Practice Makes Perfect: Screenwriting Assignments To Improve Your Writing by Don Macnab-Stark

Practice Makes Perfect: Screenwriting Assignments To Improve Your Writing

Want to get better as a writer? Then consider the use of Screenwriting Assignments. Screenwriting Assignments are practice sessions, where instead of worrying about how a particular scene might fit into your existing or current screenplay, you simply write a scene for the benefit of improving your writing.

If you think about it, it makes sense. People in all walks of life practice their skills to get better - singers, athletes, even doctors - yet writers expect to just sit down and write a script that is a masterpiece.

What Screenwriting Assignments allow you to do is hone your skills without the pressure of worrying directly about quality. With the pressure off, you'll often find that you come up with some great writing - in fact, I've sometimes found that so good is the stuff I do when simply practicing, that it inspires me to develop my "practice" characters into a full length screenplay.

But for now just try this simple assignment before you start your next script - it's a great way to get into your characters' heads:

Start with your character profile (if you don't have a character profile, check out my previous article, "Creating Great Characters for Your Screenplay"), and with their core traits in mind, brainstorm how this character would react to the following situations:

A death in the family.

Falling in love.

Being dumped/divorced.

Being wrongly accused of a crime.

Being stuck in a haunted house.

Going on a road trip.

Getting into an argument with someone stronger than them.

Being on a game show.

For each of these scenarios, take the time to plot out a short scene, focusing on how your character reacts. Then write your favourite two or three scenes.

What is important when doing these is that you start to get a feel for your character. What do they do? What do they say? Do they show their emotions or keep them hidden? Do they have a "tell", something they do when they are hiding their feelings?

Writing just a couple of these scenes should really get you inside the head of your character, give you a deep understanding of how this person ticks. Once you feel you have that, then consider how they would react to the various situations and obstacles they will encounter in your story.

By practicing before you start your script, you will have a much better grasp of your character, and ultimately that will show in the quality of your writing.

About the Author

I am a screenwriter, script doctor and consultant living in England. I have consulted with dozens of writers, helping them to improve and develop their scripts, and have written almost twenty feature scripts, including:

· Long, Cold Winter - Shooting in Sweden, 2011, Greencap Films

· Rabid - Shooting in Michigan, Fall 2010 (Director Brian Lawrence).

For a free screenwriting newsletter packed with more tips, visit me at: http://www.theartofscreenwriting.com

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