scribble noises

Today I'm going to be focusing on screenwriting! I have no idea what I'm doing so I figured I'd watch Eighth Grade, a film my teacher recommended I watch after telling her that my main character's desire is to receive validation despite needing to make art for herself. Eighth Grade focuses on a girl named Kayla graduating from middle school and her navigation through adolescence. Validation is also an important theme in this film and it's mainly showcased through Kayla's use of social media. Mrs.Stoklosa told me I should include social media in my film as well, which is something I had briefly thought about before but quickly decided against. Looking back 'm not sure why I did, probably because the relationship between social media and validation hit a little close to home, but after careful consideration I've decided that I will include social media in my opening.

So how do I do this...? I don't know to be honest so I checked out How to Write a Scene in Your Screenplay, an article from nofilmschool.com. In summary, characters need to have desires their denied to create a clear conflict. The article also talks about how to structure a scene but I already know my structure for my opening so this wasn't really for me. The other thing it did was lead me to How to Write a Scene by John August. There are eleven questions August asks when it comes to writing a scene and I answered most of them.

This was good for getting my structure down on paper but it felt like I didn't make any real progress until I wrote a scribble version of the scene.

A scribble version is just a messy draft so I expect this to go through a lot of changes. The red ink, by the way, was written after watching the video How To Write Great Dialogue, which I had watched a couple weeks ago but revisited after realizing that the main thing I had to focus on within my screenplay was dialogue. The video mainly deals with the importance of subtext and making sure that each line serves at least one purpose. It also mentions that writers should aim to make dialogue believable rather than realistic. This way, the audience can feel immersed in what the characters are saying without being bored since everyday, realistic conversation can be rather dull. Although I feel like I've included these elements in my scribble version I think I need to take a step back and reflect. Updates coming soon!