How To Write A Script | Free Screenwriting Class | Writing A Script Fast

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Questions To Consider:
Do you want to write a script, make a film and/or write a blueprint for a novel using this online step-by-step story engine process?

If you want to write a script or make a film do you want to do a short, feature or series?

What is your goal in finishing this story project? To get a job, to win an award, to make money or raise awareness about an issue?

If you are planning on making the film yourself which digital filmmaking tools are you planning to use DV, 2D, 3D or combinations?

It is a story about a protagonist (lead character) who wants something (plot goal) that forces him/her to take action. He/she meets with an escalating array of conflicts (obstacles) leading to a climax and resolution.

Antagonist: Character or thing standing in the way of the protagonist accomplishing his or her goals

Any quick ideas for a great original lead protagonist and/or antagonist placed into the above story sentence?

List 5 possible main characters for a film you would love to see in a story. Attach an age, sex, location, occupation, visual style and dreamcast with a favorite actor. Make sure these are characters you would love to see in a film. Use the brainstorming lists below to get more ideas to fill into this example chart:

Occupational Ideas: Pick ones that seem fun visually or match characters you might want to develop. Feel free to combine occupations such as a Circus Clown Professional Surfer, Matchmaker Wizard or a Tour Guide Astronaut.

Visual Styles/Attitudes: What one or two words would best describe the appearance of your character style wise?

Dreamcasting: Attach a famous actor to dreamcast your main character idea. Feel free to change their real ages or even use dead ones to describe their essence. If you are thinking about an animated character dreamcast for the voice actor.

Make sure your Top 5 Possible Leading Character Ideas are ones you would love to see in a story!

List your Top 5 Favorite Film World Settings with dates, visual styles and a few adjectives to really see these locations.

Think of places you have always wanted to see in film. These sets do not have to relate to the characters you just did but may be places some of them would live too.

If you are making the film yourself, think also of local settings you could shoot or existing footage you already have such as DV and photos.

For example:
• NYC 3012 as a green hippie Utopia city with a gold beehive looking visual style”
• Mars surface during an expedition
• Ancient Egypt at it’s height

• Hobbies
• Subjects you like to study or research
• Mystical creatures
• Favorite subjects in books, movies, comic books
• Favorite myths or cultures
• Things you like to do for fun
• Places or historical events
• Urban Legends

List your Top 5 Favorite Story Flavors using the list below to help you come up with ideas.

Think also of combining Story Flavors such an animated supernatural comedy or a romantic crime thriller.

Action/adventure. Big adventures, hero survival, daring stunts, and action sequences.
Animation. Far-out or surreal visual elements with objects that can turn into other things. These stories usually show us something real actors or sets cannot do as easily, such as talking animals or living toys.
Ensemble. Stories about groups of characters unified by same theme.
Experimental. Avant-garde rule breakers. Creating films that audiences may not even understand.
Biography. Find meaning of the person's life (theme), and make the person the hero (or anti-hero) in his or her own tale.
Buddy. Friendship or nonromantic close relationships developed over a series of events.
City symphony. Films about a single location with different perspectives, characters, events, and time frames.
Comedy. Show how characters in the best situations still manage to mess up or create fish out of water tales. These stories are often used to showcase the brutality of social life.
Crime. Murder mystery, detectives solving cases, reporters investigating crimes, prison stories, heists, spy stories, criminals/victims getting revenge, courtroom dramas, organized crime.
Disillusionment. Protagonist's view of life changes from positive to negative.
Documentary. True story about event, people, or place.
Drama. Passion, madness, dreams of human heart.
Education. Protagonist changes worldview from negative to positive by learning something new.
Fantasy. New-world rules playing with time, space, and laws of nature.
Historical. Stories from the past often work great to show us some themes of our present situations at a comfortable distance.
Horror. Bad, evil, scary, creepy things.
Journey. Trip, road trip, or travel tale.
Love story. What gets in the way of romantic love?
Maturation. Coming-of-age story.
Mockumentary. Fiction that looks like a real documentary.
Music video. Short film for a song and hopefully some story, theme, or context.
Musical. Songs used to tell stories from any genre. What are the new digitally enhanced musicals going to look like?
Myth. Hero journeys, ancestral memories, prehistory moral conduct, or urban legends.
Obsession/addiction/temptation. Willpower versus obsessions/addictions/temptations.
Personal anthology. Video diaries, personal events.
Postmodern. No single lead protagonist with distortion of time and space.
Punishment. Good protagonist turns bad and is >punished.
Psychodrama. Madmen, serial killers, crazy people, nuthouses.
Reality shows. Real-life, voyeuristic-style stories. TV shows such as The Osbournes or Survivor.
Redemption. Protagonist goes from morally bad to good.
Science fiction. Possible future, unknown past.
Societal problems. Political, racial, medical, educational, business, environmental, family.
Sports. Big character change in relationship to sporting event.
Supernatural. Spiritual or freaky occurrence in unseen realms.
Tragedy. Cautionary tales, somber themes, catastrophic characters.
War. Combat, prowar/antiwar.
Western. Wild West. Good versus evil. Gunfights, cowboys, bank robberies, cattle drives, Indians, ranches, horses and saloons.List Your

