Decide your best Screenwriting Techniques.

Decide, no define your best Screenwriting Techniques! For the purpose of this website, a technique is anything you do that helps in writing your screenplay.

Don't worry about what works for anyone else. What techniques work best for you? What is your work schedule? When do you have time to write? Early in the morning before work? Early evening when you get home from work? Do you have family obligations?

View Website Video Introduction Do you feel more comfortable with an outline? Do you first write in longhand then go to a typewriter or computer? Is listening to music one of your Screenwriting Techniques? If so what type of music? Different music for different genres?

One great technique that I learned during a "selling your screenplay" seminar was "Don't get it right. Get it written!" Now I wish I could claim authorship of that quote, but I can't. Quite frankly it was so long ago, I don't even remember who said it but I have never forgotten it. Basically it means, WRITE...!!! Don't edit, WRITE...!!!

There will be plenty of time to edit. Don't lose your train of thought trying to find the perfect word. Finish the particular thought for that scene. You can make the dialogue or description perfect later but right now keep writing.

I don't know about you but I see, (no not dead people) scenes all the time and everywhere I go. So another technique that works for me is a tape recorder. Where would the action be? The best camera angle? Who knows when a particular script idea or piece of dialogue will come to mind?

So I have the tape recorder with me at all times. I even have my tape recorder next to me when I am actually writing a script. Many times my imagination is going much faster than my fingers can type. So I stop typing and dictate my thoughts or dialogue. On one return road trip from LA to St. Louis, I basically dictated an entire script. Luckily I had a bunch of tapes with me.

One last little Screenwriting Technique. Remember when I said earlier in the website that I was a movie nut? Well I see movies; old movies, new movies, movies that receive great reviews and many that don't. Writers write. Teachers teach. People who love movies see movies.

Finally, where do rewrites fit in as a technique? Just like all other Screenwriting Techniques, what is best for you? I generally don't do any rewrites until I have finished the script. I let it sit for a few days while new thoughts present themselves. I seldom actually go back into the script. I make notes. Determine if they would in fact make the script better. If not, I still have the notes. If so, I am ready to work on the rewrite.

So you want to write that next great script. Get in a bidding war to sell your screenplay. When you develop your own personal Screenwriting Techniques, you just may be on your way to selling your screenplay. Go for it!

From Screenwriting Techniques to Writing Your Script.