Script to Screen

STEP 1: Define the Spine

If you can’t define it, you can’t write it! The spine is the central idea or core of the story. I call it the spine because it is what everything hinges on. It is what the story is about.

This is a story about: a spoiled sorority blonde who gets dumped by her boyfriend and manages to get herself into Harvard Law School to win him back. (Legally Blonde)

This is a story about: a lost alien who is befriended by a young boy who helps him find his way back home. (E.T.)

This is a story about: a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl who decides to have her baby and seek out good parents for it. (Juno)

Inherent within all of the spines above are character, need, conflict, and action.

Too often, producers and studio execs complain, “somewhere along the way screenwriters get off track. They forget what they are writing about.” While writing and developing your screenplay, repeat to yourself over and over: This story is about… This will help you stay on track.

STEP 2: Establish the Time Frame

Does your story take place in one night? Over the span of the football season? In the movie The Holiday, two women in different countries swap houses for two weeks, meet local men, and fall in love…