April 12 is the early entry date.
I go through this every year. I kick myself for not having a screenplay ready to submit. Each year I tell myself that I’ll buckle down and write one and have it ready for the next year’s entry. I don’t. I have five or six partial screenplays, ones I’ve started.
Just this week I heard someone mention something interesting about procrastination. I want to say it was a Good Morning America host who said she saw it in a tweet. She paraphrased, of course, which is all I can do now. Here it is:
Procrastination is the ultimate form of conceit. By procrastinating you have the audacity to presume that you have more time, future time. By procrastinating you are taking it for granted that you will be walking this earth tomorrow.
As we all know, nothing of the sort is certain.
I love this thought, this sentiment. Will pondering this cause me to change my ways? Probably not, but we’ll see.
It’s all just a matter of sitting down and starting. I have absolutely no excuse. I have a ton of books on screenwriting. I have quite a few screenplays to use as examples. I have the movies that were made from the screenplays. I also have the novels and short stories that the screenplays were adapted from, for those that were adaptations. I could even practice by adapting my own stories into screenplays (though technically I’m not sure whether this would be considered an adapted or original screenplay, since both story and screenplay originate with me).
After all, I have to admit, I’m a visually oriented person as I write, so this should all be easy for me. The characters are very real to me as the story plays out. I actually think in scenes when it comes to the longer stories. . . I just let it all unfold before my eyes (in my mind’s eye—very much like a movie screen).
So, what’s the problem?
For me it is the restrictions of the screenplay format.
If you’ve read many of my posts (and if you haven’t, and are brand new to reading my posts or work, Welcome!), then you know I am very much a “seat of the pants” writer. I step into the imagination and let it flow. Somehow it all works out, forms into a story. Somewhere, the structure is there and the story forms and drapes itself like an imaginary cloth over that structure. I have theories about this. My main theory is that it has something to do with my having spent years learning and dabbling in coding simple computer programs. There is a very logical and regimented structure to computer languages. I imagine that I intuitively bring that to the story-writing process, that the rigid structure lurks below the surface, somewhere in my subconscious. Of course, it could just be from years of reading stories, loving stories, and intuitively getting a feel for the structure that makes up a story. It could also be that I’ve simply forgotten all the hard work I put in coming up with the first few stories I ever wrote.
In any case, now, writing a story is as easy as breathing. I can slip into story mode at the drop of a hat, sliding in and out of a character’s mind and into his or her world, etc.
Therein lies the problem I have with screenwriting. There is no sliding in and out of a character’s mind. Thoughts cannot be described in a screenplay. Let me rephrase that: A character’s thoughts cannot be presented in a screenplay. Dialogue is the only thing that can be presented, along with action. Dialogue and Action, that’s it! It is the actor’s job to, by way of dialogue and action, express the character’s inner world. Oh sure, a screenwriter can add a word or two, to shade things. The screenwriter might, for instance, write the word (wryly) beneath a bit of dialogue, to give a clue to the actor as to how the writer means the dialogue to be spoken.
It is the same with Action. Only a brief description can be presented: John walks across the room and picks up the broken vase. Or, Natalie moves in close, looking deeply into John’s eyes, a concerned look on her face (and even this might be considered too much description). Forget about giving a lengthy description of the room, or setting. That, I imagine is for the set designer to decide.
How about camera angles? I guess the screenwriter can put things in to describe a Camera angle, or shot–Close Up of John’s face. I don’t think I have the format correct on this last part, and am I not stepping on the director’s toes here?
So, I guess you could say that I am the writer, director, cameraman, and set designer, all rolled into one when I write my stories. It is difficult for me to give up that kind of power. Do I want to give it up? No. But I give that power up to the characters in the story all the time when they take over the story; so why should this be different? I can’t explain why, but it is. Perhaps the characters will be pissed about my giving away their power. Is there a story here? A writer giving up a character’s power and the character seeking revenge. . .? Hmm, I’ll have to think about that one. That idea could easily get a little cheesy, or cheeky. One could play it many ways, but I digress . . .
But I must give up this power, all of it, if I want to write a screenplay.
