Before you decide to inflict screenwriting wisdom upon anyone, have a look at what you’ve written above and have a stab at trying to guess what is wrong with it.
are u feeling o.k
:O)
The most important tip: Don’t let your cat delete the script after you’ve written it.
inspirational ideas that happen when u are outside away from a computer can be saved as a draft text message on a mobile phone so u don’t forget the great idea u had later that day when your memory is tired
KJ: It’s the story that matters not grammar or spelling – thats what proof-readings for.
>>Before you decide to inflict screenwriting wisdom upon anyone, have a look at what you’ve written above and have a stab at trying to guess what is wrong with it.<<
Welcome to the increasing twitterfication of The Auteurs…
KJ actually makes an excellent and succinct point. There are too many screenwriters out there who believe that writing quality doesn’t matter when writing a script because it’s only about the story. Tip number one should be: writing matters.
>> KJ: It’s the story that matters not grammar or spelling – thats what proof-readings for.<<
So an important script-writing tip would be:
Hire someone to translate your work into English before submitting it.
Come on gang, lets work together!
if you could see my handlebar mustache you would know that it, mixed with my silly grin, are being sarcastic.
anywho, we SHOULD help each-other out. I know who I want on my team: Mr. Long, KJ, ARI.
As I’m sure you could have guessed, I don’t write scripts, and my grammar is…how shall we say…less than kosher? But I digress.
Stop being a boorish gaggle of have-me-nots, and throw out some constructive criticism.
P.S. I love you all.
i have never used twitter :O(
None of you mention a pad and pen. Word!
I loved 8 1/2. To bad about all those punctuation errors that Fellini made in the screenplay, it really detracted from the film when it was projected on screen. Silly Fellini, focusing on images and drama.
lol
Decide if the script is character driven or barrative driven. Are you looking at high concept action or and indepth character study.
Top tip number 2: A dictaphone (insert joke here) is very handy. Not just for recording your ideas or dialogue and playing them back but also you can give a group of friends a scenario and let them discuss/act/talk it out/through. Then you can play back these recordings and look for a choice bit to you or maybe a flowing piece of dialogue.
and by barrative I mean narrative :)
avoiding plagiarism is probably a good idea 4 originality and 2 have powerful conscience can help influence positive inspirational writing 2 be developed into a film
in my humble opinion :O(
that is actually a great point about 8 1/2 because people’s ideas should never be halted because of dyslexia (which i am sure many genius scriptwriters have)
>>anywho, we SHOULD help each-other out. I know who I want on my team: Mr. Long, KJ, ARI.<<
Is this the same TOM who was (apparently briefly) TOMSTRADAMUS?
And snarky as my post might have seemed, I was very serious: Learn the language. It does make a difference to the person who receives the script whether or not you come off as literate or not.
Or maybe I’m just projecting my own biases, but when I get submissions for the magazines I edit I do have a different reaction to things where “and” is not substituted by ahn ampersand ant “you” is not reduced to a “u” and so forth. Of course this may be aprtially because, to ready such a ms. for publication I’ll have to manually correct all that, but it just comes off as insufficiently educated.
And I confess that it’s probably a rude presumption to assume that LIKE2SLEEP is submitting scripts that are lacking in capitalization and fully spelled-out words just because he uses such texting prose here.
>>i have never used twitter :O(<<
You’re to be congratulated.
Harry Long is absolutely correct. Bad writing (and, yes, grammatical errors) is often seen as a lack of clear expression, a lack of revision, and evidence of sloppy and poor thinking. It might not be fair but unless you plan to produce, direct, fund, and act in your film yourself, your reader (and what your reader thinks) matters.
SO, yeah, @OctoStalin & Like2Sleep, If you’re Fellini in the early 1960s (or Godard for that matter), you can get away with scribbling notes on a cocktail napkin the night before shooting and call it a script but for us mere mortals it doesn’t quite work that way.
u must remember that some scriptwriters make the films themselves
butt sumz uv us needs to reeds it 2.
>>So an important script-writing tip would be:
Hire someone to translate your work into English before submitting it.<<
Thats a good tip. lol
The story is the most important part. Always will be. But yes, once drafted the script should be checked for grammar, spelling etc.
