Hello, Rank Amateur Here in Peace!

T

TheJasperCo

Hi everyone,

I'm Alex, from England. I've been hooked by the screenwriting bug even though I have NO (let us make that nice and emphasised - NO) experience in the film/theatrics/drama/entertainment industries. I will be on here a hell of a lot, simply to learn and pick up tips. That's because what I lack in screenwriting talent and formatting, I hope I can more than make up for thanks to my imagination and creative writing skills. The book-writing market is saturated, although I haven't given up on turning my ideas into books. I just want my stories put into the visual medium that is film.

Recently graduated, settled with a new job and a little time to kill to work on my script. It's a horror-thriller combination genre, if there is even such a thing. There probably isn't, but it's got the gore of a slasher movie with the suspense and intelligence of a thriller.

Thanks guys (there might be some ladies on here - wouldn't we be lucky), hope you found this insightful.
 
Hi, Alex.

This is a great site to learn about screenwriting. But if you want to write good screenplays, nothing substitutes for reading good books on the craft, reading lots of good screenplays, studying the art of dramatic structure, and watching lots and lots of great films. Hope you're already immersed in all of these!

Cheers!

-Charles
 
So true, so true Charles. I have been stashing library books on scriptwriting and screenplay guides as if they're going out of fashion. One of the problems I've found is that - even though there's lots of areas where the same "rules" and advice keep cropping up - there are a lot of things where there's no consensus, like a grey area where it's not clear what to do (e.g. capitalising action words, or use of parentheticals, or even formatting during phone conversations).

I find forums like these help promote discussion, and are obviously more up-to-date than all but the most recent handbooks.

One thing I didn't know from reading some of these books is that production companies sell copies of draft scripts on eBay which you can pick up for next to nothing. May find myself doing that soon :) :)
 
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