Selling A Screenplay by John Truby Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

should a screenwriter really be thinking
about selling a first screenplay we
always want to be thinking about it not
Sam I mean you're gonna be you can be
thinking about giving your first Oscar
speech right that that comes with the
territory the the question is you let
that effect of the process that you
right now it's always important to have
a sense of writing for an audience in
other words I'm not just writing for
myself I'm not just writing for my
immediate family I want to write a
script that a lot of people want to see
but it's very tricky in terms of what
steps you take based on that as I
mentioned earlier it's not about
predicting a trend it's not about
predicting what it's going to be hot
with an audience it's once you determine
certain basic elements that oh this can
be a commercial story idea then it's all
about forgetting that and getting to
what I call the gold of the idea getting
down into what is totally unique about
that story idea keep in mind the biggest
reason that script failed and Isis that
99 scripts percent of scripts fail at
the premise line when we've only written
one sentence and the biggest reason that
they fail is it wasn't an original idea
in the first place right yeah the
writers make all kinds of mistakes when
it comes to developing that idea but if
you don't start off with the original
idea in the first place it's not going
to be an original script and although it
has no interest in that right why are
why are they going to pay the kind of
money that is paid for scripts for
something that any number of a hundred a
thousand people could write so and what
most writers don't realize is because
it's so difficult to dig into
and find out what is truly original
about it most writers come up with a
premise that is a copy of a movie they
saw six months ago or it's a copy of two
movies that they put together that they
saw six months ago right that's that
doesn't make it original so it's it's
very important that once you have that
idea that you explore it very deeply
find out what is original about it and
if the idea is not original it's
important that you're not right now this
is counter to what most writers do most
writers when they come up with an idea
they immediately start writing script
pages it's one of the clearest marks of
an amateur and what happens of course is
they get 15 20 pages in they write
themselves into a dead end
they just ruined another idea now over
years and years of experience that I've
had as a writer story consultant I have
found that most ideas should not be
written as scripts and it's exactly the
opposite of when I started when I
started I thought there isn't a story
idea that I can't make work as a script
but I can't make work as a full-length
story over years of experience have
found just the opposite of the case that
the real value of exploring your premise
taking time to make sure its original
taking time to find out what the
structural problems are inherent to the
idea the big value of that comes from
finding out that 9 out of 10 ideas that
you have should not be written because
the single biggest choice that a writer
makes in the entire writing process what
story do it right not how do I write it
yeah there's a lot of decisions that go
into that but the most important is that
genius what story do it right in the
first place most stories are so full of
structural problems that in
in the idea they will not be solved I
don't care how good you are at story you
will not solve those problems so why
take months and months and a lot of pain
to write that as a full-length script
just to find out oh I didn't solve those
structural problems after writing the
script and I knew what they were right
at the beginning right at the premise
idea
so don't build the house without the
plans exactly okay so that's both the
test as if your ideas viable going back
to that premise line going back on that
premise line and it's also again it goes
back to crap one of the things they
spent a lot of time in in my anatomy
story master class is techniques for
breaking down the premise there are
actual techniques that you use to see is
this a good story idea it's not just oh
I'm excited about that idea no it's
about okay how do I find out how this is
going to work as a hundred two hundred
and twenty page script right that that
takes technique to be able to jump ahead
again we only have one line here I need
to be able to figure out how this is
going to work as a hundred two hundred
point page crap so that requires a
number of techniques giving example you
look at that premise idea and the first
thing you look for is there a desire
line embedded in this idea that can
track a hundred pages that can extend
for honored pages most premise ideas
don't have that another thing you look
at is there a main opponent in this idea
who can fight with the hero over that
length of time and can create ongoing
conflict for the entire story most
premise ideas don't have that either so
this is again going back to having the
tools in order to do your job and at the
same
time save use that save yourself a lot
of pain and wasted writing that kills
most writers I mean you write a few of
those scripts in a row where you go
through all that trouble to write the
script only to find out that the script
is not going to work no matter what you
do you're going to be writing for very
long right it's one of the biggest
reasons right
excuse me one of the biggest reasons
writers give up what if you have a lot
of tools in place but you don't know
your ending or does that mean your tools
weren't in place you use your tools were
not in place that is one of the most
important things that you want to figure
out not necessarily right at the premise
line but pretty close which is what is
the structural end point of my story and
a lot of writers ask me this is so look
you know I like to be more creative as
determined to use as though figuring out
the end point of the structure is
uncreated in fact the opposite is the
case
the better you are in structure the more
creative the script because what
structure does is it allows you to know
what will work and what won't work so
that you know all I can take this really
cool creative twist here because I've
got the structural scratch scaffolding
underneath it to support it or I don't
have it right so that's why knowing that
end point is one of the I'd say five
most important techniques in all of
story
keep in mind that that every story is a
journey of learning of that the hero
takes over the course of that story and
in any journey you take you cannot take
the first step unless you know where
you're going to otherwise you're going
to walk around in circles same is true
in the writing process and just because
you figure out the structural end point
of your story doesn't mean that you
can't change that down the road it just
means that it is going to give you a
focus point for every other
structure step that that story is going
to take
you