts, mid-point) and add Beats. These become page targets in the Story Map. You can, of course, drag these targets around, add new points or erase them at will.

As you write new scenes, they appear in the Story Map along with any colours you added in the Navigator. Double clicking on a scene in the Map takes you to that scene in the script. You can zoom in to examine your scene sequence, or zoom out for a birds-eye view of your screenplay.

BEAT BOARD

The Beat Board is the most obvious new feature in Final Draft 10. It’s your pin board, where you scribble on virtual library cards and drag them around until they make sense.

The Board is totally free format, equally useful for brainstorming, structuring and making notes. Double click anywhere on the board to create a card, then change its size and colour and location and drag it into position.

What you put on these virtual cards is up to you: ideas, notes, character sketches, scene descriptions, “beats,” reminders, phone numbers, shopping lists…

I’ve never been an enthusiastic user of library cards and preferred Scrivener to structure my story. However, I’ve become a fan of the Beat Board for this visual process of brainstorming, rearranging, refining and editing.

It is instinctive and almost infinitely flexible. I’d appreciate more colours and a “snap to grid” option, though. Maybe that is my OCD speaking. And I’d like to be able to add hyperlinks and images, but maybe these will come in later versions.

(NB. The Beat Board is not related to the Index Cards view, which has been an option under the VIEW menu since Version 1.)

SPLIT

In Final Draft 9, you had the ability to split the screen vertically or horizontally, but now you can drag your Beats directly into your screenplay from the Split view.

ALT DIALOGUE

Now here’s a handy feature: say you can’t decide whether a character is a Yank or an Aussie; whether he says “Wassup dude?” or “G’day mate?”

This handy refinement enables you to include any number of alternatives.

Just click on the small “+” beside the line and type in the Yank/Aussie lines.

Both alternatives remain in the screenplay until you decide which market you are selling to.

COLLABORATION

I’ve been collaborating on a script with a writer in the USA. We used to email copies back and forth and mark our contributions and changes using Script Notes and colours.

With FD10 and Skype it’s as though we are sitting side-by-side. It’s as simple as clicking “Collaborate”, obtaining a Session ID Number and Skyping (or emailing) the number to him. He clicks Collaborate and enters the ID Number and my script appears on his computer.

We pass Control back and forward and any changes one of us makes, the other sees in real time. You can communicate interactively using text or speech, though we prefer to run a Skype session beside it. It’s as painless as your bandwidth allows.

Unfortunately, the Beat Board, Splits and several other new features are greyed out in Collaboration mode. I hope they are going to be included in versions 10+.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

There are a lot of smaller improvements in Version 10, too. You’ll find more scene numbering options, header and footer improvements, revision versions. A long-overdue improvement is in the Dictionaries: Australian English works at last and I’ve tried it with French and German. And here’s a neat trick: when I’m collaborating with my American colleague, his spell-checker reads US English and mine is Australian English.

WORTH THE PRICE?

If you’re a serious scriptwriter, Final Draft 8 or 9 were always worth the investment. MacOS and Windows Final Draft documents are interchangeable and it delivers a script that won’t be rejected on formatting grounds by those picky Hollywood producers’ assistants. There are now Final Draft apps for iPhone and iPad, for both reading (free) and writing (US$10). So you can take it anywhere.

Let’s face it, Final Draft 10 is an investment, whether you are buying it or upgrading. If you’re not being paid for scriptwriting, perhaps stick with Celtx (free) and library cards for a while. When you’re ready to step into the bear pit, download the Free Trial from finaldraft.com, and explore the introduction screens and videos.

If you think it’s for you, check this site for the best price!

FINAL DRAFT 10: FINAL THOUGHTS

Final Draft 10 is a new ball game, with useful, powerful and stable pre-scripting tools and the best collaboration feature on the market.

There are a few options that I hope appear in 10.1: more colours and a snap-to-grid in the Beat Board. Equally useful would be hyperlinks, and the ability to past graphics. Extending the collaboration capability to the Beat Board will double its usefulness.

-Ian Hart

Ian Hart

Ian Hart is a freelance writer and director.

peacemountain.com.au

Sometimes I watch a movie and a week later I have forgotten everything, except for one single scene. Do you have that, too? Invariably, this happens more often with movies that have an unusual narrative structure.

