A good way to both inspire yourself and create a feel for the world of your screenplay is to create a mock soundtrack. I’ve done this recently by creating a playlist on iTunes. I think about the key scenes of my story, and then I try to come up with music that both fits those scenes and the overriding theme and tone. I can’t listen to music all the time when I’m screenwriting, but a lot of times I do. This method is especially helpful if you are either feeling disconnected from your story or not in a writing vibe. Sometimes I play the soundtrack and just close my eyes and visualize. Hey, whatever works, right?

Who knows, this may be completely worthless for you. But it’s helped me, so I thought I’d pass it along.

After watching all three seasons of Deadwood on DVD, I’ve now moved on to Firefly. I absolutely love it; it’s like Deadwood meets Star Trek, except nobody has pointy ears, and they don’t say “cocksucker” every two-and-a-half minutes.

Anyway, I’ve realized that Firefly’s female characters are one of the reasons I like the show so much. They are strong women, who were created and written against type.

Zoë Washburne - Woman first mate who wears the pants in her marriage. She may be handle herself like a man, but their aren’t many men who wouldn’t like to handle her (might have to save that for a character description).

Inara Serra - She’s an elegant whore. She’s a hooker who’s the most-cultured, sophisticated resident of the ship.

Kaylee Frye - She’s a woman mechanic. Not only does she dress, think and talk boyish, she knows how to fix stuff better than anyone who stands up to whizz. Still, deep down she’s a girly girl. That’s what makes her seem so real.

I tend to think the best characters are living, breathing ironies, and that’s what all three of those characters are. They are also original and STRONG female characters. And River Tam is just beginning to come into her own. She’s kind of like Rain Man, but younger and hotter. I have a feeling that she’s going to end up being a badass, too. Haven’t gotten that far.

Maybe Joss Whedon created such strong female characters because of his experiences on Roseanne and Buffy? Whatever the reason, Firefly is an excellent example of how men should aim to write women characters. And women writers, too, for that matter.

Today’s big screenwriting news is that Kurt Wimmer will re-write the Tom Cruise role in the spy thriller Edwin A. Salt…for Angelina Jolie. As a result, I’m a whole lot more interested in seeing Salt. Sorry, Tom, but it’s just a much more original concept now. After seeing Jolie in Wanted, we also know that Jon Voight’s offspring can pull it off.

This switch got me thinking…screenwriting is a male-driven industry, and most films have male protagonists, and most of the highest-grossing actors are men…BUT because of those facts, female audiences are almost ignored completely, deprived of protagonists that empower women.That’s why you should always at least ponder switching the way your protag pees–from standing up to sitting down.

I met Karen MCullah and Kirsten Smith, who wrote 10 Things I Hate About You, a long time ago. They were the ones who first planted the gender-switch seed in my head. I was struggling with a father-son coming-of-age spec screenplay, and it just wasn’t doing it for me. At their suggestion, I switched the protagonist to a female. It totally brought my story to life. In retrospect, the story was never compelling enough to sell. But it was much, much more compelling after I made the lead a female.

Before today, I hadn’t thought of that whole experience in forever. Looks like I’m going to have to pull out some scripts and think about doing some sex change operations. Off the top of my head, I might change an antagonist, a big-time villain, to a female. Think about it; if you write a bad-ass role for a fella, how bad ass will that character be when you re-write it for a female. Just think about it. Would Misery have been a classic if Kathy Bates’ character was written (by Steven King or William Goldman) a man? Probably not.

This won’t work for a lot of scripts, but I’m guessing it could also fix a few. I found switching the role after I wrote it the most effective way to do this. That way I wrote a STRONG female character. Not that I’m a chauvinist, but I definitely think she ended up being stronger because of that approach. Hey, it’s worth a try. If it fails, at least you got to be Lorena Bobbit for a day.

I’m convinced this is what’s at least partially responsible for the concepts behind scripts like Babel, Donnie Darko, Dog Day Afternoon, Fargo, Memento, etc. Sometimes a bizarre bit of news–like debris from a space shuttle crashing into someone’s house, for example–just speaks to you. Besides, your story has to start somewhere, right? And the old adage “the truth is stranger than fiction” has survived all these years for a reason.

