Essential Skills for Successful Screenwriting

The number of skills you need to become a successful screenwriter is unlimited. You are always going to be learning and honing the craft. It can sound overwhelming, but I promise you can learn them. There are a few foundational things that you must have that are non-negotiable. Story structure is the biggest element of screenwriting that you have to be able to master. You can have a funny character or a funny scene, but if there is no actual “story” happening, that has the audience rooting for that character, nothing else really matters. You have to know story structure like the back of your hand, and you have to know how to unpack it in a compelling way for the audience.

As you continue with your writing journey, you will learn more and more skills from writers who have more experience. But starting out, you need to know the basics, and even the basics can be a lot. Studying from reliable people who have actually worked professionally as screenwriters can be a game-changer. You don’t want to study from people who have never done the job that you are going after. You will probably learn some bad habits from them, and it won’t do your writing any justice. In this article, we will talk more about story structure, a little bit about developing characters, formatting and industry standards, scene construction, getting feedback, and staying persistent. Again, it sounds like a lot, but this is all stuff that is very doable for any writer.

Mastering Storytelling Principles

What exactly is story structure? Well, it’s what it sounds like. It’s a structure. Not a formula. And this is a big misconception. Every story needs to have a structure so it feels like an actual story. All stories (well, at least good stories) follow the same structure. I know I have said the word “structure” a lot, it’s on purpose, so it gets stuck in your head. If you want to know the structure like the back of your hand, make sure you take Michael’s Screenwriting course “A Showrunner’s Guide to Screenwriting.” He goes into this in so much detail that as you continue your writing journey, you will hear his voice in your head about all of the different story structure points.

The most minimalist thing you need to have for a story to even have a chance at feeling like a story can be summed up in 3 words. Hero—Obstacle—Goal. That is your foundation right there. For your audience to even want to care the tiniest amount about your story, you need to have those 3 things. And the audience needs to be able to identify those 3 things very quickly, or you will lose them. We have to know who we are rooting for. We have to know what they want and why they want it. And there have to be obstacles that are preventing the hero from accomplishing their goal. Again, Hero—Obstacle—Goal. 

Now, along with this foundation, this all gets laid out into a 3-Act structure. Again, Michael goes into great detail about this in his course. Some people may call it a 4-Act structure or even a 5-Act structure, but it is all the same. Others will split up Act 2 into different acts, but trust me, it’s all the same. But your Hero—Obstacle—Goal has to be apparent and relevant in each of these acts.

Sometimes, the way some of these “screenwriting books” talk about story structure really confused me. Let’s take an example real quick. One of the non-negotiable structure points of proper story structure happens at the end of ACT 1. I have read screenwriting books that have referred to this moment as “this is the point of no return for the protagonist journeying to the collision with the antagonist as they cross the threshold into the demise of their relationship to the point of no return.” Full disclosure, I have no idea what that means. If you can understand that, great! You are much smarter than me. I mean, I know what it means now because of how Michael teaches that story structure point. But at the time, I had no idea. I feel like there are some double negatives in there, and I’m not that smart. I also might not have the quote correct. Probably because it is so confusing. Nevertheless, let’s compare that jacked-up sounding structure point to what Michael teaches in his course and how he refers to that specific structure point. Michael refers to this moment as where the character begins “to take the wrong course of action.” OHHHHHH! SO MUCH EASIER TO UNDERSTAND. Basically, what this means is that at this particular point in your story, your hero character needs to begin their journey or attain their goal, but they are going to constantly make the wrong decisions to create conflict and drive the story, which are the “Wrong Actions.” If your character always makes the “right decisions and the right actions,” there is no story. The wrong decisions and wrong actions keep building against the character. And that is the beauty of how Michael teaches story structure. He breaks it down like this, so it is much easier to understand. I think when things that sound complicated like “story structure” can be broken down and are easier to understand, it really makes writing more enjoyable and can help you keep going. 

Developing Strong Characters

Developing characters may seem like one of the hardest things you can do for your story. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. A lot of the characters we see are loosely based on people we know from our own lives. You may be surprised how often in Writers Rooms a character idea starts with someone saying, “I once had this gym teacher, and he was obsessed with blowing his whistle for every little thing.” Someone will say something as little as that, and then it turns into, “Well, what if he does that to assert power?” Then that turns into, “What kind of insecure idiot needs to assert power over a bunch of elementary school students?” Then it’s “well, what is he really insecure about?” Not the greatest pitch, but you get the idea. Every person you have ever interacted with has the potential to be the main character in your story. You just have to know the structure of how to put them there and identify the rootable emotional goal we want to see, so they serve a purpose in your story. 