After watching Charlie Wilson’s War, I forgot everything except for a handful of masterful scenes and the ‘zen master’ ending.  To me, one scene stood out above all else. It is an instant classic, and a class example of expert use of dramatic construction, exposition and subtext.

You could do a whole masterclass, just on the scene structure of this moment.

Charlie Wilson’s Fail

Charlie Wilson’s War is by all standards a solid film, but most people will agree this is not a great movie.

With Sorkin on story, a budget of $75m, and Tom Hanks’ & Julia Roberts’ star power, the studio must have looked at the domestic result of $66m as a big disappointment. If a film of this calibre doesn’t reach the mainstream, usually the filmmakers are to blame.

But if you’re a discerning viewer, you don’t want the studios to stop making these pictures.  In fact, if you love political intrigue, you’re on the left of the political spectrum, and you enjoy great dialogue, then this film is pure delight.

Sorkin has said that he never has an agenda when he writes. Really? Charlie Wilson makes a pretty darn strong statement.

Out of its contemporary 2007 political context – the West fighting a heavily armed Taliban in Afghanistan – this is a straightforward hero movie with a happy ending. Add the zen master perspective, and it becomes a wry satire about the bungling and moral murkiness of American politics.

The stuff of great drama.

Why Didn’t It Work?

Satire is a tricky genre at the US box office, particularly if it’s just smart, and you leave out the primal elements.

Borat worked – primal allover – but what other satires do you know that broke out and went big?

Charlie Wilson’s War recounts the eponymous Texan Congressman’s lobbying in the arms race during the Soviet-Afghan war of the late 70’s.

What started as a covert operation with a budget of $5m spins out of control to an all-out war effort spending more than a hundred times that amount.

With stars like Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Blunt, a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and Mike Nichols at the helm, this is nothing short of a dream team. Still, the movie didn’t made its money back.

In my view, one reason the film didn’t work is because it ends ironically. (The reason it did work for me, is Sorkin’s addictive dialogue, and his masterful sense of scene structure)

In the McKee sense of the word, the resolution is a tainted victory. There is no clear happy ending. Wilson wins his war, but at the end of the film we are reminded of where the resources of this arms race ended up: with the Mujahideen – and by extension, the Taliban.

We don’t really need McKee to explain that this is also pure, literal irony.

Flawed Movie – Fabulous Scene

If Sorkin’s movies lack cinematic arcs, their individual scene structure makes up for it. Borrowed from stage theatre, he creates sweeping mini-movements that put the best visual screenwriters to shame.

How often do we find a well-constructed, meaty, dramatic scene these days? Pressured by the kinetic editing rhythm of today’s action movies, scenes are often kept too short.

This movie moment from Charlie Wilson’s War is the exception: a classic three-act scene structure with a spectacular climax, and the entire event clocking off at three minutes sharp.

Interestingly, the protagonist is absent; the scene introduces the supporting character of CIA spy Gust Avrakotos.

Hero For One Scene: Gust

In a spectacular collision between Gust and his superior Craigley, we learn all there is to know about Gust.

His CV is substantial, and he gives us all the fine detail. Yet, we happily swallow the expositional subtext, as the drama keeps us at the edge of our seat.

The exposition is subtextual because at the surface, it all starts about an apology. But when Gust arrives at the Langley office, the last thing he wants to do is apologise.

The function of this scene is simple: to introduce the character of Gust.

In my classes, I explain how the most important character aspects are (in order) psychology and sociology. Craigley tells Gust to his face that the reason he lost the Finland job is because he is coarse.

In the scene’s final act, Gust speaks five words that sum up his character’s function (or sociology) in this movie, as well as the scene’s reason d’être: “I am an American spy.”

This has been the subtext of the entire argument, ultimately floating to the surface in the climax.

Scene Structure – Mini Hero’s Journey

When we understand that the argument is no longer about the apology, but about Gust’s missed career opportunity, Sorkin signals this with a First Threshold: a tradesman opens the door, and interrupts the conversation. Scene structure emphasised by action and setting. Beautiful.

If you don’t believe this constitutes the mythical curtain between the scene’s first and second act, do read on.

Gust builds his argument, with tension increasing to the boiling point. At the mid point, things get personal. Gust goes so far that he risks losing his job – and in Hero’s Journey terms his identity – when he attacks Craigley ad hominem, by revealing he knows about an affair. This is the scene’s lowest point, or Ordeal.

