With one click
Export a perfectly formatted traditional script.
What will screenwriters need to know to succeed in the future? Linda Aronson is an award-winning screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and screenwriting guru, and she’s been keeping a watchful eye on the storytelling industry. And it’s not just the medium that’s changing rapidly, but also what viewers expect out of a movie or TV show. Yes, filmmakers have all the tools at their disposal to make their own movies, publish their own webisodes, and market their stories without a distribution company. But writers should also be paying attention to these technical elements in their future scripts.
1. One storyline will not be enough
“If you want to become a professional screenwriter, you need to understand how to create and interweave multiple storylines and multiple protagonists,” Aronson told us.
Make sure each of those protagonists has a plot, Aronson advises, which you can do by making sure your main plot is about a group together on a quest for a particular goal or thinking of each group member as a different version of the same protagonist, reacting in their own way to the same situation.
2. Format will matter much less
“Television and film now are becoming interchangeable. It’s all blending,” Aronson said. “So, don’t say, well, when I’m watching television, I will watch a multiple storyline piece, but when I go to the movies, I want to see a single protagonist story.”
The format and medium in which audiences consume stories are changing rapidly, dare I say daily. From YouTube webisodes, IGTV, Netflix miniseries, Quibi 10-minute episodes, and bingeable, streamable content, people are open to watching your content in various ways, and at various lengths, so it’s less likely you’ll need to stick to stringent page counts, and more critical that you focus on keeping your audience engaged and wanting to know what happens next.
3. Audiences will be quicker
“The exposure to digital media has meant that people are a lot faster on the uptake,” she said. “The first act turning point used to happen about 20 minutes in. Now it’s 15, 10 minutes in because audiences are faster.”
Don’t test your audiences’ patience. Attention spans are shrinking, so you need to keep your viewers hooked at every moment, which goes back to Aronson’s first point. Tell stories that give viewers more than one character to root for, more than a few challenges to overcome, and more than one reason to watch.
“Everybody really does need to understand multiple protagonists and the problems of creating and interweaving those stories because that’s what television is about,” Aronson concluded.
The more, the merrier,
You may also be interested in...
Comedian and TV Writer Monica Piper’s 5 Pieces of Advice for New Screenwriters
If you’ve found your way to this blog because you’ve recently decided to try your hand at screenwriting, you’re in the right place! Whether you write for fun or for the chance that you might make a living at it someday, it’s always nice to hear advice from other talented writers who have had successful careers. Today, that advice comes from Emmy Award-winning comedian, TV writer, and producer Monica Piper. Piper has had her hand in TV shows such as “Roseanne,” “Rugrats,” “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters,” and “Mad About You,” so her specialty is comedy, but her wide range of advice below applies ...
Screenwriting Consultant Danny Manus Gives Script Writers 5 Must-Have Business Tips
Screenwriting consultant Danny Manus is a former development executive, so he's been on the other side of the screenwriting business dynamic. He now runs his own consulting firm, No BullScript Consulting, to teach screenwriters the things they must know if they're to have a successful career in the industry. And here's a hint: it's not just about the script. Listen to his checklist and get to work! "On the business side, it's just knowing more about each side of the business," Manus began. "It's great to know 30 seconds of everything to have a conversation. But know a little bit more, and you could have so much ...
Feeling Bad About Your Screenwriting Skills? 3 Ways to Get Over Your Screenwriting Blues, from Screenwriting Guru Linda Aronson
Some days you’re on fire – pages are stacking up, and brilliant dialogue seems to be appearing out of thin air. Other days, the dreaded blank page stares you down and wins. If there’s no one around to give you a pep talk when you need it, consider bookmarking these three tips to drag you out of your screenwriting blues, from screenwriting guru Linda Aronson. Aronson, an accomplished scriptwriter, novelist, playwright, and instructor in multiverses and non-linear story structure travels the globe, teaching writers the tricks of the trade. She sees patterns in writers, and she’s here to assure you that ...