How to Write a Script in 4 Steps
Screenwriting is the first step in creating a movie nobody will ever forget. As a screenwriter, it’s your job to shape the core narrative that all of the other creatives on your team will build upon: actors, directors, set designers, cinematographers, you name it. Everything comes back to the script.
So, you want to know how to write a script for a movie? We’re going to break down a simple, step-by-step process for developing a screenplay. Each step builds upon the previous, so we highly recommend taking your time and trusting the process!
Step 1: Conceptualize the Story
Before you can start putting words on the page, you need a story concept. Story concepts are the core driving force behind all of the conflict that will arise in your movie. Said differently, they are more than an idea.
Ideas tend to be one-dimensional. “Space bears” is an idea. It’s interesting and you may love it, but it has absolutely no forward momentum at all. Who are the space bears? Are we following the space bears, or hunting them? What do they want? What are they trying to accomplish? What kinds of conflicts will they encounter? We have no idea.
“Space bears” is not a story concept. To create a story concept, we need to infuse a sense of direction, of objective or want. At this stage, it doesn’t need to be elaborate–so give them something to do! Give them a conflict to confront.
When brainstorming your own story concepts, make sure to address:
Who is this about?
What conflict are they confronting?
What do they want?
To circle back to our space bears, this could be something like, “Space bears solve crime across the universe. All the honey went missing, and they’re the only ones who can track it down.” That’s a story concept.
Do we know all the details that will go into the space bears movie? Of course not. But we know who it’s about (detective bears in space), the conflict they’re confronting (stolen honey), and what they’re trying to do (recover the honey).
What Makes a Good Story Concept?
This core concept will be the driving force behind all of the decisions you make in your screenplay: every plot point, character, and piece of dialogue. It’s the spine of your story, so it’s worth taking the time to nail down.
A good story concept will evoke feelings in listeners that reflect the movie as a whole. What I mean is, if I read my space bears concept to a friend, I’d hope that they’d chuckle, given that it’s an action-adventure comedy. If you read your horror concept to a friend, you want a “jeez that’s scary” reaction. And so on.
Similarly, this is also a great time to think about a theme or thematic question. What big questions interest you? What’s a question about the human condition that you could talk about for hours on end?
For example, maybe I’m drawn to space bears because I’m fascinated by the ethics of fighting crime. How far can we justifiably go to catch a thief? Is it morally defensible to bend the rules to get “the bad guy”?
Your core concept should be about something deeper that compels you.
Know What a Script Is
A good story concept knows its medium and takes advantage of it.
Movies are a visual medium. Unlike novels, which thrive in thought, or plays, which thrive in dialogue, movies thrive in action. So, your story should be action-driven. Will your characters also have thoughts and engage in dialogue? Of course. But at the end of the day, you need to be sure that you can express what’s happening visually.
A screenplay is not a finished product. Generally, only people involved in the production and fellow screenwriters will ever read your script. It’s not a literary masterpiece–it’s a blueprint for production.
Yes, a screenplay can (and should) be a compelling, fun read. A screenplay can (and should) evoke feelings in the read. But at the end of the day, your job as a screenwriter is to communicate the story, visually and emotionally, to a production team.
Read Scripts to Get Inspired
Script writing is a knack. While we can spend all day breaking down the elements that are present when a story concept thrives, to dream up a story that works, you need to know movies. And what better way to know them than to read them?
Here’s a tip: Rather than getting bogged down reading all of the “greats,” read the scripts for movies that you wish you wrote. Read the screenplays for your favorite movies! And, try for the opposite—read good ideas that were poorly executed and try to figure out where they went wrong. There’s something to learn in every script.
Step 2: Craft a Developmental Logline
After you have a strong story concept, it’s time to expand upon it and create a developmental logline.
Loglines are one or two-sentence summaries of the core conflict in your story. They don’t reveal the ending, but rather give the reader a sense of the shape and flavor of your screenplay.
