So-Called Screenwriting ‘Rules’: Part 15

There are conventions. There are expectations. There are patterns. But the simple fact is… THERE ARE NO SCREENWRITING RULES.

Awhile back, I posted this about an occurrence that happens with irritating regularity in the online screenwriting universe: The contentious specter of so-called screenwriting ‘rules’. More below.

What happens is pretty much this:

• Somebody posts something about how there is a rule against doing this or that.
• That circulates as people bat around the idea.
• Professional writers catch wind of it, then lambaste the shit out of the thesis in question.
• The ‘debate’ fades away…
• Until the next time it arises.
• Again…
• And again…

So it occurred to me, why not just deal with it once and for all! Get every single supposed screenwriting rule out on the table, then go through them, one by one, to see if we can take all the heat that typically gets generated when one of these online snits breaks out and collectively create some actual light.

In other words, let’s make this a real learning experience and hopefully in the process, put some of this nonsense to bed for good.

I asked for your help in aggregating these ‘rules’ and as always, the GITS community responded. I’ve gone through them all, thought about it, and here is my plan: Do a 3-week series on “So-Called Screenwriting ‘Rules’”.

Week 1: As long as we’re going to take the time to go through this stuff, I figured we might as well put it all into some perspective: historical, theoretical, and practical. I’m going to start that process today:

Part 1: The Organic Nature of the Screenplay
Part 2: The Emergence of the Selling Script
Part 3: The Evolution of Screenplay Format and Style
Part 4: There are no screenwriting ‘rules’
Part 5: There are expectations

Week 2: I’ve sorted out five real nuts-and-bolts items which I will analyze and discuss one per day in our second week:

Part 6: We See / We Hear
Part 7: Unfilmables
Part 8: Action Paragraphs — 3 Lines Max
Part 9: CUT TO (Transitions)
Part 10: Parentheticals

Week 3: Readers made several suggestions that are about larger narrative choices, so let’s take those on as well:

Part 11: Flashbacks
Part 12: Voice-over Narration
Part 13: Sympathetic Protagonist
Part 14: Protagonist and Shifting Goals
Part 15: Certain Events By Certain Pages

Before we jump into this, a caveat: Everything I post in this series is my opinion. I think it’s safe to say it’s a pretty well-informed take seeing as I’ve been writing scripts since 1986 and teaching since 2002. But again, I’m simply expressing my perspective. It’s incumbent upon you to sort out your own approach to screenwriting style and the single best thing you can do in that regard is read scripts, especially screenplays written within the last 5 years as they represent the latest trends.

With that, forward into the breach!

Part 15: Certain Events By Certain Pages

I saved this subject for last because it seems to me this is a slippery slope that can lead to all sorts of misery and, thus, worthy of special attention.

Formulaic movies? Surface level stories? The diminution of the value of screenwriting by the studios? The rise of hucksters posing as experts with exclusive insights on how to write a million dollar spec script?

All of this — and more — derives from the very idea that certain things must happen in a script by certain pages. Because if you accept this as a rule, then you have in effect reduced the writing of a screenplay to little more than a paint-by-number exercise. That in and of itself diminishes the craft and can squash any actual creativity from emerging in the writing process.

I am willing to grant this: I doubt there is a screenwriter alive who does not have at least some intuitive sense about where key events in a screenplay should happen. However that is not a must, as if there exists some sort of divine paradigm of screenplay structure, but rather more of a gut feeling where in reading what one has written, we get feelings… this set of scenes lingers too long… this beat ought to happen sooner… I need to let this moment breathe and play out a bit more… the story needs some action here.

If the act of writing should be as much, if not more about feeling than thinking, we are more likely to service that end by making characters a first priority in terms of the story-crafting work we do.

In that regard, whatever we do and however we approach the writing, we ought to leave lots of room for our characters to speak and act, for the plot to twist and turn, give the story room enough so it may emerge in as organic a fashion as possible.

The way I look at it, when we write a story, we are wrangling magic. If we go at it determined to fill in a preassigned set of 17 plot points, 22 steps, or 40 beats, where is the magic in that?

In “Poetics,” Aristotle set out his sense of narrative structure: Beginning. Middle. End. What has come to be known as Three Act Structure.

If you look at those three as movements, then you have four key points:

• What is the beginning of the story?
• What is the end of Act One?
• What is the end of Act Two?
• What is the ending of the story?

If you can determine the answer to those four questions, you have the backbone of your story’s structure right there. That may be all you need to jump to FADE IN and see where the Muses take you.

Some writers may need to know more. For example, often there is something that happens in Act Two where the plot makes a significant shift, what some — myself included — call The Transition. So maybe five key plot points.

Or we may go one step further: The Whammo Theory. As explained to me by producer Larry Gordon (48 Hrs., Die Hard, K-9), basically every 10 pages, something needs to go ‘whammo’. Thus there may be stories where in working with the characters, we surface 10–12 major plot points.

But however we approach the process, we must believe in and protect the story’s magic. Let me reiterate: I happen to think the best way to do that is by focusing first on the characters, work with them to see where they take you. Who better to reveal the plot to you than the actual participants in that plot?

So anybody who tells you they have the secret formula… a proven paradigm for screenplay structure… a detailed set of beats lining up certain events hitting at certain page markers… or heaven forbid a software system (!?!?) to guide you through the story-crafting process…

I would advise you to run away as fast as you can.

If your first priority in crafting a script is to hit certain plot points by certain pages, therein lies the way of soulless, formulaic writing.

Worst of all, it contributes to the mindset that screenwriting isn’t so hard. Just put your Inciting Incident by P. 5. Your Call To Adventure by P. 15, and so on filling out your little paradigm with whatever nomenclature the particular language system you choose to use. So the Suits may eventually say, “When you boil it down, screenwriting is really nothing more than plumbing.”

As I said, a slippery slope leading to misery.

Look, I think we can all agree, we want more great movies. We want unique and visionary and distinctive in the films we watch. If there are familiar characters, plot elements, and tropes at work, let them play out on screen in ways that are fresh and fun, offering a new spin on something old.

More pointedly, we want to write spec scripts which are vibrant, compelling and entertaining enough to grab the attention of Hollywood readers and not let go.

Can you get there by working with some predefined set of beats tethered to page count? I would never rule that out. As I say, there’s no right way to write.

However, I have faith that if you go into the story and find the animals…

That is a path which can lead to magic.

If you have any questions or observations, please head to comments. Again, as long as we are taking such a comprehensive approach to this content, let’s do it to the max. I want to hear your thoughts and am glad to make this an extended conversation with a goal of putting this subject into a more helpful perspective.

Tomorrow: Final thoughts on so-called screenwriting ‘rules’.

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