Time for the Final Threshold, and guess what Gust does… He opens the door again, to find the tradesman!

What follows next, you’ll need to watch for yourself. Too good to spoil. Let’s skip to the aftermath moment.

In the Hero’s Journey, after the hero has completed the quest, he brings the elixir back to his people (here: “How was I?”), and he is hailed by the community for his achievement: thumbs up!

Pure class.

-Karel Segers

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

A free screenwriting course? Too good to be true.

Of course it is. But hear me out.

As my boss in London told me, you can only have two out of these three: cheap, fast and good. Poor Luke Stinson wanted all, and he copped a lot of flak when he posted this on Facebook in the Screenwriting group:

“Can someone completely teach me how to write a screenplay,
like guide me and step by step without money involved. Thanks”

Some believed Luke was being sarcastic. However, it sufficed to click on Luke’s profile to see that he is just an innocent kid from the Central Coast in NSW, Australia.

It would have been easy to add to the storm of indignation, and protect my livelihood by arguing why people should pay for screenwriting classes.

But I remembered what my boss said. So Luke should be able to get cheap and good, or perhaps cheap and fast.

My existing courses are fast (12 days of classes) and good. People also pay a thousand dollars, so that isn’t going to help Luke. And given that I don’t do ‘bad’, the only option available for Luke’s free screenwriting course would be in the category ‘slow and good’.

So I started thinking.

No books, no courses

I learn about storytelling every day, and I hardly ever read books.

I study and analyse movies and scripts. This is how Syd Field made it, this is what many professional screenwriters do, and it is what Luke should do.

(And at this point, let’s be realistic. Luke may never be prepared to make the effort. But let’s for the sake of the argument assume that Luke is indeed passionate and persistent. I know people out there who are, but truly cannot afford the best screenwriting courses.)

Members of the Facebook group largely agree that Luke should devour all scripts he can lay his hands on, watch tons of movies, and ‘read all the books’.

The problem with this of course is that Luke can’t possibly read all the screenwriting books in his lifetime. Jack Brislee told me years ago that he found 2,000+ publications on screenwriting, on Amazon.com alone.

Reading as many scripts as possible is great, but if Luke has access to bad scripts, should he really read them, too? And how can he tell the difference?

Finally, how is watching movies going to help? EVERYONE watches tons of movies. Does this bring everyone closer to being a screenwriter? Well, no.

In addition to the reading and watching, there will need to be a hell of a lot of analysis and reflection.

What Makes The Difference

I believe that my 30 year experience in the industry, and 10 years of working with screenwriters (20 years if you include my development & acquisition years) can help distinguish between what Luke should read and watch, in what order, and what he should leave aside.

It is tempting to pre-package the learning, and just share (or sell) the wisdom and insights that may result from the work. The strongest, and only lasting learning, however, comes from self-discovery. Rather than pre-package the knowledge, I will guide the student where to go in order to do the discovering.

So I’m now developing a simple free screenwriting course, based on reading, watching and writing. No mentors involved. No money paid.

The first one hundred days will immerse Luke in format and style, at a pace that is manageable, spending about 1 hour every day. He will perform a deceptively simple, yet powerful writing exercise. This will take no more than about ten to fifteen minutes each day. For the remainder of the hour, he will read from 20 screenplays that I have handpicked. After finishing each script, he will write two pages following a few simple questions and instructions, before moving to the next.

Once he has worked through the scripts and completed the exercise, he is ready for a bigger challenge. One simple task, but one that will require him to investigate the screenplay format more closely, and learn it actively. This part of the course will probably take him one month, and it will be followed by a similar, yet more challenging task.

After 5 months, Luke is ready to write his own first screenplay.

Self-Made Screenwriter

At this point, Luke will not have had a single screenwriting class. Yet he will have progressively learned more about the nature of scriptwriting, the challenges as well as the core skills required to write for the screen.

After six months, he will have written his first script, and be ready to receive his first professional feedback.

If it works – judged by myself as well as the participants – I will design a 6 month follow-up program (self-study, again) to bring the participants to intermediate level.

What’s in it for me? I want to test this program, and hopefully confirm my sneaking suspicion that you don’t need a single screenwriting book to learn the basics of the craft in only 6 months.

I remember Scott Meyers once ran a free program over at GITS, and I’ve always found him an inspiring example. Another thinker who has influenced me is Seth Godin. Check out these guys.