Another huge benefit of Michael’s course is that he has this character chart where it is just pages and pages of characteristics you fill out about a character, many many different questions to answer about them, and once you have filled out every section, you have a pretty fully fleshed out character developed and you really know who they are at their core. 

Don’t make your characters overly stereotypical, whether it’s your hero character or your villain. Your hero should not be the person who is always able to figure stuff out and has a good grasp of integrity. If your main character always made the right decisions, there would never be a story. Making the wrong decisions adds to the complications which propels the story forward. They need to have some sort of emotional flaw they are trying to overcome, and that’s what we are rooting for. They shouldn’t necessarily be the most “heroic” characters. The same thing goes for your villain. If your villain is “The Devil”, don’t just give them devil-like qualities. Give them qualities that people can relate to. The Devil that can be kind and compassionate is much more interesting than the Devil that is mean and evil. That’s been done a million times. 

When creating the relationship and story between these two characters, you want to make sure you write it in a way that each of these characters are “the hero” from their POV in the story. Don’t write it where it is so obvious that the hero is obviously going to defeat the villain. Write in a way where the villain does things that are logical and make sense, and you (the audience) understand the why and are sympathetic to it. It’s like a breakup, the boyfriend is the hero from his POV, and the girlfriend is the hero from her POV, yet they were both villains in each other’s story. Who was right and who was wrong, we may never know. Except in my story, I was obviously right and she was wrong. But jokes aside, this is how you can develop strong characters. If you write them in a way where you can look at the character that is the “Devil” and they do something to the “hero” and you say “okay, yeah… I actually get that. That makes sense.” This is how you can really start to create great stories and great characters. Again, everyone is the hero from their own POV in a story. Forget the word “anti-hero.” Every character needs to be the hero in their own story.

Screenplay Formatting and Industry Standards

Formatting of a screenplay isn’t super super important, yet at the same time, it is incredibly important. If you have ever seen a professional screenplay, it obviously looks different from an essay you would write for English class or something. But luckily, there is screenwriting software out there that will do all of this work for you. Final Draft is the industry standard for what is used for screenwriting and helps keep track of revisions and all of that. If you want to learn a lot more, I teach a Script Coordinating class on Michael’s website that dives into the specifics of Final Draft and how you can stay organized as you write. 

Screenplays are all going to look the same for the most part from a format POV. You are going to have scene headings that tell where the location of the scene is taking place. You are going to have action lines that will describe what is going on in the scene, to a degree. Then you will have the character’s name and their dialogue. There are a few more elements, but those are sort of the basics. 

Sometimes people have a preference for little specifics on customizing some of these screenplay elements. Maybe they want the scene headings italicized or in bold. Maybe they want the characters’ names underlined. These sorts of things aren’t going to make or break your script from a formatting POV. But if you try to send someone a script and all of the character dialogue is on the left side of the page instead of in the center, that is the easiest way to show that you are an amateur. And chances are that the script won’t even be read past the first page because if all of the elements don’t look like they should, it can be confusing and frustrating to read. No one is going to hire you because your formatting is phenomenal. On the same token, no one is not going to hire you because one little thing is off on the formatting. Again, Final Draft will do 99 percent of the formatting for you. You are going to get hired because you can write a story.

Pacing and Scene Construction

There are a lot of things to keep in mind when writing the actual scene in the story. The one thing you have to be sure of with every scene and every piece of dialogue is that all of those elements must support the story. This is why the outline is so important to hammer down, because you already know that the scene supports the story. This is why I recommend you do the outline and don’t skip it. This is one of those foundational pieces that will help you in the long run.

One big thing to keep in mind when writing the scene and knowing if it actually propels the story forward is to pay attention to your main character’s emotional state at the beginning of the scene vs the end of the scene. These two emotional states need to be different for the scene to propel the story forward. They don’t necessarily need to be opposite emotional states, they just need to be different. So if your character starts the scene out happy, the scene better end with them feeling frustrated or confused or sad or something like that. But again, this emotional change must be on story. Well, what does “on story” actually mean?