Writing a screenplay, for me, is like being in a straightjacket. But writing a screenplay is something I want to do. I, like anyone else, have to play by the rules of the game. Well, I’ve still got to learn the rules. I confess, I don’t really know them. Like I said, I’ve got all the books on the subject, or at least enough of the books to learn about the rules of screenwriting.
And what about the formatting? There is a strict format for screenplays.
Well, for that there is software, very intuitive software. And for the Final Draft Big Break contest, it only makes sense to use the Final Draft software. The current version is version 12 It is currently on sale, I believe, for $199.99. Yep, there it is in the screenshot below. And if you have an older version, you can upgrade it for around $80.
I’ve got an older version: Final Draft 7. I imagine they will still accept a screenplay written in an older version. I’ll have to research it to know for sure.
And, if you don’t want to spend the $199 for the newest version of Final Draft, there is another option: Scrivener!
Scrivener is software that I would recommend for writing anything. Though Scrivener does have a pretty steep learning curve, at least if you want to dig in and use all of the software’s bells and whistles (and there are many), it is reasonably priced at $50.
You can find Scrivener at Literature and Latte:
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview
Note: If you are reading this post on the Goodreads blog, you’ll just have to do a Google search for Scrivener, or lituratureandlatte as there won’t be a link showing. For whatever reason Goodreads now deletes links. You can also get to the link, however, by clicking on “view author’s webpage.” Or maybe it is “visit author’s webpage.” You can read this post there with the links included.
The beauty of Scrivener is that you can organize any type of writing with it. I personally love the corkboard feature, which works like a bunch of index cards that you can write ideas on, or synopsis of chapters, and rearrange them into any order, thereby changing the order of your chapters automatically in the Binder. The Binder is basically how your manuscript is stored. If you have an idea but don’t know how or where it fits into the mix, just type it on the card that presents itself in the corkboard option.
My problem is that I don’t organize anything, I just start writing. I just “let ‘er rip,” so to speak and go with the flow. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good organizational tool.
But what I’m trying to get to in this discussion of screenwriting, is that when you open a project in Scrivener, you can open the project in a novel template, a story template, a play, or, a screenplay—Ta Da! And guess what format the screenplay saves in? The fdx format—Final Draft’s format! Although, according to the Scrivener documentation for the version of Scrivener that I have the Final Draft fdx format matches Final Draft version 8. Does it matter? I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t think so. And of course, you don’t have all the bells and whistles of the Final Draft software, but you do have the basics of a screenwriting program that formats and complies with the rules of Final Draft, and screenwriting in general. Hooray!
So how does this help me when I still don’t have a completed screenplay in hand and ready to submit to Final Draft’s Big Break contest? Well, it doesn’t, really. I’ve just been conceited enough in the past to believe that I’ll be around to write and submit a screenplay next year. But what about now, this year?
Well, even though the contest entry starts on April 12, there are extended entry times, for just a small increase in the entry fee, on into the month of June, or even as late as August. So, even if you don’t have a screenplay ready just yet, you can still write one and enter it. There is still time. Time for the both of us. I don’t know about you, but I’m still questioning whether I will stop being so audaciously conceited as to think I’ll still be around next year. And the bigger question, if I am still around, will I have a completed screenplay in hand?
I guess I better sit down and get started. Just how motivated am I? In April, every year, I’m always suddenly motivated when it comes to the Big Break contest, and I always kick myself for not having something ready to submit.
To find out more about the contest, visit Final Draft’s webpage:
https://www.finaldraft.com/big-break-screenwriting-contest/
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Again, if reading this blog post on Goodreads, the link won’t appear for you. You’ll have to do a Google search or go to the author webpage. My apologies!
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A screenshot of the entry dates, and pricing:
It is important for me to note here that I do not get any sort of compensation for promoting Final Draft or Scrivener. I promote them because these are trustworthy tools that help me write. And you know I love writing!
And The Great Courses? Well, I just love them, also–all of the courses. And the Screenwriting 101 course is so far pretty awesome! But nope, I don’t get any money from The Great Courses either!