If you are making the film what types of software or digital filmmaking tools do you want to use?

List Your Top 5 Favorite Digital Filmmaking Techniques:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Step 8: Story Sentences

Fill in the following chart with the Top 5 Lists you just created:

Characters	Settings	Subjects	Genres	Software
Bigfoot teenage girl, new age shaman, 16 Angelina Jolie	lost underground ancient city	Bigfoots	Comedy	3D bigfoots
Tall blond Nordic archeologist 32, explorer, Peter Weller	Prague 1992	Lost cities	Animated supernatural comedy	2D photo collage sets
NYC party girl 28 hip techno, shock artist, Naomi Watts	Tunnel crypts under Paris 2007	shamans	Romantic myth thriller	2D lightening bolt FX
Polar bear boy 9, fat orphan, Owen Wilson	Inside a cat's brain	Native Americans	Buddy spiritual adventure	bluescreen actors
Dog headed Gothic detective, 32, Nicolas Cage	Lightening bolt storm	crop circles	Mockumentary horror	hand drawn 2D characters

Create 3 Story Concept Sentences using the above chart to fill in these spaces:

It is a story about a Top 5 Character who lives in a Top 5 Film World/Setting. This story explores the subject of Top 5 Subject in a Top 5 Story Flavor using Top 5 Software.

Be flexible with how you phrase the sentence to make it sound best. Feel free to add things not on the lists if you come up with better ideas. Your goal is to end up with at least one Favorite Story Sentence you would love to see as a film. Here are some more examples:

It is a story about a 3D teenage bigfoot girl who lives in a lost underground city. This story explores the subject of shamanism in a supernatural animated comedy using 3D bigfoots on 3D sets.

It is a story about a dog headed gothic detective living in Prague investigating a series of bigfoot sightings in an animated crime thriller comedy using bluescreen actors, 2D photo collage sets and 3D bigfoots.

It is a story about a fat polar bear orphan boy living in Alaska trying to survive global warming in an animated comedy using 3D creatures, 3D sets and some DV sets.

Pick your favorite Story Sentence to develop for the rest of this Writing A Great Script Fast Nutshell Sample Workshop. Make sure it is a story idea you would stand in line in the rain on a dark cold night to see!

Make sure the goals sound fun visually and see how you can use favorite subjects or goals. Be specific about the goal such as what type of race they want to win.

Who or what is standing in the way of you character accomplishing the plot goal you just chose?

This antagonist could be a madman, boss, family member, teacher, enemy, competitor or organization.

You want to create a great original antagonist - think back to the antagonists in your favorite films or stories to get ideas.

How is the plot goal for this antagonist in opposition with the protagonist’s plot goal?

