Creative Screenwriting: How to Write Star-Worthy Stories

In screenwriting, you only have two tools to tell a story:

What is said and what is seen.

With few exceptions, you can’t take your audience inside your characters’ minds. You can’t lean on paragraphs of narration explaining that your protagonist is masking their jealousy or that the chili cookoff feels like their last chance to prove their worth. 

You rely exclusively on external communication to help your audience understand and connect with your characters.

That’s beautiful. Because that’s life.

As viewers, film and television give us an opportunity to exercise empathy the way we have to in the real world: through compassionate observation.

And as writers, screenwriting invites us to flex a few muscles that might not get the same intense workout when we’re focused on prose. I’ve spent over a decade screenwriting with my brother, working in both film and television, and my prose definitely improved because of it.

I got better at writing subtext, managing my pace, and writing action. I learned how to separate impactful descriptive details from unnecessary fluff. 

Most importantly, I’ve had a lot of fun.

If you’re interested in giving screenwriting a whirl, you don’t have much to lose. Even if you ultimately decide this particular branch of creative writing isn’t for you, you’ll still sharpen valuable skills and have a good time doing it.

So follow that whim! And if you could use a little guidance along the way, keep reading. This article is packed with tips for mastering the craft of screenwriting. It will also clarify the specific skills you need to write a great script.

And that’s important because screenwriting is its own complicated animal.

How is Screenwriting Different From Other Types of Writing?

Screenwriting is the act of writing a story that will play out on screen. It includes screenplays (movie scripts), teleplays (television show scripts), and even scripts for video games.

A screenplay follows a scripted format that involves loads of dialogue and a limited amount of description. It looks very different from a novel or poem, and it's this distinction most people think of when they imagine screenwriting.

But while the formatting is important, it’s probably the easiest change to make when you switch from prose to screenplays. What’s tougher is shifting the way you think about storytelling now that you’re in a visual medium. You’ll see what I mean as we go along. 

First, I’d like to emphasize one major distinction most first-time screenwriters either underestimate or aren’t even aware of.

The Collaborative Nature of Screenwriting

As a novelist, you expect input from agents and editors. As a screenwriter, however, there are dozens to hundreds of other people putting their stamp on your story.

It’s not just the producers and director. It’s also set designers, costume designers, make-up artists, sound designers, cinematographers, film editors, and actors. And here’s the kicker: very few screenwriters—especially first-timers—are invited to participate in the production process.

Unless you’re a respected writer-director or you go the indie route, you have little-to-no control over the visual interpretation of your story.

I don’t tell you this to discourage you. I tell you because anyone who’s serious about a creative screenwriting career must be able to delight in collaboration and let go if the finished product is wildly, even offensively different from the story in your head.

You should still write like a novelist, with a clear vision and an inextinguishable love for the characters and world you created. Just know that the business of screenwriting is an ongoing exercise in acceptance.

That said, it’s exhilarating to see your story on screen when all goes well. So let’s write a screenplay other brilliant artists will want to get their hands on.

Key Elements of Creative Screenwriting

We’ll skip over the primary storytelling elements like character development, conflict, and setting because they’re the same in creative screenwriting as they are in every other form of storytelling.

If you could use guidance in any of these areas, you’ll find a ton of it in DabbleU. While we frame a lot of our content around novel writing, the same principles apply to screenwriting. Here are some quick links to help you find articles on…

• Character
• Setting
• Conflict
• Plot
• Theme

The bigger priority in this article is to explore the elements that aren’t exactly unique to screenwriting but are uniquely handled in this format. Elements like…

Story Structure

Story structure refers to the way you lay out the events of your screenplay to achieve a certain narrative rhythm.

Sounds complicated, but it gets way simpler when you realize that there are pre-established story structures you can follow. To make things even easier, the film and television industry is deeply devoted to one structure in particular.

If you’ve got plans to be a screenwriter in the U.S., learn the three-act structure. Not only is it an intuitive and satisfying approach to story, it’s also the preferred structure in the film industry. 

You can get super familiar with the three-act structure here, but for now, here’s the basic gist:

Act One - This is where you set up your story, establishing the world, characters, and conflict. 

Act Two - This is where you throw your main character into new experiences and an ever-intensifying conflict that forces them out of their comfort zone. 

Act Three - Now all the struggle and suffering you’ve heaped onto your protagonist pays off when they fight their final battle (figuratively or literally). They either fail or prevail, and both they and their world are changed because of it. 

Even if you decide to rebel against convention, you should still be familiar with this structure. It’s the language producers speak. In fact, for a well-rounded film industry vocabulary, I suggest also learning Save the Cat!, The Hero’s Journey, and Dan Harmon’s Story Circle.

