So-Called Screenwriting ‘Rules’: Part 4

There are conventions. There are expectations. There are patterns. But the simple fact is… THERE ARE NO SCREENWRITING RULES!

Awhile back, I posted this about an occurrence that happens with irritating regularity in the online screenwriting universe: The contentious specter of so-called screenwriting ‘rules’. More below.

What happens is pretty much this:

• Somebody posts something about how there is a rule against doing this or that.
• That circulates as people bat around the idea.
• Professional writers catch wind of it, then lambaste the shit out of the thesis in question.
• The ‘debate’ fades away…
• Until the next time it arises.
• Again…
• And again…

So it occurred to me, why not just deal with it once and for all! Get every single supposed screenwriting rule out on the table, then go through them, one by one, to see if we can take all the heat that typically gets generated when one of these online snits breaks out and collectively create some actual light.

In other words, let’s make this a real learning experience and hopefully in the process, put some of this nonsense to bed for good.

I asked for your help in aggregating these ‘rules’ and as always, the GITS community responded. I’ve gone through them all, thought about it, and here is my plan: Do a 3-week series on “So-Called Screenwriting ‘Rules’”.

Week 1: As long as we’re going to take the time to go through this stuff, I figured we might as well put it all into some perspective: historical, theoretical, and practical. I’m going to start that process today:

Part 1: The Organic Nature of the Screenplay
Part 2: The Emergence of the Selling Script
Part 3: The Evolution of Screenplay Format and Style
Part 4: There are no screenwriting ‘rules’
Part 5: There are expectations

Week 2: I’ve sorted out five real nuts-and-bolts items which I will analyze and discuss one per day in our second week:

Part 6: We See / We Hear
Part 7: Unfilmables
Part 8: Action Paragraphs — 3 Lines Max
Part 9: CUT TO (Transitions)
Part 10: Parentheticals

Week 3: Readers made several suggestions that are about larger narrative choices, so let’s take those on as well:

Part 11: Flashbacks
Part 12: Voiceover Narration
Part 13: Sympathetic Protagonist
Part 14: Protagonist and Shifting Goals
Part 15: Certain Events By Certain Pages

Before we jump into this, a caveat: Everything I post in this series is my opinion. I think it’s safe to say it’s a pretty well-informed take seeing as I’ve been writing scripts since 1986 and teaching since 2002. But again, I’m simply expressing my perspective. It’s incumbent upon you to sort out your own approach to screenwriting style and the single best thing you can do in that regard is read scripts, especially screenplays written within the last 5 years as they represent the latest trends.

With that, forward into the breach!

Part 4: There are no screenwriting ‘rules’

No matter what you have read. Or may have heard. Perhaps the source is a so-called screenwriting ‘guru.’ Maybe it’s a friend. A member of your writer’s group. Whoever it is, if they tell you there are screenwriting rules… they are flat-out wrong.

There are no rules.

Why do we know this? Because there is no universally accepted codification of how to write a screenplay.

Sure, there are tons of books, webinars, seminars, classes, downloads, columns, tweets, and blog posts. And there may very well be people who claim this or that to be a rule.

But that’s just bull shit.

Repeat: There is no single authoritative guide to screenwriting. So by definition, there can be no such thing as a screenwriting rule.

Here is what there are:

• Guidelines: There are generally known and accepted ways to approach script format that reflect how most professional screenplays look
• Conventional Wisdom: There are certain axioms most people who work in the script acquisition and development universe carry with them when they crack open a screenplay for a read.
• Patterns: There are certain forms and paradigms related to story structure, character types and narrative which are held pretty much in common by these same people.
• Principles: We can even go so far as to acknowledge there are key precepts about story which derive from the relationship between human experience and our attempts to craft narratives about that experience which entertain the masses and convey some sort of meaning about life.

None of these constitute rules.

Just to be clear, here is the first definition of rule in my online dictionary: “A regulation governing conduct, action, procedure, arrangement.”

Regulation? Governing? Procedure? Think that’s conducive for creative expression? Hell, no! In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest one of the big reasons we have so many formulaic scripts floating around is because too many writers feel constricted by supposed screenwriting rules.

Rules feel like laws. And we are taught not to break the law.

Seriously, this whole line of thinking leads to nothing but the castration of creativity.

Guidelines, Conventional Wisdom, Patterns, Principles? We can live with those. Indeed, it’s critical to know what they are. That’s part of what learning the craft is about. It’s a big reason why we watch movie and read scripts because by diving into hundreds and hundreds of stories that way, we pick up commonalities between them, we see and hear their shared narrative elements.

We pick up those guidelines. We pick up that conventional wisdom. We pick up those patterns. We pick up those principles.

That is important. On most occasions, our story will follow those patterns, play to the expectations of conventional wisdom, work within the perimeters of generally accepted principles.

But sometimes, a story says, “Uh uh. I ain’t fitting into any of your damn boxes. I’m gonna invert, subvert and convert that shit into whatever the hell I need ‘coz I am one unique mofo.”

When we hear that siren’s call, when a story tells us the Protagonist is going to be an unsympathetic bastard… when a story tells us it’s got to be constructed in nonlinear fashion… when a story tells us it must use voiceover narration, flashbacks, flashforwards, a long first act, a third act with a lot of exposition, a denouement that turns into an action set piece…

Whatever defies conventional wisdom…

We not only have the right to write that story that way, we have an obligation.

If we’ve been trapped into thinking there are screenwriting rules, who do you think will win out: The rules or the story?

And what do you think is more likely to sell: A script that plays it safe and by the rules or a great story that is unafraid to take chances?

There are no screenwriting rules.

There are guidelines, conventional wisdom, paradigms and principles.

We need to pay attention to the latter because our scripts often will fall within what is generally accepted and expected within the filmmaking community, or we need to know what is traditional in order to go against type.

But we need to ignore anyone who promotes the former because each story is different and in the end, story trumps everything…

Even supposed screenwriting rules.

Fact: There are no screenwriting ‘rules’. However there are expectations on the part of anyone in Hollywood who is in the business of reading scripts for a living — from those providing coverage all the way up to presidents of production. We take up that subject tomorrow in Part 5.

If you have any questions or observations, please head to comments. Again, as long as we are taking such a comprehensive approach to this content, let’s do it to the max. I want to hear your thoughts and am glad to make this an extended conversation with a goal of putting this subject into a more helpful perspective.