Scriptwriting - Tumblr Posts

If there is interest, I'm toying with the idea of uploading the introduction chapter script to the comic somewhere. It's looking like it'll be around 20-25 pages. I've almost finished it, and I'm in a weird position where I don't really know where to turn to for feedback??

(that's the one thing that really sucks about not being in art school anymore...no one to go to for crits!!)

I want to write the majority, maybe around 75 percent of the whole story before I do any art...cause what if it turns out this project actually is really bad and I've been caught in a mental vacuum thinking we have a great thing going lol...

Do you ever finish writing something you like and are just like "you'll never see the light of day :D"

This is a script I wrote a long time ago but recently found in my docs the story is called The Cresent Moon tell me what you guys think.

Crescent Moon

FADE IN:

EXT: Oak forest, dusk.

Two werewolves are hunting in the woods. They need to find food soon or their pups could die. The two wolves (Mackenzie & Maxine/Max) shift into their human forms to track a deer.

 Mackenzie: We won’t be able to find enough meat to support ourselves let alone the pups for the entire winter if we keep this pace. Let’s move to a more prey-filled area before the first frost sets in then we…. Max. Max, what are you doing?

Max grabs her knife and starts to growl and stalks toward Mackenzie.

Max (Snarling): Something I should have done two years ago. GoodBye Mackenzie.

Max pounces and slashes at Mackenzie’s chest and face and leaves her for dead.

10 minutes later a saber-tooth werecat (Vanessa) comes across Mackenzie’s dying body and takes her into her home to help her heal.

INT: Vanessa’s house, morning

Mackenzie wakes up on a couch bandaged up in Vanessa’s house the next day confused about where she was and how she got here.

Vanessa walks in from the kitchen with a cup of water.

Vanessa: Good, you're awake.

Mackenzie: Where am I and why am I here?

Vanessa: You’re in my house. I brought you here to help you heal. You’re lucky I found you in the woods when I did or you could have died.

Vanessa points to the bandages on Mackenzie’s chest.

Vanessa offers Mackenzie a cup of water. Mackenzie takes the glass and takes a few sips

Vanessa: I don’t want to hurt you more than what you already have been through. I’m Vanessa.

Mackenzie: I’m Mackenzie and thank you for saving my life.

The crescent moon mark on Vanessa’s shoulder begins to glow a faint pink

Vanessa: I should go get some venison. Are you hungry Mackenzie? 

Mackenzie: Not really but I’ll try to eat something.

Vanessa (puts hand on Mackenzie’s shoulder): Hey you don't have to eat if you really don't want to but atleast try to eat something.

“[In storytelling] niceness tends to kill characters - if there is nothing wrong with them, nothing to offend us, then there’s almost certainly nothing to attract our attention either.”

— John Yorke (in ‘Into the Woods: How stories work and why we tell them’)

Idk it’s taking a really long time to finish the script, so it’ll be a long while till I actually start drawing the episodes so this would be a good stand in, for some teasers and stuff..

I ran a zine making event and I'm super proud of what I made! I put together lil thematically congruent collection of snippets my work

One of the things that attending my first pride festival taught me, was that I was a freak. And that was okay.

The second that I saw the collar and the set of wrist cuffs on that table, I knew. I wanted it. I just didn't know how to fully articulate it. And then the kind person who ran the stall asked me if I wanted to try the pieces on. I remember being so apologetic at the time, and them being so supportive. I remember feeling so... comfortable. I wore the collar and the cuffs for the rest of my time at the festival. I never felt so... completely safe before.

And when I got home, well... That's a personal story. The most important thing that I learned was that I was into bondage. I was into the idea of letting someone tie me up, and just letting go of control for a while. Giving that control to someone I trust. (And maybe in fantasy... to someone I don't.)

I'm a freak. A writer who likes freaky things. And I believe that that's okay, so long as everyone is safe and alright. So long as everyone is a consenting adult in the situation.

I don't know why I feel the need to admit it, but I do. And now that I have, I honestly feel better now.

It’s been a minute since I posted haha. So started doing a script for the beginning of my story a month ago and so far it’s looking good. I also started a short timeskip story with the characters moved on in their life’s, but of course can’t forget the angst. For concept designs,it has been delayed and I’m not sure what I’m gonna do abt it. I’ve been reading light novels like durarara and the art is great might want to make my story into a comic don’t know. Anyways, good whatever time your reading this :]

(Miku shiba)

Hi hello! Have not posted in awhile but I’m here to say that I have officially finished the first script of the gaming manga club and am almost done with the second one. In “celebration” of that,I’m posting concept art of three of the characters.

These were all made by a friend of mine and will be used as visuals to better imagine the story. Anyways, I’ll leave this here. Have a good whatever time it is! :]

Hello, hi! Little update: Just learned about this scripting website called Celtx and ugh I wish someone told me about it earlier, it’s great! I put my script in it and the difference from google docs is drastic. Anyways, once I’m done editing it properly in the site and a few minor tweaks in the story, I’ll post it up. Can’t wait!

