I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read an under-developed screenplay from an aspiring writer whom clearly jumped into the writing process too early, but fortunately the experiences weren’t in vain. Below is a short list of a few things you should consider knowing before delving into your writing process. While everyone’s process is different, I don’t think there’s any excuse to jump in too early. As Robert McKee notes in his book, Story, there is the amateur way of writing, which consists of setting out to write your idea in screenplay format as soon as you’re struck by the idea, and the professional way, which is restricting yourself from setting down the path of writing until you’ve wrapped your mind around the concept, characters, world, and literarily everything else involved with writing.

1. Know the world of story.
This is by far one of the most important aspects of writing – especially for fantasy and sci-fi writers. As soon as you’re struck with that inspirational idea, you should explore the world of the story in your imagination by noting anything and everything that strikes you with potential. In this stage of the creation process, you’ll need notebooks, sticky notes, 3×5 index cards, and anything else you can articulate your ideas with. Depending on the writer, this stage can take up to three-quarters of the overall creative process – including the actual writing of the screenplay. Jot notes about characters, themes, settings, dialogue exchanges, character-back-story, world history, geography, and anything and everything else you can think of. Not only is this step important to the development of your project, but it’s also an important test of whether your idea is fruitful enough for the screenplay medium. Your idea needs energy. If you’re unable to fill a single deck of 3×5 cards with a brainstorm of subsequent notes regarding your story then the feature film screenplay medium probably isn’t the best form for that particular story. The importance of this step is vital; if you skip it you risk loosing your reader in the scarce landscape of the world of your story, and therefore you risk the viability of your screenplay. One of the more common notes story analysts and story editors make when unimpressed by a screenplay is “lack of development” and “yet to be fully realized,” so the amount of time you spend actually imagining your world of story before writing it is imperative to the life of your project. When do you know when you’ve taken enough notes? You’ll start setting aspects of your story in stone; setting the rules of the world; designing the characters; and eventually you’ll articulate the actual premise of the story. That is, you’ll be able to articulate what your entire story is about in one sentence.

2. Know the premise
After you’ve filled several decks of 3×5 index cards and a small library of notebooks with your ideas, research, and general notes, you’re probably ready to set out on your journey across the blank page; but there’s still a couple more elements you need to articulate. While producing the plethora of notes, you should have a pretty good idea of what your story is about. For example, after exploring a potential world of story around an idea I thought was exciting, I eventually came to realize what the story was that I wanted to tell, whose point of view I wanted to tell it from, and why. That is to say, I found the premise. The premise includes the who, what, why, and why not. The who is your protagonist, or the hero of your story … the central character. The what is your story; or what’s actually happening in the story … the overall summary. The why is the protagonist’s goal. The why not is the antagonist or their goal. One such premise following these guidelines might read as the following:

A boy befriends an extra terrestrial from outer-space and struggles to help him get home before the scientists abduct him for experimentation.

While these are all mere guidelines, you should have a strong sense of what your premise is before setting out to write. There is no such thing as discovering your story while writing in screenwriting; because unlike writing a book, screenwriting demands the utmost attention to concision and precision. Remember, the key to a strong premise is one that works without specific details; the example above is about as broad as it gets. I mean, how are we supposed to know who the “Boy” of the premise is anyway?

3. Know the protagonist
Now that you’ve got a pretty good sense of what your premise is it’s time to identify and define your protagonist. After all, a premise can be, and probably should be, pretty broad, so another exploration is called for. Looking back on your notes from the exploration of the world of story, you should delve further into the protagonist with an eye toward articulating their character. This will create a fresh new wave of ideas about the Boy, back-story of the Boy, family relations of the Boy, and other character-specific ideas revolving around the Boy. This is where writers like to write biographies, autobiographies, and other helpful research papers. One technique I strongly recommend is the interview. The first way to do this is to simply sit down and start questioning your character in a formal manner.

Where were you born? What was your mother like? Did you have a best friend as a child? Then write the answers as they come: “I was born in Lake Arrowhead, California … a small town called Blue Jay. My mother is an artist first, an accountant second. She paints, sculpts, writes – pretty much does a little of everything. I had two best friends growing up, and still have them to this day. They moved when I was a senior in high school, but our bond is stronger than ever.”

Then push the interview a step further by trying to anger your protagonist or interviewee. I’m sorry, I wasn’t away your mother was still alive; she hasn’t been doing much art has she?

It’s like a character study from behind a two-way mirror. The more you question and anger your character, the more you’ll learn about them. When you’ve done that, flip sides and consider allowing your character interviewing you as the writer. “Why is your involvement in this project necessary? What’s to stop me from teaming up with the aspiring screenwriter reading this tip sheet? What makes you think you can create a life on the page?” This might not reveal much of your protagonist … but it’ll sure as hell reveal a bit about your own character. The point of it all is simply to explore your character concisely so that you don’t have to spend 110 pages exploring them during the writing of the actual screenplay; another common note from readers and editors is that regarding the meandering character development on the page. Spend time exercising with your protagonist and you’ll surely bypass the “poor character development,” and “character is a puppet” comments.

