Instead of staying overwhelmed this week, I decided to study the element of "writing description." Here's what I relearned:
- All action and description must reveal character or move the story forward.
- The more vivid the description, the more the character and scene come to life.
- Description should also foreshadow what's to come in the story.
- Description focuses on three elements of 1) action, 2) setting and characters, and 3) sounds.
- Keep paragraphs to four lines or under.
- Be sparse with physical description of locations and characters.
- Describe what the audience can actually see on the movie screen and hear on the soundtrack.
- Use specific, concrete verbs and nouns to describe character vs. general ones. Think about "how" someone is doing the action. (Entertain vs. inform.)
- Avoid redundancies in narrative description.
- FINALLY - Practice writing great description every day!
What did I do this past week to advance my screenwriting?
- Read "Breaking Bad" pilot script
- Worked with Anne Jordan, scriptwriter, on my TV pilot script
- Reread sections in books - Anne Jordan's The Big Secret, Blake Snyder's Save the Cat and Dave Trottier's Screenwriter's Bible - on "narrative description"
- Attended Northern California's Screenwriters group
Very good writing tips. Thx for sharing 😊
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing on Facebook also Anita!
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