The flow of screenwriting

I’ve been using Celtx for my screen­writing needs. But what I soon discovered was that it was getting in the way of my writing flow, namely during the writing of dialogue. When I write my dialogue, it often develops natu­rally and flows rapidly. The way Celtx handled the back and forth of dialogue was a little slower and a little more cumbersome than what I was used to: Final Draft.

So now I’ve switched to doing my primary writing in Final Draft. It’s not as full featured as Celtx: the features are pretty bare, at least the ones that I use. But I find that it’s more important for me to get the words from my head onto the page (well, screen) as quickly as I can. I intend to use Final Draft to write it all down, and then to fine tune every­thing and make revi­sions in Celtx.

In other news, I’m still trying to keep my screenplay focused and tightly written. I am natu­rally very verbose. I’m long winded and I take a long time to say what I’ve got to say. However, a script needs to be set within the time of an hour and a half, two at most. And that means I’ve got a lot of ground to cover in that short amount of time. I’ve got to establish the char­acter, reveal the elements of his psychology. Then I’ve got to develop his story. If that story gets too compli­cated, I’m going to have to cut things out.

I learned the phrase “ruthless deletion” during my brief time at Target Portrait Studio. And I think it’s a good attitude to have towards my screenplay as well. After all, I see quite a few movies where I’m wondering, what is the purpose of this scene? Why are we here? I have to constantly ask myself, what am I showing here in this scene? What is going on here? Is it necessary? Does it do anything to move the plot forward or to develop the character?