Screenwriting : How to start writing your screenplay by Isabel Olea

There are so many methods and theories. Each writer has his/her own way of approaching a script. What I do is "see" the movie in my head, from start to finish. I spent over a year developing my script in my head before I even began to sit down and write. While I was doing that, I'd come up with the names of the characters, and a simple outline. The outline isn't so much as an outline, but a guide. I use this on every script I write: http://www.storymastery.com/articles/30-screenplay-structure After I fill in those plot points and turning points, I start to write out a scene. Any scene. You usually have several scenes in your head that you know for sure how they will play out. Write those first. You can always go back and fill in the scenes before and after that point. Also, try not to stare at the dreaded "FLASHING CURSOR"... If you get stuck on a scene, just move onto the next scene, or another scene that you already have a clear vision for. Not sure if this helped, but there's my piece! Good Luck!

Ask yourself several questions. Who is my protagonist? Who is the antagonist? What is the protagonist after? What will happen if they don't succeed? What do the antagonist and protagonist have to lose? Why does the antagonist want to stop the protagonist? Once you have that, break your story down into three parts. What is the exciting incident? That is, what's the key in the ignition that gets the story going? Then ask yourself, How does the story end? Then you can development the two major turning points along the way which will happen one third and two thirds of the way through your story. That's your rough outline. Now you need to develop your characters. Write a biography of each character. Age, friends, schools, likes and dislikes. What were their parents like? That should get you started.

Do you have any screenwriting software? If not, www.celtx.com is a free download and an excellent program.

Thank you Joseph for the tips! And Ray, I for sure downloaded celtx and thanks for your comment it really did help a lot.

The first scene is the one I always obsess over the most, but once I put something down that I like it's go time. The opening scene is your hook and depending on what genre you're going for will open differently. If you're writing a horror or an action/adventure, you'll want to find a prologue scene that can set up either the bad guy doing a very bad thing, or the protagonist showing his skill. One of the best prologue scenes is 28 days later when animal activists break into a lab and free chimps infected with the rage virus. Or Indianna Jones in the South American jungles. If you're writing a romantic comedy you'll want to focus on a character flaw. Your main character finding their partner in bed with someone else for example. The same pretty much applies to drama. The fact is where to start is a difficult question but you must keep in mind what you're writing about.