4. Know the antagonist
You can’t have a protagonist without an antagonist! More often than not, aspiring screenwriters fall into the pitfall of spending all their time and explorative energy on creating a stunning protagonist, therefore they create a screenplay with a strong central character and window into the story, but no opposition or conflict. Syd Field said it best: “Without conflict you have no drama, and without drama you ain’t got no screenplay.” While you don’t have to be as blatant as George with Darth Vader, you still have to create a viable antagonist set on preventing your protagonist from reaching his goal. Your antagonist can’t just be a person out to get your protagonist; they need just as much energy, enthusiasm, and desire to reach their own goal as the protagonist has for his or her own. Furthermore, while your protagonist needs to be strong and passionate, your antagonist needs to be stronger and even more passionate. In a sense, every story should be an underdog story; your protagonist simply must face a seemingly impossible challenge: the antagonist. Think: David and Goliath.

Imagine what Star Wars would have been like had George neglected to design a strong antagonist. Luke would drift throughout the world of story, engaging in exciting battles perhaps, but never quite confronting any sort of direct or indirect antagonism as the story unfolds. This is one of the most common mistakes I encounter when reading submissions. Consider the Pirates of the Caribbean films; each one has a strong antagonist for William, Jack, and Elizabeth to face. This is because Ted and Terry are pros, and they understand that in order to have a story worth telling, you have to have two central characters: The antagonist and the protagonist. Remember the interview exercise? When trying to anger the protagonist, note what you say for you might consider this your antagonist’s voice. In E.T. Elliot not only faces the challenge of keeping E.T. a secret, but he also has the challenge of getting him home before the scientists take control … after all, it’s only a matter of time; Elliot knows this. You might consider this indirect antagonism, for Elliot and Keys don’t meet until it’s too late.

Consider avoiding falling into the pitfall of writing a story with no conflict by designing a vivid, viable antagonist. If you’re not sure where to start, just look at Darth Vader; his character is the complete embodiment of the dark side of the theme; The dark side of the force.

5. Know the theme
Star Wars is a great film to study not only when setting out to design characters, but also when defining your theme. As mentioned, your characters need to embody either side of the theme; the positive or the negative. For more detail about this, read Robert McKee’s book, Story. For now, let’s look at what theme is exactly. The best description of theme I’ve heard comes from Ted and Terry over at wordplayer.com: Basically, they feel theme isn’t something you inject into the story, but rather theme is a well from which the everything in the story springs (definitely check out this site – it’s one of the most invaluable resources for aspiring writers available … and offered from two of the best screenwriters in Hollywood!). In order to discover and design a strong theme, you need to articulate what your story is about, and why. You need to articulate the change your character undergoes – if any. For example, E.T. might sum up as the following:

Loneliness leads to Friendship

Note that when designing your theme, or the thematic value of your story, you want to keep it as simple as possible. In fact, try to keep it to one word. This allows you to define your theme, and therefore see its transformation. In this case, Elliot is lonely due to his parents divorce, so when he encounters an extra terrestrial in his backyard, his willingness to be kind, be open, and be friendly leads to his friendship with E.T. That being said, it’s not to be mistaken that theme transforms at the break of the first act. The theme transforms over the entire screenplay. In a way, think of the negative aspect of your theme (loneliness) as the first act, the “leads to” as the second act, and the positive side of the theme (friendship) as the third. In the third act of E.T. the friendship between Elliot and E.T. blossoms tremendously when Elliot literally brings E.T. back from the dead with his love. That being said, your theme doesn’t always have to work from negative to positive – unless you’re Spielberg, or one who opts to share uplifting, escapist stories. Quite often, the theme will transform from positive to negative, and therefore create a surprising, eye-opening look at something.

Bottom line: when designing theme, try not to think of the entire theme as merely one word such as friendship or love, but as a description of change. This will automatically keep you focused toward telling a story that changes, which in my opinion are the best. Who wants to watch someone stay the same anyway? Imagine if Elliot had not met, or been kind to, the extra terrestrial in his backyard … he’s still be sad about his parents’ divorce; and that’s what I call a static screenplay!

So as we fade out, and you set out into a world of exploration and discovery, remember that by knowing these five elements before hitting a single key on your keyboard, or writing a single letter in your trusty notebook, you’ll avoid falling into the pitfalls of creating an under-developed screenplay … and probably bypass several drafts of revision.

1. World of Story
Explore it; discover it; let it grow. You should know a great deal more than what’s on the page.

2. Premise
Define the who, what, why, and why not.

3. Protagonist
Delve further into the character. Strive to create a full realized character who undoubtedly exists.

4. Antagonist
Delve further into the character. Pay just as much attention to this character as your protagonist.

5. Theme
Articulate and define the thematic value of your story in a way that suggests change from either a negative or positive.

That’s it for now. Start there and you’ll be ahead of the pack. Enjoy the exploration of your world, the meeting of your characters, and the discovery of what your story is about. Ultimately there’s two way to approach writing a screenplay: the amateur way and the professional way. Which you choose is up to you, but it might mean the difference between several drafts of revisions.