Constructing the Script

I hate to read craft books, which may account for my success or lack thereof. I do read them, but it’s usually while making a horrible face.

I recently found one that’s more than merely palatable. It helps.

Save The Cat by Blake Snyder is full of insights on how and why Hollywood works the way it does. More importantly for screenwriters trying to break in, STC offers tools and methods to create a better screenplay.

When I started writing screenplays, my biggest problem was plot. I found an interesting device in a book called What A Producer Does by Buck Houghton. According to Houghton, producers graph scripts to "balance" the story. I started graphing my scripts to see where the plot went CLUNK.

Which is why, I’m used to taking them apart after the fact. Snyder’s STC advice is know all the parts, and know them well, BEFORE the writing commences.

In a moment of serendipity, I was trying to find someone to tell me how many beats the average script contained when I followed a link to STC. (Isn’t the Internet wonderful? Yes, it is.)

Armed with Snyder’s Beat Sheet and Board system, I figured out the 15 beats for my latest script, but what the heck could I do with 40 blank scene cards?

They mocked me from the board.

“We’re b l a n k,” they said.

“And there’s a heck of a lot of us.” :P

Well, they weren’t all blank. Several scenes I knew by heart, as they were what drew me to this story in the first place. But they were woeful few and patiently silent on the board.

So, I went back to the graph.

One line for the Act Breaks. And, I’m sticking with where STC says they are.

One line for sequences, which is how I finally learned plot. From my previous work, I knew my scripts always had seven or eight sequences.

One line for the set pieces. Five of them. (According to a WGA mentor who explained this concept to me in an email.)

One line for the beats. 15.

Voila!

There it was. A plan. A map. A nice piece of forethought that did not mock me from my wall.

The blank scene cards said, “Nah-nah!”

The graph says, “Right this way, doll.”

Now all I have to do is, you know, write the thing.