Romantic Screenplays 101
Read Romantic Screenplays 101 Online
Authors: Sally J. Walker
Tags: #Reference, #Writing; Research & Publishing Guides, #Writing, #Romance, #Writing Skills, #Nonfiction
Romantic Screenplays 101
by Sally J. Walker
Genre: Nonfiction
Book #2 in the Write Now Workshops© series
Write Now Workshops© logo by Tony McGowan
Kindle: 978-1-58124-955-2
ePub: 978-1-58124-956-9
©2012 by Sally J. Walker
Published 2012 by The Fiction Works
http://www.fictionworks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission, except for brief quotations to books and critical reviews.
Dedication
I was an active (and over-active) member of 18 years in Romance Writers of America. Toward the end of that affiliation, I had the honor of being a contributing member of the organization’s on-line screenwriting chapter, Scriptscene. I want to dedicate this book to those cinematic writers and especially to Nancy Haddock, Neringa Bryant, Leslie Ann Sartor and Donna Caubarreaux. You ladies made me want to do this book.
A special thanks to Neringa, Leslie and the meticulous detail editor-type person, Muffy Vrana of Lincoln, Nebraska, These three ladies read the manuscript, made suggestions and pointed out needed corrections. Of course, I also appreciate Ray Hoy who always applies his eagle eye to
any
project published by The Fiction Works. This book is better for all that input.
Table of Contents
Book #2
Foreword
You have come here to read about how cinematic romantic stories work. Long ago I researched those very concepts so I could authoritatively write credible romantic screenplays. I learned many insights into relationship storytelling over a long period. I did not encounter them all at once. Now, I want to share my discoveries with you.
Romantic Screenplays 101
grew out of my teaching many on-site and on-line classes by that title. I presented material arranged in logical progression for the seminar attendees. After teaching “Intro to Screenwriting” in so many one-day seminars, I discovered writers in general did not understand the unique expectations of the romance audience. I knew I had to dig deep into all my resources of romance fiction to meld that genre’s story and character concepts into a cohesive discussion suitable for screenplay translation. I had been applying my knowledge of relationship storytelling for some time without specific step-by-step awareness. Constructing the romance course gave my own work more focus, more in-depth meaning. That motivation to explain what works and what doesn’t grew into a desire to spread the word to people trying to write romantic cinematic stories.
Truthfully, no people are as obsessive about the elements of this genre as the members of Romance Writers of America. RWA is comprised of the published and hoping-to-publish writers producing stories for devout aficionados of the happily-ever-after crowd. Those readers have pushed romance sales to greater than 50% of the mass paperback market year after year. The members of RWA evolved seminars and programs to explain how the relationship game works, or, rather, how to describe its many intricacies and nuances. Since the early 1990’s, thousands upon thousands have flocked to the annual conferences and attended chapter meetings all over this country and abroad to listen and learn. From 1991 into 2009, I was one of the hopeful-then-published writers of that organization. I am profoundly grateful for all the information I absorbed, as well as the practical concepts I discovered on my own. I have accumulated a small library of books on male-female communication, problem solving and sexuality. All have contributed to the material you will find here.
The psychology and subtle details of fictional romance are particularly fascinating. As a female health care professional (Critical Care/ER R.N.), the body language lessons and relationship rationale RWA folks and various researchers have presented made total sense.
Here’s a generalization: I concluded most males don’t get the nuances and ramifications of a romance. (There are always exceptions.) This seems another example of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. Over the years I have encountered many males and uneducated females denigrating the romance genre for a variety of reasons. In some cases, criticism stemmed from women who read two or three romances which were poorly written. They did not bother to investigate the best of the best examples or the extensive sub-genres. Some male and female critics have gone so far as to call the genre a form of pornography . . . without knowledge of the scope of the genre.
Most women haven’t cared if the non-fans criticized romance because they did get it. Those females wrote romance, bought, read, clamored for more and continue to do so. The demographics of avid romance supporters spread to all levels of education, professions, ages and, yes, genders. Relationship stories evolved in every other genre/category of fiction, creating unique concepts of expectations in those romance sub-genres. I concluded that a substantial number of readers and writers are hungry for relationship stories.
People who have analyzed all the aspects of romance from primal sexuality to the life-cycle roller-coaster have provided a mountain of material one can study. I wallowed in it. I became an avid fan, appreciating the skills of those RWA authors who titillate at various descriptive levels and continue to attract readers. Writing both novels and screenplays, I considered how movie goers might explain what they understand to those who don’t get it. Melding my print and cinematic areas of knowledge just made sense.
There are many courses and materials about writing romantic fiction by people experienced in that genre. Here I present my take on how those print concepts work on screen.