Loosely, there are two different kinds of loglines: marketing loglines and developmental loglines.
Marketing loglines (sometimes called a taglines) are usually crafted after the screenplay is written. It’s for outside eyes. It’s shorter, tighter, quipier, and entices someone to read. We’re not worried about that right now.
Developmental loglines, on the other hand, are crafted before the screenplay is written. It’s for your eyes only. They tend to be a little longer, wordier, and more focused on the raw elements of story rather than appeal. This is what you need to be working on right now.
Developmental loglines take the ideas from your concept and expand upon them, answering the questions:
Who is this about? (Protagonist)
What is their unfulfilled desire in life? (Flaw / Inner Need)
What conflict are they confronting? (Inciting Incident)
What do they want? (Objective)
What are they doing to get what they want? (Action / Act 2)
What happens if they don’t get it? (Stakes)
It may seem like a lot, but most of these questions are connected. In order to address them, you’ll need to go deeper into your story.
Designing Memorable Characters
As you think about your logline, it’s time to hone in on who your protagonist really is. What makes them tick? What beliefs do they hold? What about them will change throughout your story?
In traditional screenplay structure, your protagonist experiences a character arc over the course of your film. This means that they will start their journey with some kind of flaw or flawed belief. That belief will be tested again and again until they finally accept their inner need at the end of the movie and emerge as a changed person.
How do you choose a flaw for your protagonist? It comes down to the theme you want your story to explore. If you’re interested in the intricacies of a father-son relationship, then your protagonist’s flawed belief should be connected to that. It wouldn’t make much sense for the protagonist’s flaw to be something like “I need a ton of money to be happy” in this case, since it has nothing to do with your intended theme. But, something like “I must follow in my father’s footsteps” would be much more relevant.
So, take some time to consider what theme you want to explore, and experiment with what flawed belief your protagonist might hold related to that. From there, you can build out more details about your character that explain why they hold that belief so dearly. This will help the audience to develop empathy for the character because we will understand why they are they way they are.
Open with Impact
In the first 10-15 pages of your screenplay, your protagonist will be confronted with an Inciting Incident–an event that will change their life forever and give them a massive, unignorable problem to solve.
In your story concept, you already started experimenting with a piece of this when you answered the question, “What conflict are they confronting?” Very simply, the inciting incident is the moment that this conflict is born.
Back to our space bears example, our inciting incident could be the moment that the honey is stolen. To make it even more relevant to the protagonist and even more life-changing, we could even add that the honey is stolen right out from under their nose and now everyone blames them–they’ve been falsely accused.
The inciting incident is one of the only times in your story that something can just happen to your protagonist. From here forward, your protagonist must be actively making choices–not just reacting to whatever someone else throws at them.
Create an Irresistible Desire
This inciting incident creates a problem, and now the character has to need to solve it. This takes us back to our question, “What does your protagonist want?” The physical, tangible way that they intend to solve their problem is their objective.
Choose an objective for your protagonist that is tangible, important, timely, and specific. You should be able to picture a photograph of your protagonist accomplishing their objective and know definitively it’s accomplished.
For example, if our space bear’s objective is to “clear their name,” what would that photograph look like? Maybe we could picture them receiving some award or people cheering for them, but it’s not 100% clear. A much stronger objective could be to “arrest the actual criminals before the space bears are arrested themselves.” Now, we can picture the space bears standing triumphantly beside handcuffed evil space raccoons, their snouts covered in stolen honey, as authorities circle them.
It’s silly. But it works.
Focus on the Action
Finally, as you craft your logline, it’s essential to imagine what your protagonist is actually doing for the bulk of the movie. Are they investigating? Hunting? Fighting? Searching? What is the main action of your Act 2?
Having an action nailed down will help you to navigate the desert that is Act 2 (the most notoriously difficult act to write).