They’re more specific formats that plug right into the three-act structure, and Hollywood loves ‘em.

Dialogue

I don’t think I’m gonna blow your mind when I tell you that writing great dialogue is crucial in creative screenwriting. You already know most of your screenplay will be dialogue—engaging, realistic dialogue, ideally.

But even if you’ve mastered this skill in prose form, you might stumble across new challenges when you sit down to write a script.

In creative screenwriting, you don’t have paragraphs of narration to reveal character thoughts and explore abstract themes. You can use voiceover narration, but if you do, you’ll need to use it sparingly. Also, word of warning: voiceover is often seen as an unnecessary crutch in the world of screenwriting. 

For the most part, everything you want to say in a script must be expressed through dialogue or visuals. Once you realize that, writing realistic dialogue gets a lot harder. Don’t worry, though. We’re going to discuss this exact challenge later.

Scene Description

Also referred to as “action lines” or just “action,” scene description is the part of the script where you explain what the audience sees. You can use scene description to set the scene, describe a character, or indicate which actions a character should take.

Now, action lines in a screenplay are pretty different from the descriptive writing you’re likely to see in a book. Scene descriptions in screenwriting often read like this:

“Walsh shows him the photos. He looks at them. They are a series outside a restaurant showing Mulwray with another man whose appearance is striking. In two of the photos a gnarled cane is visible.” –Chinatown

In a novel, descriptive passages exist to draw the reader into the story. In a screenplay, the goal is to be clear and direct about your vision with the director, actors, and everyone else who brings your narrative to life. 

None of those people want you to fuss over lyrical prose and detailed imagery. They want you to get to the point because they’ve got a job to do.

There’s still an art to scene description. You want to set a tone and create vivid images. You’re just accomplishing those things more efficiently and with less abstraction. You’ll learn how as we discuss…

Tips for Writing a Great Screenplay

All great stories, regardless of format, contain:

• An engaging protagonist with a clear and specific goal driven by a compelling motivation
• An external conflict that prevents the protagonist from reaching their goal and forces them to confront their greatest weaknesses
• An internal conflict that heightens the external conflict (and vice versa)
• A climactic scene and resolution in which we either see how drastically the protagonist has changed or how stubbornly they cling to their old ways

If you want tips for developing any of those storytelling skills, click the links above. 

From here on out, we’re focusing on creative screenwriting specifically. You’re about to learn tips that won’t just help you write a good story; they’ll help you write a screenplay that reads easily and makes you look like an old pro.

Let’s get to it.

Learn the Format

An agent or producer will recognize a formatting error at a glance. If it looks like you haven’t even bothered to learn the standards for the industry, they’ll assume you don’t know how to write a quality script, either.

Fortunately, there’s a ton of screenwriting software out there that automates all the formatting for you, so you don’t have to fuss over margins, spacing, or font.

But you should take the time to learn the names and functions of all the different screenplay elements, like slug lines and extensions. 

Screenplay format is a dense subject that’s beyond the scope of this article, but you can find a pretty helpful rundown of the topic here. 

Practice Visual Storytelling

In Roma, the complicated love between a family and their live-in maid is never discussed outright, but it’s constantly displayed. 

In several scenes, the housekeeper, Cleo, is physically with the family but never fully part of it. She watches TV with them but is the only one sitting on the floor. She eats ice cream with them, but they sit in a row on a bench as she stands beside them.

This repeated arrangement makes it all more impactful when a later scene positions her in the center of everyone. 

Creative screenwriting is the epitome of “show, don’t tell.” Your characters’ emotions, motivations, and relationships all have to be expressed through concrete action, symbols, or dialogue. And the absolute best way to learn this skill is by reading a lot of screenplays and watching a lot of movies and television.

Read a screenplay and notice the concrete details that engage you emotionally. Then watch the movie with the script in front of you to see how the scene descriptions translate to the screen. 

Watch a movie or TV show you’ve never seen with the sound off and try to define the characters’ motivations, emotions, and relationships. Watch it again with the sound on to see if you interpreted it correctly. If you did, what visual details helped you get it right?

Not all of this stuff will come from the writing. Once again, there’s an entire team of artists at work here. But the more familiar you become with the art of visual storytelling, the faster you’ll build your screenwriting skills.

Avoid Abstract Direction

On that note, when you write scene descriptions, try to keep it as concrete as possible. Remember, the goal isn’t to dazzle a reader. It’s to help another artist bring your vision to life. 

“Her heart calls out for him” is not as helpful to an actor as, say, “She takes a step toward him, then, remembering what’s at stake, remains where she is.”

