Featured Image Caption: Actionable Writing Tips from Hollywood Screenwriter
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While watching a movie, you rarely think about who stands behind the big idea, who made a choice on words, gasps, and pauses to reach the desired effect, and who explained to actors how they should act in a certain scene. Screenwriting is something that is always left behind the curtains. However, the talent and the skills of a good screenwriter can never be underestimated. They create the whole worlds, and each their decision has a significant effect on the result.
A screenwriter is not a magician, but a highly attentive person who knows how to implement his own experience into the text and how to use his observation to make screenplays more realistic. With the bulk of these skills, any person can make a step forward to better writing. By using them, you won’t ever have a question how to write an informative essay or where to find inspiration for writing.
Pay more attention to self-education
A good writer can be determined by his overall intelligence and a great background in different spheres. If you want to write flawlessly, the first thing you should do is to start working on your self-education. Today, you will find multiple formats to get to know something new every day. For example, if you are interested in the development of technologies, visit Tech Crunch. If you perceive audio information better, choose TED talks.
Stop thinking in an ordinary way
Some would say that creativity is the moving power of good writing. It could be applied both to screenplays and research studies. If you want to improve your writing, you should stop thinking like everyone else, and find some new approaches to using the most common things. It is a great exercise to develop your creativity and start notice things that will turn your piece of writing from a good one into a perfect.
Focus on details
Details create a bigger picture, and every screenwriter knows that. If you want to create some image and deliver your idea in the most easily-acceptable way, concentrate on describing details. If you talk in general words and give all-in-one descriptions, it will be harder for your readers to understand what exactly you were intended to tell.
Use metaphors
If you want to go further with creating great images, you should master your ability to use metaphors. There are two basic approaches to this method. The first one is that you use well-known metaphors that are strongly connected with some ideas or images. The second one is creating your own metaphors. This is more complicated approach and it requires perfect knowledge of language and human phycology. Besides, you should be aware of the audience who will read your texts, otherwise, it won’t be possible to create a metaphor they will be able to understand in a proper way.
Add some action
Have you ever noticed that a good screenplay always presupposes some action? The action may lay in the behavior of the characters, for example. However, if you have no characters in your text, you should encourage your readers to some actions by giving them certain instructions. Use verbs to show what exactly you want from people who read your text.
You can always make the text itself more actionable. Just replace all participles with verbs and you will notice the effect.
Make notes
People tend to forget almost everything they hear or see. If you want to enrich your writing with details or some real-life examples, it will be nice to make notes on everything that you notice around you. Later on, if you start to look for some ideas and inspiration, these notes will be precious.
Experiment with forms
Screenplays in one of the forms of writing that most of us use rarely. If you really want to learn how to write as a Hollywood screenwriter, give a try to writing scripts. In this way, you will understand that the words of the characters are the same important as all the descriptions. You will find out how to make use of synonyms and how the structure of the sentence affects general atmosphere of the text. It will also be great to make a couple of experiments with rhymes. Do not stick to the academic approaches to writing poetry, just follow the flow of your thoughts. A little bit of practice will help you feel the composition of any text and understand the power of forms.
The experience of the best screenwriters cannot be overestimated. By choosing proper words, tone of voice, and even manner of pronouncing sounds, you can reach various effects. Analyze how exactly screenwriters use words and sounds to transmit the image of a character and create a proper impression about them. Introduce this analysis to your way of writing, and you will see that working on texts is more about some technical skills with a touch of creativity and your own experience rather than writing everything that comes to your mind.
By Christina Battons
who is a creative writer and content strategist currently living Los Angeles, California. I write most often about education, writing, blogging.
Member since August, 2017
View all the articles of Christina Battons.
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