When you’re reading all this, you may be getting excited, and itching to join in. Let’s go over a few of the details and requirements. More will follow once you sign up.

Free Screenwriting Course Details

• Six months commitment.
• One hour availability per day.
• No experience required (nor desired).
• Self-study only; no personal mentor feedback.
• No screenwriting theory instruction.
• Tasks to be sent via email or uploaded.
• Closed Facebook group for peer feedback.
• Monthly webinars for questions & discussion.[/fivecol_four_last]

Your Chance To Participate

Initially I said that this would be open to only 5 students, and I will keep it at that number. I will encourage them to do the work, and keep them accountable. I don’t have the time to communicate with more than 5 people. It’s free, remember?

That said, I will open up the program, and you can now apply. You will get support from their peers in the program through a closed Facebook group where everyone can participate. You will also have to pledge to a different type of accountability…

If you drop out before the 6 months are up, or if you fail to deliver 2 successive script reports, you will pay an amount of your choice (previously agreed) to me, or to charity. If you are serious, you set this amount high enough so it’s an incentive to keep going.

Trust me, there will be moments when you need this sword of Damocles dangling above your head to keep doing the work.

To be considered, click below to go to the registration page, where you can request access to the closed Facebook Group. As soon as I have approved your request, you will receive further details about the course, so you can decide whether this is for you or not.

When the first class kicked off on 1 July 2016, over a hundred students were on the waiting list, so I will be starting new courses frequently. If you’re interested, join the closed Facebook Group, and you’ll be invited to our next info webinar.

I’m crazy, I know. But who is not, who is successful in film?

-Karel Segers

Update: The honeymoon is over. 200 started the course, after applications closed in November 2016. The irony? Luke Stinson never joined us. Possibly because of the misguided perception that free stuff is inferior.

The course was meanwhile updated to a slicker, more interactive version… and it is no longer free. 

Still, the results have been incredible, with dozens of writers completing full-length feature screenplays, and more submitting their work every day. Enrol here, and join us for the rest of the journey!

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Until recently, if you had asked me about one thing more important than all the above, I would have replied: goals. Characters must have a clear goal, and ideally a goal that is not open-ended.

But goals are not enough.

I say, you may dispose of every single one of those ‘must haves’, as long as you have this one trait that will rule them all: willpower.

I have read many scripts by writers who took the advice about creating ‘goals’. They set up a clear first act, with a visual goal and a clearly defined end point.

Then the main character moves into the Second Act … to do something else. Or nothing at all.

Great Characters Need More Than Goals

You can have goals as much as you like; if you don’t have a character who is obsessive about achieving them, they are no use.

Think about the number of characters who summon magic by sheer willpower. In the Star Wars franchise, The Force is really just that. Similarly, in movies like The Matrix, Lord Of The Rings, and countless superhero movies, characters concentrate on what they want – and magically it happens.

Remember Yoda vs. Count Dooku?

https://ozzywood.wistia.com/medias/vt4kt1s9s5?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=1080

One of my favourite examples is Drew Barrymore’s character in Firestarter. “Back off!”

It is not enough to desire something

A strong main character has the drive to take action, and do the right thing to achieve that what is desired. Often ‘the right thing’ is exactly what they are afraid to do.

In Jaws, Brody wants to protect the people of Amity, but closing the beaches just isn’t enough. He must go into the water and kill the shark.
In Inception, Don Cobb wants to see kids, but before his wish is granted, he must first take action and do what he hates the most: inception.
In The Untouchables, Eliot Ness wants to jail Capone, but he needs be willing to do it ‘the Chicago way’, and beat Capone at his own game.
In Groundhog Day, Phil wants the girl, but his willpower will have to be strong enough to do what he despises the most: being honest and kind.

The same goes for TV characters. Think about your favourite dramatic character, and the chances are that s/he is unstoppable: Jimmy McNulty, Walter White and Frank Underwood. Comedy doesn’t always follow this principle, but just look at Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation, and you see what I mean.

In successful small indie movies, the same goes. Remember Jennifer Lawrence’s character in Winter’s Bone, Emile Hirsch in Into The Wild and Kumiko.

One of my favourite character in recent years is Lou in Nightcrawler. He’s not a nice guy. And although it takes the whole first act to figure out what exactly he wants, his willpower is unrelenting. This glues us to his character, and into the movie.