Let’s say the overall story is about a guy who is going to ask out the girl of his dreams. And let’s say this particular scene is supposed to be about his well-thought-out plan about how he is going to ask her out. He is excited, he is hopeful, he is ready. His friend enters the scene and says, “hey man, I just saw so and so with her ex, and they were making out.” You can obviously tell his emotional state is not going to still be “happy”. He is going to feel desperate or sad or something along those lines. Not the greatest scene ever thought out, but you get the idea of how his emotional state changed. And now he has another decision to make. Does he still go through with it? Does he change his plan? Does he seek to kill the new guy? That got dark. But again, you see how this news changes his emotional state, and he now has to make another decision, which drives the story forward.

Again, this emotional change needs to support the actual story. If we used the same example for the scene, but he finds out his pet turtle died, and now he is sad, sure, his emotional state changed from the beginning of the scene to the end of the scene. But his turtle dying has nothing to do with him asking the girl of his dreams out. And that is what is meant by all of the scenes and dialogue need to be “on story.”

Any scene you write that does not have those emotional changes is not really a scene that you need to keep in the story. If there is no emotional change in a scene, then nothing probably happened in the scene, and it is just taking up space on the page and didn’t propel the story forward. If that is the case, break down the scene a bit more and figure out how you can make it so your character’s emotional status changes. Make sure you put your character on a little journey in each scene.

Receiving and Implementing Feedback

As a screenwriter, the worst thing you can probably do is be overprotective of your babies (story, script, scene, character, etc). Screenwriting is such a collaborative process, and you will work with many people with different viewpoints on the story. 99.9 percent of these people are giving you their viewpoint and their thoughts to try and make the story better, not to piss you off.

If you don’t allow for the idea of change in your story, you may inadvertently be closing doors to something that could be amazing. There are so many stories out there where one character or one little storyline was only supposed to be there for an episode or two. And then some change happened, and it took the story in a new direction and was better than what was originally planned. Again, you want these moments to happen. You want people to try and make your story better.

On the other side of that coin, if you are a new writer on a show, your job is not to make the best version of the show that you think it should be. That is not what you are being paid to do. Your job is to give feedback and ideas that will make the show better in the eyes of the showrunner. If you can support them and level up the story with your ideas, they will love you for it. Not every idea you pitch is going to be a home run. And that’s okay, it’s part of the process. But when you do pitch an idea, if the showrunner doesn’t like it, move on. Don’t debate with them on why your idea is going to be better. Remember, they have a lot more experience with how to tell stories. So pitch your idea and move on.

Creativity, Resilience, and Persistence

I think people really underestimate the superpower that screenwriting is. Think about it for a second. You have this nugget of an idea in your head from something you have seen, you write a bunch of words on some blank pages in a very specific order and very strategic way, and if you do this correctly, people are going to be so moved. I think that’s as close to real magic as we can get.

The amount of resilience and persistence you need for screenwriting is really no different than being a professional athlete. You are going to spend years learning your craft and probably not be very good at it first. You are going to write a couple of scripts that you think are the golden ticket to your Emmy, when in reality, they won’t be. All writers don’t know how to write at first. You have to learn it and hone your craft. The competition is fierce, and you are going to face rejection more times than you will succeed. One of your glimmers of hope should be that other people give up before you do, so that just increases your chances of making it.  

Conclusion

The skills you need to become a great screenwriter are endless. But the good news is that they can all be learned if you are disciplined enough. The biggest thing you can do for yourself is learn about story structure and what a story really is in the medium of screenwriting. Once you can master this, all of the other factors will begin to fall into place. You will know the service that those great characters you created have with the outcome of the story, you will learn how to make sure each scene propels the story forward. And you will learn how to unpack all of these elements to move people.

Like I have said before, give yourself time and grace when it comes to screenwriting. It really is not something that can be learned overnight. You have to be disciplined and consistent to make it in this industry. But the better you can be at telling stories, the more opportunities will come your way and you will be prepared when they do

Michael has some free lessons you can watch, so you can start your journey and learn more about story structure and the storytelling process.

I encourage you to sign up. It’s free! Literally no excuse. It’s free! And just in case you don’t know what “free” means, “free” means “FREE.” Do you know what ISN’T free?

Having regrets.

But what IS free is Michael’s free screenwriting lesson.

Sign up and start your screenwriting journey today with a lesson from Michael Jamin at michaeljamin.com/free.

Did I mention that these free lessons are FREE?

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