HOW CAN I TELL IF I'M READY TO WRITE?

By Craig Kellem

Most professional writers spend more of their time planning their scripts than writing them. For the vast majority, preparation and strategy is the name of the game. In fact, in Hollywood, if you pitch a project (in movies or TV), you don’t actually get to write the script until you’ve written the STORY in voluminous narrative, and have been vetted by hyper vigilant development people. That said, here is a quick method for determining if you’re ready to write the script. This is derived from an article I read years ago about master writer, Paul Schraeder. The following is basically the method that he uses.

He asks a friend to sit in a room with him. He pitches his story, top to bottom, in the most articulate, complete, and raconteur-like manner that he knows. He doles it out the way a doting father would tell a story to his child. Obviously, it has a beginning, middle, and end, it has surprises, often big scenes, and it pays off in the end. And all scenes attempt to offer something special beside just acting as a story component.

If he can lovingly get through it without ad-libbing, lying, etc., he figures he’s probably got a good story to write. He truly believes that if it “tells well,” it will probably write well. The other criteria for this conclusion is if his audience of one seems to enjoy his pitch, doesn’t have to ask a lot of questions, and remains clear-eyed throughout the session. This may seem like an oversimplification, but there’s a lot of truth in it. Because moviemaking, in the final analysis, is just good STORYTELLING.

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