Give your main character strong willpower, and it will fuel your script with magic.

-Karel Segers

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

I’m going to cover a few that I have seen, (or even experienced myself).

A Creative Career Is (Not) A Job

A creative career is like a job. You have got to go to work. You have to earn money. You will have to please the person who is willing to pay you that money.

A creative career is often also unlike any ‘normal’ job. In many cases you work from home. It seems you don’t have to go to work. This brings challenges to people who struggle with discipline and face procrastination at home.

Once you accept that this new creative career is in many ways very much like an ordinary job, it is time to understand exactly what type of business we are talking.

A Creative Career Is Not An NFP Business

Not everyone considers it normal that you get paid when you have fun doing what you do.

The reason? Before you choose to make your hobby your job, you have a not-for-profit relationship with it. You are absolutely fine with the fact that you don’t get paid. It may actually cost you money.

In order to be successful, this relationship must change, and this is easier said than done.

In fact, acquiring the right mindset may well be the hardest objective to achieve in your quest to establish a career that is both creatively and financially rewarding.

People who succeed, don’t see a problem in sending an invoice for their services. They also don’t see a problem with paying for services in the creative sector. Every successful writer I know, has at some stage paid for writing-related services. This can be writing classes, software packages, editing services etc.

You Have Been Misinformed

The stories you hear about the creative career you want, are filtered.

In the real world of ‘normal jobs’, you get accurate information. In our precious entertainment industry, you rarely do.

So many people aspire to become a pro screenwriter after hearing stories about 7-figure deals. What they don’t realise is that for each deal of this kind, there are a thousand that bring in peanuts – or that simply don’t happen at all.

When a screenwriter sells a script, you hear about it. When a pool company wins a new client, no-one cares (even though the pool money may be a lot more). This sort of misinformation leads to the expectation that you will start earning a lot more quickly than is realistic. This, in turn, will lead to frustration and the belief that you are failing.

You are not failing at all. You were just not realistic in your expectations.

You Focus Too Much On The Outcome

Many self-improvement programs teach you goal-setting. They encourage you to have clear goals with milestones. And work towards those, relentlessly. This is certainly a valid approach and many have made it work for themselves.

I have not.

In my own experience, this can cause more frustration than anything else.

Why?

Because in the context of our creative career, often we set the wrong goals. We aim to finish a script by Christmas. To win a contest and sell a script next year. We’ll be financially independent in two years’ time.

Out of those four goals, only one is realistic. Do you know which one?

It’s the one about finishing a script. Do you know why? Because the others are out of your hands.

No easier way to frustration than to set goals you need others to achieve them.

Instead, set your goal to write X number of pages per day. To email Y number of producers/agents every week. Now, you are accountable. And you can be proud to achieve those goals.

Once those achievable goals are set, do the work, and don’t fret about the results. In fact, I believe the more you focus on the outcome, the smaller the chance you will achieve it.

You need to focus on doing the work, on a daily basis. Continue with it.

End don’t beat yourself up over the lack of results.

They will come.

You Doubt Your Creative Talent

We are all born with a thousand times more creativity than we realise. Sadly, our modern upbringing efficiently erases this. We are told that we don’t need it. In our everyday life, all we need is a rational mind, right? (Wrong.)

As a result, most people simply forget about their immense power of creation and imagination.

So we need to reconnect with this. Without it, the only outcome can be derivative drab.

Get in touch with your creativity and imagination. Meanwhile, keep confident.

Above all: keep working.

(There are heaps of techniques to unlock your hidden creativity. I boost my energy, ideas and creativity by practising Vipassana Meditation.)

You’re In It Because You Love (Watching) Movies

We can all wax lyrical about our favourite movies, and how they inspired us to pursue a creative career.

Make no mistake; watching movies is not a job. Unless you want to be a movie critic. And they don’t get paid any longer, because just too many are willing to do this for free.

The more people aspire to a particular job, the harder it will get to make a living in it, and the lower the entry level payment. Just look at the exploitation of musicians these days.

In order to build a successful creative career, you need to shift your passion from the finished movies to the making of them.

Can you be just as passionate about writing, planning, producing, problem solving, people management, and all other aspects of a creative career in the movies?

You Don’t Get What The Job Is About

Writers rarely write what they want, once they get paid.

You are free to write and be creative on your own terms – as long as you’re doing it for free. The moment someone starts handing over money, you will write what THEY want, using the style THEY want to read.

