Feeling Stress from Screenwriting

I thought I had "The Key" to writing screenplays.

I thought I had a solution that would allow me to write, to "fix" my story, from beginning to end.

75 pages in I felt stressed.  I felt that I didn't know if everything I had written up to that point was unchangeable.

I felt that I may have just spent six hours changing my story rather than making it better.

I didn't sit down and read my story as a pdf without judgement.

I didn't sit down and read my story, as a pdf, as if it were someone else's story

I sat down, came up with a general solution to apply to every scene, and I began changing scenes.

Prior to this writing session, I had received feedback from two people on trigger street labs.

I had reviewed seven writers work on trigger street labs and noticed a common element that I felt was missing in their work.

When I looked at my story, I felt I too was missing this element.

So I decided to change everything in my story until it contained it.

Did it make it better?  I don't know.

This is a feeling of uncertainty that I get whenever I come up with a "missing element" or "missing piece in the puzzle" idea that I think would make a "great" screenplay.

Then I decided to go back to the initial touchstone for my story: "Fargo"

I wanted to see if Fargo, a script I view as "Great" contained the same element I assumed must be in great scripts.

And low and behold it doesn't.

So what did I learn?

Before I jump in and start to tweak my story I need to:
1) Sit down and read my script as a PDF from beginning to end and take notes in MS Word.
2) Write down my solutions to my notes.
3) Check to see if produced screenplays utilize these solutions.

Then, start changing, tweaking, moving things around.

Screenplays - Present or future tense

Screenplays are written in the present tense.

However the audience is concerned with the future.

"If" and "What if" suggest the future.   They are the source of story.

Main character and their want - Your spine - screenwriting

When you cut away to another character in another place - whatever it is they are doing - the audience should understand how it will affect your main character's want.  Is it going to make it harder for them to get.  I hope so.  If it's not...who's going to stamp out the flame of hope.

Thesis Statement = character want

Your character's want and reason for that want are the thesis statement of your story.

In an essay's first paragraph you make a point.  You put forth an argument.

In the first scene of your story, your character should make an attempt and explain what they want.

In each scene after that, there should be a thesis.  A scene objective.  An attempt toward the reaching the story objective.

The thesis statement should remain flexible until the paper is actually finished. It ought to be one of the last things that we fuss with in the rewriting process

The above quote rings true when it comes to stories.  If you change the story want, you change the story.

Character Want - Screenwriting

If you change the WANT, you change the STORY.

Stick with the want.

Relationships - screenwriting

At the end a scene....what should my understanding be of the relationship of the characters in that scene?  How has their relationship been established in their first scene together and how has it changed in this new scene?

Point of View - Screenwriting

Is your main character the POV character in all their scenes?

Don't let you be the POV or your reader be the POV or the audience be the POV.

Your main character should be the POV.

Start and end the scene with your main character.  Make sure their want is driving the scene and everything else in the scene is an obstacle.