ErinLaing.com

Before you write the script - write a one page. This isn’t something new. I hear writers say things like this all the time. But it works and I often need reminding.

What trailers do for movies, the one page does for your script. If you’re trying to work out the structure of your script it helps to summarize your film into a few small paragraphs. You’re forced to condense all the important elements into a couple of lines.

By doing this, you focus not only on the structure of the film but on key aspects that will be engaging to your audience.

The one page, in essence, has the following: The call to adventure, the inciting incident, some “thrilling” components that take place in the middle of the script (the second act) and a hook at the end that leaves the reader wanting to know more, which is essentially the climax.

Every movie has these elements - whether you’re watching a documentary, a bio pic or an action film. By defining the structure in a few lines or in one page, you make it that much easier to start writing the actual script. You don’t necessarily have to know where you’re going. You’re not drawing a box and shoving your script into it. You’re giving yourself a a baseline from which you can follow.

Here are a few books on writing that I’ve found incredibly helpful and often turn to when I need some guidance. No one book has all the answers (actually there’s no such thing as the right or wrong answer) so I often pick and choose what works for me.

1. The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
2. The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
3. The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
4. On Writing by Stephen King
5. Adventures in The Screen Trade by William Goldman

There’s a lot more out there but these are definitely a good place to start.

Amazing news this week.

Ken Scott, one of Quebec’s top screenwriters who wrote the commercially successful film’s Maurice Richard and La Grand Séduction, has signed on to work with me as my script consultant for the thriller I’ve been writing. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Another reason to look forward to moving back to Montreal.

What I’m listening to these days. From Vivaldi’s Bajazet.

Cecilia Bartoli.

Birthday Girl (it’s a working title) was selected as one of seven finalists for a competition SODEC organized called Cours Écrire ton Court! The whole experience was amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I won, but because every one who participated was incredibly talented and so encouraging towards every one else that the atmosphere felt hardly competitive. I was assigned a remarkable script consultant - Jacob Potashnik - to work with. I honestly believe that if it were not for him I would not have taken home the grand prize on the evening of October 21st. It is a surreal memory, but a great one nonetheless.

Three other writers took home prizes that night:

Best French script went to Marc-André Girard for Mauser
CBC/WGC prize went to Tom Fennario for Washed in Blue
Coup de Coeur du Public Télé Quebec went to Mireille Paris for Prière de ne pas Prier

“We are all amateurs; We don’t live long enough to become anything else”
- Charlie Chaplin