This is the paradox of the Writer’s Dream: the moment you have achieved what you think you want, the dream is really over.

Not only will you have to write to a brief; you will also have to deliver to a deadline.

The stress you experienced while fretting over the state of your bank account, now suddenly doubles.

Perhaps there are other aspects of this creative career you’re chasing that you don’t know about.

You know what? It’s never too late to learn.

You Don’t Spend The Time To Learn

So many want to become directors, producers and screenwriters. But they don’t want to go through the long learning process it takes to achieve excellence. They find it tedious.

Or they tell themselves that it cannot be learned. “Either you have it, or you don’t”. Now there’s a really easy way to fail even before you have started.

Learning is critical, in whatever you do. Rest assured that while you’re reinventing the wheel, thousands are getting ahead of you by learning the essential skills.

Successful, happy writers find it exhilarating to explore how movies work, how stories are built.

If you don’t, perhaps this is not for you.

It’s never too late to quit.

Or …

You Quit Too Early

I once heard that it takes seven years to make any business profitable. You are a business, too.

When things are not as much fun as expected, people get out. The fighters sit it out.

A creative business is not necessarily more fun than any other, as you may find out…

If you are in it mainly for the results (a movie in the theaters, a house in the hills), it’s going to be a very long wait for your kinda fun.

So this is where we can tell apart the quitters and the fighters.

Read Seth Godin’s book ‘The Dip‘.

Ask yourself, are you a quitter … or a fighter?

-Karel Segers

P.S.: Failing is cool.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

This is mostly analytical. So there’s no guarantee that you will deliver a successful story. Then again, no system does. No matter what the teachers promise you.

What this approach to the screenwriting basics does promise however, is a crystal clear grasp of what you MUST have before your story will work on a large scale. If this doesn’t seem all that new to you, I am still hoping to offer you a new perspective.

1. A Character

At the centre of every story we find (at least) one character. In film, this is mostly the ‘person’ to whom the story happens. Sometimes, it is the individual through whose eyes we experience the story.

Character also means the combined set of traits that define that particular person. This will come into play later, as we can really only see what a character is about when they act. Anyone can say anything. But will you believe them?

Before we can look at any other aspect of the story, such as its structure, we must know who this character is. For each character, there may be a different event kicking of their story. Of course each character should act in different ways.

And a great character will respond in a significant way to the Major Event.

2. A Major Event

Second step in the screenwriting basics: Something must happen to the character. A Major Event of some sort must trigger the story. Some people call this the Inciting Incident. I prefer to name it the Call To Adventure.

If the character starts pursuing the main story goal without this event, then the story will lack motivation. The audience may not even realise that the story has effectively started…

In brainstorming, this Major Event is often what you include in the ‘What If…’ statement.

Many teachers leave out this part of the story. Big mistake.

From studying story for nearly thirty years now, I am convinced that the Major Event is critical for a successful story. It is certainly indispensable in defining your story, in separating it from any other story told before you. Total screenwriting basics.

Many teachers leave out this part of the story.
Big mistake.

This is why I like to see the major event to be part of the logline.

Major events are more important than the story stakes. They often even imply the stakes, so you don’t need to mention stakes separately in a summary of the story.

This event must be ‘major’, in that it disrupts the life of the character. If it doesn’t, it is a non-event. In this case, either you don’t have a story yet, or the reader/audience won’t understand the story has started.

3. An action / Goal

Having a goal is not enough. The character must act, fight, struggle to reach that goal. A passive character, burning with desire, is a total bore. They must fight ferociously to get what they want.

Sometimes the action is directly in pursuit of the goal. In other words, the Hero chases directly what s/he wants.

Having a goal is not enough.

If you know your screenwriting basics, you will know this. In most love stories, the Heroes pursues the love interest. In most crime movies, the Hero wants to catch or kill the criminal(s).

In other cases, the goal or desire can only be fulfilled by first completing a task, or test. In Inception, Don Cobb must perform Inception (plant an idea inside a man’s dream) in order to see his kids again. In Avatar, Jake must relocate the natives in order to receive a new pair of legs.

Either way, the story goal must create change in the visible world. To try and achieve a different state of mind – through the ‘Inner Journey’ – does not typically qualify as a story goal.