Choose a one word theme for your story then explain how you are going to make it original and specific (desire leads to suffering):

• Alien: Fear of the unknown.
• Alien 2: The strength of motherhood.
• American Beauty: Desire leads to suffering.
• Antz: Think for yourself
• Apocalypse Now: There is a fine line between insanity and sanity.
• Bad Lieutenant: Redemption of a lost corrupt man.
• Brazil: Consequences of individuality in a totalitarian dictatorship.
• Boogie Nights: Self-delusion.
• Buckaroo Bonzai: Superhero with a pure heart can see evil.
• Casablanca: Loss of love for some greater cause.
• Citizen Kane: Exploration of personality; who was Kane?
• Clockwork Orange: Violence is a cost of individuality and non-individuals have a loss of soul.
• Dangerous Liaisons: Courtship as combat.
• Dr. Strangelove: Exploration of systems and their crushing of individuals.
• Evil Dead 2: Triumph of hero.
• Fargo: Treasure the little things in life.
• Fatal Attraction: Cost of deception.
• The Graduate: Alienation of 60’s youth.
• Magnolia: Forgiveness in Los Angeles.
• Memento: How humans construct and deconstruct reality.
• Princess Mononoke (2D): Everything is alive and connected in our environment.
• Pulp Fiction: Seeking out redemption in underworld with emphasis on loyalty.
• Requiem For a Dream: Addiction to dreams.
• Run Lola Run: Exploration of how the power of love can change fate.
• Shrek (3D): Seeing inner beauty. When you can love someone else you can love yourself.
• Star Wars: A hero coming of age taking on lost father’s path.
• Terminator: Man being destroyed by their own machines.
• The Bad And The Beautiful: Creativity and corruption.
• The Big Chill: Warmth of friendship against cold world.
• The Blair Witch: Arrogance of youth lacking respect for themselves, surroundings, and subject.
• The Celebration (DV): Dark secrets destroy families.
• The Cruise (DV): The beauty of Manhattan.
• Lord Of The Rings (1): Even the smallest person can change the world. Pure heart needed to wield great power.
• The Matrix: Rise of superman against the system of the future.
• The Piano: The need for creative expression.
• The Remains Of The Day: Individual vs. place within class society. Class society destroying individual.
• The Usual Suspects: Construction and reconstruction of memory and identity.
• There’s Something About Mary: Love is more important than beauty. Struggles with perfection.
• Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead: Honor among thieves.
• Trainspotting: Conflict between life and death urges.
• Toy Story (3D): Being the most favorite toy.
• Waking Life (DV): Exploration of lucid dreaming state. What is real verses what is illusion.
• Wallstreet: Greed leads to corruption.
• Wizard of OZ: The importance of home and family
• You Can Count On Me: Loves evokes love

List 3 ways to show story events being controlled by the theme in your story:

A character trait is anything that determines the way a character sees the world and how the character thinks, speaks, and acts.

Pick one best trait, one worst trait and five others for each of the main characters in your story idea using the spaces below:

Write 1-3 sentences for what happens at each of the 9 basic plot points for your story idea:

1) Hook: Start in the middle of a high intensity mess. How could you show your main characters doing what they do best or have them make an exciting visual entrance into your film world? What twists, shocks or surprises could you add to your opening hook (twist ideas: accident kills someone, a shocking truth revealed, key equipment or transportation breaks down, sudden change of plans announced)?

2) Setup: How will you introduce us to your characters, film world, and story? How will you show your character in his or her normal life? The audience needs a chance to get to know your main characters, along with the limits and possibilities of the film world.

3) Inciting incident. What event happens that forces your character to act by choosing a goal and committing to making it happen?

4) Journey Into Unknown: Protagonist sets off to accomplish plot goal leaving what is familiar behind.

5) Investigation: Protagonist searches for goal object or informationencountering lots of Obstacles/conflicts. What are some obstacles or conflicts your characters might face while attempting to accomplish their plot goal in your story idea?

6) Twist: A new plot goal usually emerges at this point because the first goal is accomplished or an unexpected event occurs which changes the focus of the main plot goal. Accident kills someone, a shocking truth revealed, key equipment or transportation breaks down, sudden change of plans announced.

7) Final confrontation. This is a confrontation between two characters, groups or a situation that has been building up during the story Protagonist/antagonist conflicts related to plot goal.

8) Climax. Highest point of intensity and audience interest where the plot reaches a crescendo. What is the big climatic event at the end where we see whether the characters succeed or fail in accomplishing their goals?

9) Resolution. Ties up the loose ends in the story such as who lives, who dies, who gets the girl, and who lives happily ever after.


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