Writing A Fast Paced Screenplay

Many in the industry feel screenplays need to be fast paced to keep the audience’s interest. As a much younger writer who’s still learning, my two main characters are almost always from opposite walks of life or have opposing views with each having both ‘’good’‘ and ‘’evil’‘ qualities. I often also have one or two supporting characters to help drive the story forward. I’ve learned to write short scenes only 2 or 3 pages to keep things fast paced.

I’ve also started using the more advanced reel to reel approach to screenwriting instead of the ‘’rules’‘ of the basic three act structure defined by Syd Field and the other ‘’screenwriting gurus’‘. The first 5 pages have to grab everyone’s attention with the story being setup in the first 20. I write 5 pages after I get up, and another 5 before going to bed. Sometimes even taking a day or two off just to relax and develop new ideas for the screenplay. What moves the story along is having a general idea for each ‘’reel’‘ a.k.a each 10 minutes of film, with these reels having a turning point or a cliffhanger to keep things on edge. With a few exceptions or a few ‘’blocks’‘ here and there, these reels come easy in my mind. As for how I end the screenplay, I feel the final 30 minutes needs to have a secret revealed which was kept hidden in the beginning, making the screenplay complete.

As for how I learned the reel to reel approach to screenwriting, I actually learned it from writing spec samples for established television series. An episode of a television series has these 10 minute blocks or reels divided by commercial breaks, so you have to keep the viewers hanging on until after the commercials, and of course, keep them coming back every week, and every season of the show’s run.

So far I’ve written three screenplays using this approach, and they’re three of my best:

Hitchcock Films Can Be Murder

A Hitchcock enthusiast is wrongly accused of murder.

The Fleetwood Mac Story

A biopic about the legendary rock band.

The Human Condition

A man in his late 30's explores our basic human condition as the ultimate journey.

These are the television series I’ve written samples for, where I learned this approach:

Desperate Housewives

Lost

One Life To Live

Justin