Storytelling Basics

Storytelling and scriptwriting is a creative process and there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to do things. However, a few guides can help to improve your skills a lot.

SHOW DON’T TELL

This is one of the most important lessons in scriptwriting. Your audience are clever and they will be able to figure things out for themselves, so don’t feel the need to tell them everything. This makes your film more engaging and gets the audience involved.

Rather than a character saying something like:

JOHNSorry I’m late, I know it’s the fifth time I’m late this week, and I know you said to me

yesterday that if I was late again you might have to sack me, but…

Film is a visual medium. We could achieve the same impact, or better, without any dialogue.

JOHN rushes up the steps, his hair is a mess and he is sweating. DAVE is already waiting for him, looking at his watch and holding a clipboard. JOHN tries to speak. DAVE shakes his head.

We’re achieving the same thing, but without telling the audience everything. This is more interesting for the audience, because we can interpret the story our own way. One person might think John is always late, another person might think he doesn’t seem too bothered - your audience are active and interpreting your script.

EXPOSITIONExposition is the information you need to get across to the audience. Think about Hagrid giving Harry Potter his entire backstory about how Voldermort tried to kill him. Exposition is boring because it doesn’t move the story forward. Whenever you can, try and avoid it.

SURPRISENobody wants to watch a predictable story. Take the audience one way and then throw them off course. It makes watching your story more interesting.

LENGTHAsk yourself, is each scene, each moment, each line, actually moving the story forward? A general rule for writing effective scenes is: start

late and get out early. What that actually means is, only start your scenes at the most dramatic point, because the rest isn’t necessary. Imagine the following example:

ANNAHi Jamie.

JAMIEHi.

ANNAHow’re you?

JAMIEI’m good. How’re you?

ANNAI just found out I lost my job.

We can get rid of everything in red. It’s not useful. Start the scene, let’s see Anna looking stressed, standing next to Jamie and then she delivers the news.

FORMATTINGWhen a script is properly formatted, one page equals approximately one minute of screen time, which makes guessing the length of your script much easier. Use a website such as celtx.com, where you can create a free account, to format your scripts professionally.