Chapter 7 From Page to Screen 275It’s a Wrap!
In this chapter, you have deepened your familiarity with the traditions and
challenges of screenwriting. Now, you will develop your analytical and
creative skills by evaluating movie stories and writing your own. Th e actions,
perspectives, complications, and reactions that propel a story are what
generate the hunger of the author to want to know what will occur next in
the experiences of these characters. What they do. What they say. How they
seek to accomplish goals. How they get there. It is a writer’s greatest challenge
to make the audience share that desire to know what happens next.
Th e advice of Anita Loos is as apt for us today as it was nearly a century
ago:
Above all things the scenario writer should keep alive. Just keep
yourself with lively, laughing, thinking people, think about new
things yourself, and cultivate a respect for new ideas of any kind.
Take care of these small ideas and the big plots will take care of
themselves.Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).