1. The magic happens in the first pages
If youâre not into the story after the first 5 to 10 pages, chances are that you will never be. Among the screenplays that I read, some caught my attention right away and some didnât. This had nothing to do with the genre or my interest in the topic.
What did some of them catch my attention? They made me care. Not about the story, but about the characters.
Some of the stories didnât resonate with me, but I still loved the screenplay and found it good because the screenwriter managed to create a character interesting and relatable enough for me to care.
Donât write a story â write your characterâs journey.
And this is whyâŠ
2. âŠCharacter backstories are essential
Readers will care about your characters if they are deep enough. They should have interesting backstories that will be discovered as the main story unfolds.
Backstories shouldnât come out of the blue â they must be related to your characterâs personality. You have to show somehow that this event or series of events had an impact on them and their development.
3. The villain should also be good
No villain should be 100% evil, unless maybe in horror stories â sometimes.
Your antagonist will be much more interesting if they have a clear backstory, motives, challenges, etc. Spend as much time developing them as you would your hero because they are equally important if not more.
Give them bad traits AND qualities â everyone has some.
4. Your screenplay might be sexist and/or racist (involuntarily)
Asking for feedback is good because sometimes things you write can be taken wrongfully or do involuntary harm.
Itâs easy to let clichĂ©s take over when developing a character that has different sex, ethnicity, or religious beliefs than you do.
For example, the gay guy that only exists to be the gay best friend and has no story of his own (hi Kevin Keller from Riverdale) or the woman who only exists to be the heroâs pet (hi Toni Topaz from Riverdale).
A few years ago, Wired published a very interesting article explaining how sexism in movies actually originates from screenplays.
âPeople often point to sexism in movies for what happens onscreen, but really, itâs in play before our heroine has a chance to say a line. It happens when sheâs cast. It happens when sheâs costumed. It happens when she gets her paycheck. But before all of that even has a chance to go down, it happens in the script â the very first keystroke that could make her a well-rounded individual, or a reductive pile of clichĂ©. Far too often, sheâs the latter.â â Wired:Â
âThe âJane Test,â a New Way to Tell if Your Scripts Are Sexistâ
Ross Putman pulls out description lines from scripts and publishes them on Twitter to denounce sexism in screenplays. The result is interesting:
