The other day, my friend asked me what a prospective scriptwriter needs to start. It’s difficult to be a scriptwriter in Singapore. But then that’s half of the fun of it – if it were easy to be a writer, every would be. The other half, of course, is in the writing itself.
You’ll need a spec script to start. That’s short for “speculative screenplay”, a fact that I didn’t know until I Googled it two minutes ago. A spec script is a sample of your work, the first step in your portfolio, and an indicator that you know (or are willing to learn) what’s needed as a writer.
But where to begin?
1)Pick an existing show on air, or a very famous show that you’re sure everyone has watched before
This is Singapore, so pick a local show if you want to work for local production houses. Actually, this applies to any country, not just Singapore. Pick a show that’s currently on air (so that anyone reading your spec script can watch the show and determine how closely you’ve followed the style) or a show that’s so famous eveyrone has watched it (again, so that your reader has something to compare it to.)
2)Learn the format for a script
This is simple enough to Google. If you’re starting out and you don’t really like the idea of investing a few hundred dollars in Final Draft, you can approximate the format in Word.
The exact spacing between lines isn’t that critical for a spec script, but it’s to demonstrate that you know what’s needed and not needed in a script, such as scene headers, dialogue, act breaks, directions, and so on. You don’t need a ten page essay for each character that’s introduced, for instance.
3)Create a story and generate your beats
Beats are basically an outline of your script, where you list out each change/progress in your story. Like “Mrs Tan discovers Mr Tan’s affair with Ms Lee. Mrs Tan confronts Mr Tan and demands a divorce. Mr Tan refuses and Mrs Tan kills him.”
It can be in point form, paragraph form, as long as it’s coherent. One of my scriptwriting teachers advised that each sentence in your beats should start with [person] [verb] [something], to help identify who is driving that beat and hence, where the focus of that story is.
4)Rewrite your beats many times
Once you have a set of beats, put it away and look at it at least a week later. If you’re really pressed for time, look at it after a meal. Does it show the following:
– set up and pay off of a situation (cause and effect, doesn’t have to be in the same scene)?
– distinctly different characters (so that you can show you can write different types of characters)?
– logic (my former mentor always emphasised this, that everything must make sense)?
– an inciting incident (or, why is it so important that this story starts here, today, in this first scene)?
– a conclusion (have you finished telling the story satisfactorily, or does it feel like it didn’t end properly?
Most importantly, your story must flow. One scene must lead to another naturally, like how Mrs Tan kills Mr Tan only after she discovers the affair – not Mrs Tan cooks Mr Tan a big pot of curry chicken after she discovers the affair.
Rewrite the beats as many times as you can, until you’re sure everything fits and flows.
5)Write the script
Once you’re satisfied with your beats, you’re ready to begin! This is the most exciting part! Isn’t it?
You’re probably going to be very afraid to write. And you’ll procrastinate. The fear of failure will grip you so tightly that you’d rather give up than continue with your work. What if people laugh at your script? What if someone thinks this is a stupid show? What if it’s been done before?
Or, you might not. It doesn’t matter how you feel, as long as you write the damn script. It’ll feel like childbirth without epidurals, so keep it at it. Remember, a mother doesn’t give up halfway while pushing her baby out, so you shouldn’t give up halfway while writing a script. You can take a break, but come back to it.
6)Rewrite the script
Like with your beats, put away that script then come back and look at it again. Rewrite it until you’re happy. Writing is all about rewriting. Cut, trim, be merciless about what’s needed and what’s not.
Once you’re ready (or if you feel you’ll never be ready, hand your script to someone you trust and ask if he/she thinks it’s ready), you’ll have your spec script in hand. And you can give it to anyone who asks for it (or you can give it to people who don’t ask for it, but they’re not really going to read 20-50 pages for fun).
Some pointers on writing your spec script.
a)Don’t use Singlish. Don’t use lah, leh, or meh. You can use Singaporean words like ba chor mee or nasi goren, but not Singlish. This is because of broadcast censorship guidelines.
b)Don’t swear. You don’t want your kids to see characters on swear on TV, right? There’s plenty of time to do that when you are famous enough to direct your own art film. I once saw a spec script that had more f-bombs than the word “the” on each page. Don’t swear. Besides, overusing expletives tends to make it lose its effect.
c)Use a modern day, contemporary setting for your story. Stay away from fantasy or sci-fi settings. I love Spartacus (bet you thought I’d say Game of Thrones) (I like Game of Thrones too by the way) and Star Wars, but the fact is that Singapore isn’t going to produce that sort of show in the next five years, at least. It pains me to say this, but write real life stories that could actually happen.
d)Don’t write about sensitive topics. Again, there’s time for you to do it later. Now’s not the time to write about anything that could cause a riot.
e)For comedy scripts, write at least 3 jokes a page. Every comedy scriptwriter will tell you this.
f)22-24 pages for a half hour script, 40-44 pages for a one hour script. Each page of your script is approximately 1 minute on air. These are approximate lengths, of course.
g)Spell check. Because you really don’t want your character to be stealing pubic property instead of public property. But then, spell check goes for everything.
Remember, this isn’t your magnum opus. This is a reason for you to be hired. So start with something straighforward and basic, and once you’ve mastered that in your work, you can write weird stuff.
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