Now, to be honest, it’s okay to occasionally dabble in abstraction. Some screenwriting books will tell you it’s not, but read a few critically acclaimed screenplays and I guarantee you’ll see every one of them break the rule a few times. Sometimes a little internal direction can be helpful, like this:

“Sharply, Luisa disconnects [the call]. Pull it together. Do not cry. A deep breath. You can do this. And she enters Room 6.” –Jane the Virgin

The main thing is to prioritize external actions. After all, you’ve studied visual storytelling. You know how to communicate complex emotions through concrete details and dialogue. Leave it up to the actors to drive those feelings home. It’s their job, after all.

On that note… 

Know Your Role

Remember how we talked about creative screenwriting as a collaborative craft? That means some of the details you imagine in your beautiful writer brain don’t belong on the page because they’re not really up to you.

Leave out close-ups, push-ins, push-outs, and camera angles unless they’re essential to the plot. For example, if it’s crucial that the audience doesn’t know a character is in the room, then it’s appropriate to include a shot direction that obscures that character from view. 

Otherwise, it’s not your job. The director will do what they want, anyway.

Same deal with super specific stage directions, set design, or clothing descriptions. Some basic descriptions are great for establishing a sense of place and character, which is part of your job as the story creator. 

But when it comes to creating a whole movie, you’re not the only one with a vision to contribute.

Master Subtext

Subtext refers to all the stuff that is meant, felt, or known but not said outright. This is the secret to mastering dialogue as a screenwriter.

Remember earlier when we talked about how writing dialogue is a little trickier in screenplays? You can’t lean on narration to clarify what your characters are thinking or feeling. But it’s also not realistic to have them walking around expressing themselves like they’ve just completed five years of very effective therapy.

That’s where subtext comes in. Your job as a writer is to figure out what each character would say when they can’t bring themselves to speak directly. 

Here are just a handful of ways famous writers have written the subtext “I love you”:

“I hate you, Harry. I really hate you.” –When Harry Met Sally

“You had me at ‘hello.’” –Jerry Maguire

“As you wish.” –The Princess Bride

“I’ve come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours.” –Sense and Sensibility

You can learn tricks for nailing your subtext here.

Keep it Moving

Movement is everything in film and television.

This was something my brother had to teach me years ago when we first started writing together. As a new screenwriter who’d just spent four years earning a theatre arts degree, I was writing what I knew best: twenty-page conversations that take place in one location. 

You can get away with that in screenwriting if you’re writing a bottle episode or The Breakfast Club. But most of the time, you want to switch scenes at least once every three pages or so.

Think About White Space

White space is exactly what it sounds like—the space on your script that isn’t covered in text.

Industry gatekeepers love white space. It tells them your screenplay isn’t bogged down by lengthy scene descriptions. And because agents and producers are inundated with scripts, some of them actually use this metric to weed out overwritten screenplays at a glance.

That brings me to another challenge of creative screenwriting: keeping your scene descriptions vivid, engaging, and succinct.

The key is to choose a few key details that encourage the brain to fill in a more specific picture. And don’t be afraid to add a little narrative voice. Just use a light touch and make sure your action lines aren’t so creatively written that they become distracting.

Actually, a lot of scene description reads like the writer is just telling the story to a friend, like this:

“Shelly and Miguel have the same asymmetrical hair-cut and ‘interesting’ piercings. Vaguely punk looking. Seem like they’re wearing black leather jackets even when they aren’t.” –Lady Bird

Clear. Colorful. To the point.

Of course, like many of the principles we’ve discussed in this article, the white space rule isn’t hard and fast. As you might guess, there are plenty of text-heavy pages in the Castaway script. 

The main point is to be aware of what industry decision-makers will be looking for, especially when you’re new to screenwriting.

Resources for Aspiring Screenwriters

For as much as we’ve covered in this article, we’ve barely scratched the surface of creative screenwriting. 

If you’re serious about exploring this craft in greater depth, I highly recommend checking out some books on the topic. Must-reads include Save the Cat! By Blake Snyder, Story by Robert McKee, The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, and Screenplay by Syd Field.

You’ll also want to find a screenwriting program that handles formatting for you. Trust me—it’ll make your life so much easier.

If you’re not sure how committed you are to this screenwriting thing, start with a program that has a free plan like WriterDuet. If or when you get serious about making movies, get Final Draft. That’s the industry standard. (WriterDuet exports Final Draft files, by the way.)

And of course, there’s always DabbleU for a wealth of information on the craft of writing. Browse hundreds of free articles, templates, and more in our library. Better yet, subscribe to our spam-free newsletter to have inspiration and information delivered right to your inbox every week.

Now get typin’. Those moving picture shows don’t write themselves.