“but yes, once drafted the script should be checked for grammar, spelling etc”
For sure. No self-respecting person is going to sit down and read through one-hundred + pages of script that looks like it was written by a drunk five year old. Despite the fact that another editor will no doubt go through the work to assure a good polish or to revise it), a script should be written in a professional manner to begin with or they won’t even finish a first read-through.
Bad grammar and spelling detract from the story you tell, and often if these two things are bad you will have trouble getting a great idea across anyhow, even if you have one. Sometimes the most basic of stories or plots becomes a gem simply because of the way a writer fleshes out the characters, dialogue and/or setting.
On the tangential issue of spelling and grammar, not to mention NARRATIVE VOICE, what makes people think that copyediting and proofreading are so easy? And what makes people think that a fresh-out-of-college copyeditor will do a better job than the (supposedly) PROFESSIONAL WRITER who wrote the script?
On the other hand, the NEW YORK TIMES just published a short excerpt from Tarantino’s screenplay for INGLORIOUS BASTERDS and made a point of printing it AS IS, with all the spelling and grammatical errors. There were A LOT of them (not “ALOT” of them, which is a spelling error I rarely seen corrected).
MANY top executives nowadays are well-educated, even Ivy Leaguers. Bad writing reflects on one’s professionalism as an author — unless you’re already successful like QT.
(I’ll have more to say later…)
Oh brother, LOVE2SLEEP, you need to reevaluate your writing. Are you posting to this thread via text message, T9 word and all?
Tarantino remains a dubious role-model.
I think maybe we should take this discussion away from grammar and on to screenwriting.
Yeah, because correct grammar usage is sooo last decade.
any writing tutor first learns that grammar matters very little
something could be grammatically perfect and content empty while something could be loaded with mistakes and bustling with great ideas.
The only tips I would have is (and I admit I have only been paid as a short story writer) to write a treatment first, ask advice often and know that it is never actually finished, just due
Like Robley, I too would like to get back to (OR START) discussing screenwriting, but as long as people make comments like —
“any writing tutor first learns that grammar matters very little
something could be grammatically perfect and content empty while something could be loaded with mistakes and bustling with great ideas” I have to speak up.
First, who ARE these writing tutors that say that “grammar matters very little”? I’ve worked with many over the decades and have only met a semi-competent few who remained unconcerned about the niceties of the English language (usually because they had not mastered the basics themselves!) — and even those few claimed that they only advocated not caring about grammar when dealing with really hard cases, where emergency measures needed to be taken.
Second, and most importantly, why is it seemingly impossible to have BOTH good content AND correct, professional writing, including correct spelling and grammar? In my 30+ years of teaching (and practicing) screenwriting, I have rarely encountered a good fledgling screenwriter who could only master ONE of these two important writing skills. Maybe some aspiring writers KNOW that they have deficiencies in writing and THINK that they have great talent in screenwriting but the proof is in the pudding… The two RARELY go together. (Yes, Tarantino seems to be the successful exception, although I hasten to add that he was NOT my student nor should he be anyone’s role model, as noted by KJ.)
It may be that those with writing deficiencies have just not READ enough great literature, including classic screenplays, to appreciate the care and professionalism that goes into the craft of screenwriting. If one reads and studies the classics, one almost HAS to pick up proper grammar and spelling by osmosis. It may just be that the sloppiness of mind represented by sloppy writing carries over into other areas of screenwriting — sloppy story structure (i.e., QT); sloppy, inconsistent characterization; little concern with theme or premise (after all, like spelling, it’s not directly on the screen), etc.
I’m sure that the anti-intellectual brigade will berate me for these comments but their time might be better spent learning effective writing. In my experience, it pays off — creatively and professionally.
Bravo, Frank!
like2sleep
the idea of this topic is 4 people 2 share thoughts with others that might help the process of scriptwriting whether it be tips on building a story or tips on how they get and use inspiration 4 characters, narrative or even artistic elements incorporated into the script
i know there are many people on this forum that are interested in one day making a difference 2 the world of film with fresh new ideas