For example, I was extremely interested in the Chinese boy who got to lead the Chinese team out for the opening ceremony of the Olympics alongside Yao Ming. Apparently, this nine-year-old boy pulled himself out of post-earthquake rubble to save two of his friends. I love Heroes and Unbreakable, but what about a child becoming a superhero before our eyes? Now, that would be cool.

Another news story that caught my eye was the baby who was found unscathed in the middle of a field, amidst tornado wreckage. How in the hell did that happen? Is there any other possible explanation other than divine or supernatural intervention for something so fragile surviving a natural disaster?

Apparently, I am captivated by kids surviving natural disasters, but I think most people would be. Everyone loves children (well, those of us who are right upstairs do), and there is nothing more reckless than a natural disaster. Innocence personified vs. blind carnage–captivating. Even if the news doesn’t give you your exact idea, it can definitely serve as the spark that ignites your concept or theme and gets you writing.

Watch the news every once in awhile. Pick up a paper while you are waiting, or even a magazine. Search for strange, and I’m betting a unique story will snowball out of your seach.

Buy color ink cartridges and OEM toner at My Ink Pro, where in addition to discount ink and toner, you’ll find cheap flash drives, photo paper and more!

Gandalf: Confound it all, Samwise Gamgee. Have you been eavesdropping?

Sam: I ain’t been droppin’ no eaves sir, honest. I was just cutting the grass under the window there, if you’ll follow me.

Gandalf: A little late for trimming the verge, don’t you think?

Sam: I heard raised voices.

Gandalf: What did you hear? Speak.

Sam: N-nothing important. That is, I heard a good deal about a ring, and a Dark Lord, and something about the end of the world, but… Please, Mr. Gandalf, sir, don’t hurt me. Don’t turn me into anything… unnatural.

- Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (IMDB)

Eavesdropping and people watching are a good ways to both generate story ideas and improve your dialogue writing skills. Listen to people. Watch people. Do it in line, at the mall, at the supermarket–people act nutty at the supermarket. Take a walk downtown and just observe. Keep an eye on how fans behave and talk at ballgames. Sit outside and check out how people interact with their dogs when they walk them. Watch people when you drive or ride in a car; people sing, put on make-up and do all kinds of wacky shit at stoplights and at traffic jams, or even while they’re driving.

Just try it–what do you have to lose? After a while, you will do it so well that not only will you go undetected, but you will also eavesdrop/people watch instinctively.

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while now, because it’s an aspect of screenwriting that was certainly confusing to me at first. But there definitely is a distinct difference between a montage and a series of shots.

A montage is a series of images, shots or sequences blended together to create an emotional effect. This effect could be something abstract or psychological, a la David Lynch. This effect could be employed simply to show the passing of time, i.e. two years in prison, the big wedding day or a cross-country road trip. Or this effect could be to convey something. For instance, the Dorothy magazine montage from Tootsie conveys her, er, his ascension to fame in a timely fashion. Another example is to show a couple falling in love, and doing so without overloading your audience with sappy dialogue scenes.

The Rocky movies always have montages. It’s much more entertaining to quickly show Rocky’s entire grueling training regimon, and his improvement, than one long, boring training scene. The one I linked works well because at that point in the film you are salivating over Rocky vs. Drago. The last thing you want to do is sit through a half hour of fight preparation and dialogue, especially from Brigitte, Dolph and Sly. The Departed’s opening sequence is a montage. It’s a mixture of real-life footage and filmed shots combined to convey the atmosphere in Boston when Frank Costello came into power, not to mention to show just how long he’s been in power.

I could go on all day, but typically you’ll use a montage when it’s the most efficient and effective way to convey something that’s integral to your script’s plot. The can have a comedic or dramatic effect, and every thing in between. Play around with montages. See what works for you.

A series of shots is much easier to both explain and grasp. Essentially, it is just one continuous sequence. A car chase. A martial arts fight. A guy getting ready for work. A wife preparing dinner. Recently, many of these have had a furious pace, i.e. the Bourne movies. Screenwriting is an economy of words, a trade based on brevity. Series of shots are both often the quickest and most compelling way to get from point A to point B. A series of shots is also a very visual method, and film is a visual form first and foremost.

As mentioned on this forum, “the real difference is filmic continuity.”

For formatting tips on both, I used The Hollywood Standard by Christopher Riley.