Try to choose a vivid verb to describe the action. Not just “looking for,” but “scouring the galaxy.” Not just “competing” but “battling for their lives.” You want this word to be evocative not for any outside reader, but because you need to know what your movie will actually look like. Remember, this is a visual medium–we need to know that the action will look interesting!
And finally, make the action matter by giving your protagonist stakes. If they don’t achieve their objective, what terrible, awful thing will happen? This is how you make your story matter.
If the space bears could just let the honey thieves go and nothing bad would happen, then why should they–or the audience–care? We care when there’s something massive to lose. That’s why we already started shaping it to have potential consequences–they must clear their name before they’re arrested for a crime they didn’t commit.
No matter what kind of story you’re writing, your stakes should be life and death. Now, life and death could be literal–your protagonist will literally die if they fail. Or it could be an emotional death. If Merlin doesn’t find his only missing son Nemo, he will die an emotional death that he will never recover from.
Step 3: Develop an Outline
It is extremely hard to write a strong screenplay by the seat of your pants–i.e., without an outline.
While, yes, it is possible, what almost always happens is that you’ll end up writing to find your story and require several extra drafts and revisions down the road to shape it into something that works. It’s not wrong to write this way–Greta Gerwig is a famous example of someone who does this, and her first draft of Lady Bird was something like 300 pages long. But, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and energy if you at least create a loose outline ahead of time.
Define Your Major Turning Points
Traditionally, screenplays are written in three acts. The acts are separated by some sort of major turning point or reveal that reenergizes the story and forces your protagonist to reckon with a new, unexpected challenge or development.
The first turning point is your inciting incident at the end of Act 1. We’ve already discussed this, so we won’t harp on it too much, but essentially this is the moment that your story is born. It gives your protagonist their central problem to solve and their primary objective.
The second turning point is your midpoint. Midpoints happen about halfway through Act 2, or just a little bit past the halfway point of your movie (usually around 65 pages/minutes in).
Midpoints are often overlooked but are such a vital tool in your screenwriter’s toolkit. As mentioned before, Act 2 is often considered a screenwriting desert–it’s the hardest to write because screenwriters have to keep the exciting happenings coming. Adding in a midpoint gives you a much-needed narrative boost.
Typically, the strongest midpoints are moments when the rug is ripped out from underneath the protagonist’s feet. It’s a major twist, reversal, or upheaval that abruptly forces a change in the protagonist’s path forward. They were finally getting the hang of themselves as they chased down their objective, but then something completely unexpected happens that throws them back to ground zero. Their initial path to achieve their objective is no longer going to work.
Back to our space bears, a possible midpoint could be that, now, our space bears are considered fugitives from the law galaxy-wide. Before, they were only blamed by one planet for the missing honey–but now, the entire galaxy is hunting them.
And lastly, the final turning point is the Ultimate Test. This is the moment between Acts 2 and 3 when your protagonist comes face-to-face with their objective but fails in some way because of their flawed belief. It forces them to their lowest point imaginable, where they will finally be broken enough to rebuild as a changed person. The fall before the final climb.
Step 4: Write the Script
Once you have your outline, you’re finally ready to go to pages! This will be made so much easier by all of the prep work you’ve done up until this point.
As you write, remember that this is a visual medium. If you’re just starting out, it can be helpful to minimize the number of “unfilmables” that you include in the script. Unfilmmables are things that can’t be captured on screen. For example, “He is happy” is an unfilmable. “He smiles” is filmable. Constantly think about how your directions will be translated visually.
Of course, as you write more, you’ll develop instincts about when to break “the rules.” A lot of recent success stories (Black List winners, indie hits, etc.) are full of unfilmables: The Menu, The Substance, Men, and even A Real Pain. These are filled with tonal writing and poetic descriptions that break writing norms.
For your first draft, just focus on getting to the end. Don’t revise as you go! Just get something down and keep moving. You will have plenty of time to fix your script later, but you can’t improve something that doesn’t exist.
Make the First Page Pop
The first page of your script is what entices people to keep reading. It establishes your story’s voice and style, and tells readers that this is a script worth finishing. So be sure to start with a bang.