I am not an instructor who “talks the talk, but can’t walk the walk.” I can’t be described as someone who teaches because I can’t do the work. I use the principles I am about to explain to you every time I sit down to write a romantic screenplay, every time I want to portray a cinematic relationship story. Fundamentals never get outdated. They are what they are: essential to the storytelling process.
As you accumulate information about romantic screenplays and consider how to apply it, I urge you to think hard about the suggested exercises. Review deepens the neurological grooves of a thought, making it easier to recall by connecting faster. Merely skimming the material will not deepen the gray matter grooves. You are asked to concentrate to get the full benefit.When you apply the concepts to the exercises, you are making even more complex connections thus reinforcing the knowledge with skillful application.
That Read-Review-Apply process is a well-proven learning theory in the discipline of education.
Do not assume just because you can watch a romantic film that you can also write a screenplay for one. The first directive is:
Learn your craft.
If you are totally new to screenwriting, you may find some of my terminology similar to a foreign language. Do not be frustrated. Simply invest in some of the fundamental screenwriting textbooks from this list . . .
Book Recommendations
Intro to Screenwriting
, Sally J. Walker
(A succinct, fundamental walk-through of the basics)
The Idiot’s Guide to Screenwriting
, Skip Press (A fundamentals-type text with lots of insider questions answered)
The Writer’s Journey
, Christopher Vogler (A storytelling construct applying Joseph Campbell’s concepts)
Screenplay, Foundations of Screenwriting,
Syd Field (Another fundamentals-type textbook)
The Screenwriter’s Workbook
, Syd Field (An applications-type textbook)
The Art or Dramatic Writing
, Lajos Egri (A fundamentals concept book for stage & film writers)
The 1-3-5 Story Structure System
, Donna Michelle Anderson
(A little handbook written by a Studio Reader applying BASICS) (
http://www.movieinabox.com/135/
)
Others (in progressively more complex-concept order):
Screenwriting 434
, Lew Hunter
Save the Cat
, Blake Snyder
Making the Good Script Great
, Linda Seger (And any other Seger books...)
Stealing Fire from the Gods
, James Bonnet
Writing Screenplays that Sell
, Michael Hauge
Story
, Robert McKee
The Anatomy of Story
, John Truby
Writing for Emotional Impact
, Karl Iglesias
Screenwriting Secrets in Genre Film
, Sally J. Walker
Chapter 1
Fundamental Concepts
ROMANCE OR NOT?
* Is your story a romance or does it have romantic elements vital to the main plot?
*
Do you even
like
orchestrating romances?
* Are these two people unique enough to captivate the studio reader and an audience for long periods of time?
Those are three vital questions you need to answer at the very beginning. If you do not understand the romance genre and its aficionados and/or if you do not feel highly motivated to write this romantic story, your efforts will produce a flat result, usually full of stereotypes and predictability. If you are not emotionally invested in the couple’s journey, your lack of enthusiasm will be obvious.
Almost every human being has a direct connection with romantic relationships simply by being alive. The term “almost” makes allowances for in vitro fertilization. However, this book is not about the mechanics of procreation. It is about storytelling focused on the elemental need to love and be loved. It is about the experience of the evolution of a relationship, the giving and receiving of acceptance and appreciation. It matters not if the two people are heterosexual or homosexual. It only matters that they recognize the need to live with and for the other person.
The journey to that commitment must
not
be smooth, just as the life journey after commitment will not be perfect. For any romantic storytelling to be enthralling, the before-during-after journey of any couple must be filled with anxiety. There must be obstacles for both parties, with a legitimate struggle to accept and ultimately become one unit against the world. There can be no happy-people-of-the-happy-village. Effort must be exerted to win the heart and soul of the beloved in the midst of whatever life is throwing at the couple.
Even the most cynical of humans can acknowledge the underlying elements needed for this kind of interesting story material. For the romantic screenplay to work it must follow a series of events that
visually
demonstrate conflict created by the attraction. Whether the romance is the main plot or a subplot complicating the main plot, the writer has to rely on visual evidence, body language signaling and dialogue to make the romantic journey complex and interesting for the audience. That audience has to be constantly asking “How can they possibly become a couple?” The answer must be withheld until the most tension-filled moment in the story. Because it is a romance, the audience knows they will but must be fascinated with
how
they get there.
Characters who “pop” on film are inherently dramatic (as explained in Appendix A’s Character Profiling material), which means the essential personality of the cinematic characters will make things happen. They can’t help themselves. They are not passive. Each of the main characters—Hero, Heroine, Antagonist—has to shake up the status quo of each and every scene they appear in. They must be highly motivated and visually powerful. The romantic partners also need to demonstrate a gradual blossoming of even
more
intensity as they are empowered by their own mounting frustrations and the discovery of the needs of their beloved. The story’s setting and circumstance need to frame or present the relationship, both contributing to the story’s complications and challenging the writer-reader-audience. The relationship must be molded by the events.