Where to Start
Screenwriting is strenuous, time-consuming, and overwhelming — often because we don’t know where to begin, or when we do, we stumble down the wrong roads. Before you develop the specific tools necessary to build your story, take advantage of the assets you already have.
Start with what you know.
It’s age-old advice, but there’s more to it than the catchphrase. To fully appreciate it, separate the idea into three parts — the Three L’s of Story Creation:
What you live • What you learn • What you love
Write What You Live
Before you do any external research, explore your own experiences, feelings, and beliefs. Who are the people in your life that inspire you? Maybe your grandfather flew in WWII — that’s primary source material. Maybe you grew up with a best friend who battled leukemia. If your character faces a terminal illness, writing from lived experience will make your script honest, genuine, and real in ways research alone never can.
Oliver Stone didn’t write and direct Platoon because war films were popular in 1986. He wrote it because he lived it. In 1967, Stone enlisted in the Army and requested combat duty in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart before his honorable discharge. Platoon is his semi-autobiographical account of that experience — and the authenticity shows in every frame.
Write What You Learn
This isn’t to say you should only write what you’ve personally experienced. What you know isn’t limited to lived experience — it includes everything you’ve absorbed through research and study.
You may never have served in the military or set foot in a war zone, but if you interview people who have and read everything available on the subject, that knowledge becomes the foundation for your screenplay.
In 2004, journalist Mark Boal was embedded with bomb disposal troops in Iraq, learning their world from the inside. His Playboy article about the experience became the seed for an original screenplay about fictional characters in that same world. The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, won both Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the 2010 Academy Awards.
Write What You Love
Whether your story comes from lived experience, research, or imagination, you must be genuinely inspired by it. If the spark isn’t ignited from within, there will be no fire in your script.
Be true to who you are creatively. If you’re obsessed with American politics, write about it. If you love basketball, make it a backdrop. Your screenplay should be a movie you’d wait in a very long line to see yourself — because if you don’t feel the magic, no one else will feel it for you.
The writers who endure are the ones who never try to be something they’re not. Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel), and J.J. Abrams (Lost, Super 8, The Force Awakens) all write from a place of deep personal obsession. You can feel it in every frame.
That’s the goal. Write what you live, learn, and love — and your voice will follow.