Internal Technique

10 Screenwriting Techniques Every Writer Can Employ
Applying these screenwriting techniques to your fiction can offer benefits like sharper dialogue, improved pacing and stronger characters.
Writers thrive when we open our minds to new challenges and larger communities. Now more than ever do we eschew identifying exclusively as poets or screenwriters, novelists or journalists, bloggers or playwrights, but find ourselves writing in many mediums, across multiple platforms.
Writers write. Period.
Hollywood loves adapting intellectual property, so there’s never been a better time for writers of all stripes to learn about the screenwriting process. And applying the methods behind strong scripts to your fiction can offer benefits like sharper dialogue, improved pacing and stronger characters.
I can hear you all now: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” But that classic line from Gone With the Wind—a variation on the line in the book—is a perfect example of the gems screenwriting can produce.
Let’s explore 10 screenwriting techniques every writer can employ

1. POSITIVE MINDSET

With the often multi-million-dollar price tag of producing a movie, screenwriters have no choice but to survive on hope: that we win that contest, that a Hollywood executive will read our query, that the pitching event will garner us a read—even if only by an assistant’s assistant.
As Red from The Shawshank Redemption proclaims to Andy, “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”
All authors practice perseverance, of course, but against all odds, we screenwriters must feel it deep down in our bones—as you must, too.
As Red from The Shawshank Redemption proclaims to Andy, “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”
All authors practice perseverance, of course, but against all odds, we screenwriters must feel it deep down in our bones—as you must, too.

5. COMPLEX CHARACTERS

Screenwriters must consider how actors will react to their story. Actors skim straight to the description of the character they’re considering. If the description and first lines of dialogue don’t move them, it’s a pass.
You lose your star … and all the investment dollars that person would attract. When developing your characters, think like an actor. Is it a challenging or inspiring role? Will the character steal a scene? It’s important every character serves the story and is written with clarity and purpose.
The temptation when writing a film is to think of the big-picture elements first — a mind-blowing premise or fast-moving plot, the scope and spectacle — and then to consider the characters who’ll allow the spectacle to take place. But this, of course, is working backward: character isn’t a way to reveal the world of a film — character is the heart of any film, no matter the genre or style, and the world, plot, and stakes of the film exist to reveal and to deepen our understanding of that character, not the other way around