A lot of movies start in medias res (Latin for “in the middle of things”) to accomplish this. A classic example is the opening of Forrest Gump, where, rather than meeting Forrest chronologically, we see him at the bus stop later in life when he gives his classic “life is like a box of chocolates” speech. Or, for a more intense example, the opening of Fight Club, where we start with the image of a gun in a man’s mouth.
Both of these scenes showcase the joy of the movie (fast-paced action in an action movie, something terrifying in horror, something hilarious in a comedy), and then we back up and slow down a bit later.
It’s also important that, in these first few moments, we develop a sense of empathy for the protagonist. We want to see why the protagonist is someone worth rooting for! We don’t need a classic “Save the Cat” moment where they prove they are a decent person deep down, but we do need something that helps us understand where they’re coming from emotionally–just enough that we believe their actions are coming from a consistent, true place.
Experiment with a few different versions of your opening scene to help get you in the right headspace to write.
Use Industry-Standard Script Formatting
One of the first things you want to do is familiarize yourself with industry-standard screenwriting format. If you’ve been reading scripts, you probably already have seen it multiple times over, but there is a very particular way you’re expected to format a script.
There is no official style guide in screenwriting–just expectations and norms. While you can break the rules, here are some things to never mess with:
Font. You should be using a courier 12 pt. Font
Margins. Just leave them alone. Don’t touch them.
Layout. Action and scene headings to the left. Dialogue in the middle.
It is much easier to stick to proper screenplay format if you use dedicated scriptwriting software, like Final Draft (often considered the industry standard) or Writer Duet (which is especially good for co-writing and collaboration). If you want to do a first draft on pen and paper, that works, but by the time you’re typing, it should be in the right software.
Seek Constructive Feedback
Once you’ve finished your draft (that is, your first properly formatted full draft), it’s always helpful to get feedback from a trusted source or honest friend. At the end of the day, our intentions only matter to us–what ultimately matters in art is what other people get from it. So, it’s vital to understand what exactly your story is communicating.
If you have trusted filmmaking or screenwriting friends, fantastic! We strongly recommend asking one person to read at a time. People can only read your script for the first time once, so if you send your script to all five of your contacts immediately, you won’t have anybody left to read the rewrites fresh.
If you don’t have trusted friends who love story, one strategy is to put your script away for a few weeks and then return to it with fresh eyes, making yourself as close to an objective reader as possible. (Honestly, this is a great technique to start with even if you do have readers, to help polish a second draft.)
Another alternative is coverage services. This is a paid (but relatively affordable) service where a third party reads your scripts and writes up what they believe the story was about and their impressions of it.
The vast majority of the time, though, you won’t necessarily know who is providing you coverage ahead of time, so it’s important to manage your expectations and still use your own discernment when reading their feedback.
Overall, when it comes to feedback, there are two things to keep in mind. First, look for the note behind the note. A lot of times, people will give suggestions for fixing a perceived problem. It’s your job as the writer to figure out what problem they’re perceiving and address it in the way that best suits your story.
And second, you don’t have to take every note. It’s not uncommon to get conflicting advice from readers, or for readers to just not connect with the piece for whatever reason. If the note is only mentioned by one reader, you should use your discernment to determine whether it’s actually an area for improvement.
Share Your Script with the World!
Congratulations, you’ve finished your script! Now what?
It’s your job to connect with other creatives in order to get the thing made. Fortunately, even if you don’t have a network, you have options. For example, you can join online communities (like Kinolime!) to meet potential collaborators and submit your script to contests.
We sincerely hope to see you around Kinolime and to get the chance to check out your script!
To recap, here is a quick checklist for creating your own script from scratch:
Find an idea
Develop a story concept
Shape a logline
Identify major act breaks and reversals
Complete a first draft
Take a few weeks off
Reread and rewrite
Share with others for feedback
Consider script coverage
Submit your script to contests