Ray-Anne Carr

Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot are two of the most well known screenwriters in the biz today, and also two of the most generous.

Through their website ‘WordPlay’ Rossio and Elliot have created an excellent Resource , including a Database of Articles on the Business and Craft of Screenwriting, which also work brilliantly for dramatic Fiction Writing.

http://www.wordplayer.com/welcome.html

It is a stunning Resource which should be better known and appreciated. Especially for writers of Genre Fiction.

And why not?

Surely the objective of skillful screenwriting is to control the emotions and reactions of the viewing audience who had paid to sit in the dark in a cinema and be entertained?

The production of the movie adds the layers of music, visual impact and performances which will persuade people to leave their comfy sofas and go out into the night, but the script has to be there.

In the current Zeitgeist, the composite demands for quality from our joint fiction reading and cinema going audience, demand, in my view, the same attention to detail and craft in the creation of a thriller as in the creation of a contemp screenplay.

From Screenwriters like these I am happy to steal gems from these pages at regular intervals and use them to challenge my work.

For example;

THE MAIN RELATIONSHIP THEORY

One way to evaluate a story is to ask — what is the main relationship presented in the story, and how effective is it?

Most great films have one, or several, great relationships at their heart. (Try this — think of your favorite film, and note how quickly you can identify the film’s main relationships, and how interesting they were to watch.)

The main relationships of a film are how the issues and themes of the story are played out on screen.

So ask yourself — do you have a main relationship, or series of relationships? Are they fascinating to watch?

This morning, this challenge gave me a light bulb cartoon moment in my latest WIP.

Go here. Learn. Sit at the feet of the masters who have given their time and energy to create these articles for the world.  http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp32.Plot.Devices.html