Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Midway in the Photoplay [Part 1]

“Every new turn of the plot must not only interest the audience, but must make them ask mentally, ‘I wonder what will come next’ or ‘How can this terrible situation ever be solved?’”

If you are a screenwriter, you should know about Anita Loos. Loos was one of the most influential writers in the early stages of American cinema, associated with 136 film projects per IMDb.

Married to writer John Emerson, the pair wrote one of the first books on screenwriting in 1920: “How to Write Photoplays”. I have been running a weekly series based on the book. You can access those posts here.

Today: Midway in the Photoplay [P. 99].

Once launched into the photoplay and past the first few scenes in which the audience becomes acquainted with the preliminary facts and main characters, the scenario writer must immediately begin to work directly towards the climax, the big scene which comes before the close of the story.

Every new turn of the plot must not only interest the audience, but must make them ask mentally, “I wonder what will come next” or “How can this terrible situation ever be solved?” Once let the audience lapse from this state of interest and curiosity, and you have lost them. They’ll have cold feet through the rest of the picture, and the scenario editor, foreseeing this effect, will reject your story.

These words are 100 years old. 100 years! And they are as relevant today for a screenwriter as they were way back then for a photoplay writer:

• The middle of a story must have a narrative drive toward the ending — the “climax”. There is — or should be — a forward propulsion in every scene, one eye on the resolution of the plot.
• Plot developments should raise questions. And their use of the word “curiosity” almost makes my head explode because I constantly implore my college students to do something with their characters and in each scene which arouses the curiosity of the reader. It’s one of the best ways to entertain readers and keep them turning pages, needing to know what happens next.
• For “scenario editor” substitute the words “script reader.” They’re smart, they know if a story doesn’t have that narrative drive, doesn’t elicit curiosity, doesn’t have that page-turner quality. And if a script doesn’t, into the recycling bin it goes.

So much has changed in the film business in the last century, but some things haven’t. Know your ending, make it a strong one, build toward it in the middle of the story, and use plot events to arouse curiosity in a reader.

Tomorrow: More screenwriting advice from the past.

You can read “How to Write Photoplays” via Google books online here.

For the rest of the series articles:

Introduction
Getting Ideas
Conflict and Crisis
Situation
Theme
Star Sympathy
Action: Part 1
Action: Part 2
Action: Part 3
Action: Part 4
Action: Part 5
Story Synopsis
Continuity: Part 1
Continuity: Part 2
The Title
Marketing the Script
Writing for the Camera
Scenery for Scenarios
The Actor’s Angle: Part 1
The Actor’s Angle: Part 2
Character On The Screen: Part 1
Character On The Screen: Part 2
Character On The Screen: Part 3
Character On The Screen: Part 4
The “Interest”: Part 1
The “Interest”: Part 2
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 1
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 2
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 3
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 4
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 5
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 1
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 2
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 3
Cutting The Picture: Part 1
Cutting The Picture: Part 2
Cutting The Picture: Part 3
Writing for the Censors: Part 1
Writing for the Censors: Part 2
Writing for the Censors: Part 3
The Pictorial Element
The Denouement: Part 1
The Denouement: Part 2
The Denouement: Part 3
How To Begin: Part 1
How To Begin: Part 2

Note: I ran this series originally in 2012. Unfortunately, the individual articles got bungled up on the site in some sort of technical snafu. So, I am recovering them one by one in this reprise of the series.