Brainstorm Screenwriting Basics

When you brainstorm movie concepts, you must have all three of these screenwriting basics.

In fact, none of these can truly exist without the other two. This is why it is such a perfect system.

When you brainstorm movie concepts,
you must have all three of these story aspects.

It is something of a closed loop – or a mindf*** if you wish. You cannot really define any of these three within a story context without using the other two.

Get your head around these screenwriting basics, and you will see the beauty and the perfection of this approach.

This is the Holy Trinity of Story.

-Karel Segers

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

What gives a great story the power to move us? Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns (Vietnam, Jack Johnson, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History) provides some key insights into how the skilful use of emotionally charged storytelling can bring alive historic events at 24 frames per second.

If you liked this, check out more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking. And if you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

Everything Is A Remix illuminates how copying other people’s work is not the same as plagiarism, but rather a process of synthesizing ideas into new and interesting forms.

Because of its incredible success, it is worth studying the Avatar screenplay and its story structure. With the top two highest grossing movies ever behind his name, writer/director Jim Cameron knows what he is doing. These are not studio-driven movies: they are personal obsessions. Titanic was Cameron’s excuse (and funding source) to continue his infatuation with the deep ocean, while Avatar is now apparently all he wants to do – ever again. The sequels Avatar II, III and IV, which the director is working on in his new home in New Zealand, are currently scheduled for 2017 and 2019.

The Avatar Screenplay

Avatar is in essence a simple ‘boy meets girl’ story within the action genre, and it covers a whole range of themes – if you want to see them – from environmentalist, anti-colonialist, to buddhist. The movie is long, but clearly not too long, telling from its success. The post-production script  was only 110p.

How come Cameron’s movies put half the planet at the edge of their seat? No-one – probably not even Jim himself – know. But I believe his understanding of mythical storytelling has something to do with it. The only way to connect with a planet-wide audience, is to tap into the mythology of the times.

The film abounds with mythical imagery and archetypes. Jakes doesn’t just have one mentor. He has three. In the Ordinary World, Colonel Quaritch gives him the life lessons; once on Pandora, Neytiri will take that function. During the transition from the one world to the next, Jake’s third mentor, the ‘threshold mentor’, is played by played by Sigourney Weaver as Grace. The last thing she says to Jake, just before the start of the Threshold sequence is “Just keep your mouth shut.” He is going into unknown territory and will have to let his mentor(s) lead him. Throughout the scene, Grace keeps giving Jake advise. “Don’t run,” but a moment later “Run! Definitely run!”

Join Cameron’s Screenwriting Class

Avatar has been lauded for its eye candy, but too easily despised for its screenplay. In my view, any critics just don’t like this type of cinema, as Cameron’s screenplays are excellent. In fact, many of his peers could learn from him. Cameron doesn’t have to deliver a script to the industry standard, or any standard for that matter. Yet his screenplays are prime examples for any beginning screenwriter: clear, tight, visual, well-formatted, and with clear, dramatic subtext written into the scenes where necessary. Don’t forget that these are action movies, after all.

Cameron has a brilliant action writing style, with ample use of double dashes (—) to build and keep suspense for the reader.

Alien for dessert

The threshold sequence opens as the crew flies into the jungles of Pandora. Have you noticed that we never see the choppers take off? We never even see them climb. In this sequence, we can only see them descend. Do you believe this is coincidence, when every Hero’s Journey begins with a descent into the Special World? I don’t.

Jake goes exploring and the tension rises gradually, as he passes his first few tests in this new territory, assisted by Grace and her team. The third test – the Thanator – chases him away from his mates, until he is completely separated, and there is no way back before nightfall. Again, all mythical imagery…

Have a look at how the Thanatos is introduced in the script:

You have got to admit: this is a fun read. James Cameron doesn’t have to sell his script as badly as you and I do. He has to raise financing, yes, but by the mid 2000’s, people were pretty confident that Cameron would deliver the goods.

“This thing could eat a T-rex and have the Alien for desert.”

Note also that in this Threshold passage, Jake loses his rifle and his backpack. These are typically tools from the Ordinary World, and they are of no use in the new world. In a mythical sense, Jake is stripped naked from all that protected him, ready to be reborn.

And guess where he ends up in the final moments of this sequence… amneotic fluid, also known as Pandora water.

– Karel Segers

[vimeo 117134935 w=960 h=540]

Download the Avatar screenplay sample here.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!