(Obviously not sponsored, simply recommended)

Once I asked a cinematographer what equipment I needed to shoot my short film and they said "passion and a camera."

Thinking about writing a script this summer- I’ve done one or two in the past with my girlfriend, but we broke and aren’t talking very much so I’m going to try doing one alone.

I’m so used to sharing everything I write with them so that we know where the other is that, so I might post it all here instead because I just wanna talk abt them 🥲

Anyway, it’s sort of coming-of-age type movie about 7 people who runaway together from different places for different reasons (some of the join the group by coincidence/accident but most of them agreed and working together through an online group chat). The story is split into 2 acts: where they are introduced and plan their escape and where they deal with life as runaways. I think most of the focus of the stories if about relationships (platonic, romantic, familial, etc) and the impacts our environments have on us, mostly because I love focusing on that when I write D&D characters and there are just a lot of different environments and relationships between the characters

Here’s the picrews I made of the characters and Pinterest people I think look as similar to my picture of them as possible

I’ll probably start posting rants about each character as I start writing more details about them and why they choose to leave

This is Artemis Knight or “Missy” from my script!!

Pronouns: They/she

Ethnicity: Greek-British

Alignment: Chaotic neutral

Her playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6xdp6HGH0zjmmLc2DzhluA?si=ft-woquiS_S6uY-FX13Sug&pi=e-vG5atQhLRGuz (inspired by her experience and personality NOT their music taste)

Personality: Chilled, nihilistic, obsessed, very introverted and protective, avoids sleep like the plague

They run away with their best friend and foster sister Flora-Maya (long weird name, ik but there’s a reason for it).

They’re abnormally close to the point where it’s kind of codependent and possessive but they get healthier as they try and survive with people outside of each other and live together in a safer environment.

I love Missy so much istg

Missy (the oc from my previous post about a script I’m trying to write) is autistic and nonbinary and REALLY codependent on their best friend Flora-Maya.

They grew up together being the first people to show each other genuine kindness and sort of contrasting each other’s lives (Flora-Maya spent a long time in a home that was very critical of everything she did and Artemis was raised in a very tough love, academic-focused and touch-ambivalent family) so I think Artemis views Flora-Maya as sort of the only person on their team as well as someone more important than everyone else/more deserving of love.

Artemis is isolated from everyone else and I think isn’t used to being around people who haven’t grown up with her. She’s very weird and bad with words, so she’ll often say things that don’t make sense (using incomplete sentences, abandoning context and using acronyms they completely made up).

They also are very unaffected by any judgement/mockery/bullying they may face at school due to the all the criticism she receives at home, so I don’t think that Missy ever abandoned the weird habits that a lot of kids drop after some teasing. They move weirdly, sometimes dancing for no reason, randomly stretching/wiggling their arms and legs and pull random faces just like in the middle of conversations.

They’re not used to boundaries (because they have none with Flora-Maya or their younger brother once he comes along later on) and often will just touch if they want to touch or take is she wants to take, without really thinking about it or asking for permission or providing any warning.

(It improves as they get to know other after running away, though, so it doesn’t become a really big concern)

Hahaha if I can be weird then so will every oc and fanon character I can get my hands on. Missy is a weirdo, Flora-Maya is a weirdo, Deidre is a weirdo, Tonya is weirdo- just try and stop me

This is Flora-Maya Smith!!

Ideals: To protect and love Artemis, to try new things, to have fun, to live a full life

Pronouns: She/her

Ethnicity: Ghanaian-British

MBTI: INFP

Alignment: Chaotic good

Star sign:

Personality: Kind, nihilistic, optimistic, enthusiastic, loves beauty, daydreamer, poor attention, romanticises things a lot

Her playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2o5uT64z6mfq7vcC36VTRX?si=1-q0RR0kRsqVa9M2nOnp_A&pi=e-Lc6Oa7_0RJyj

She grew up in Wales with Artemis Knight for most of her life and runs away with her when they’re both 16

Flora-Maya (An oc from a script I’m writing) was written as an idealized version of myself (at least at the start). The story follows the perspective of half of the runaways but leaves some out for the purpose of letting the reader learn things about some of the characters the way we do in real life rather than understanding every character the way they view themselves. Flora-Maya is one of the characters we get to know through Missy (and another character)’s perspective rather than through herself.

Missy has always idolized FA as a strong weathered veteran to seam so unaffected by any difficulties she faced and a prodigy in the way she excels in everything they failed at. As the story progresses, and the pair begin to get in touch with other people, FA finally finds herself in a space where she’s comfortable enough to react to everything she’s dealt with and Missy is forced to face and cope with the fact that for their entire friendship/childhoods she and Flora-Maya have known each other inside out but not understood each other.

Flora-Maya faced a lot of change growing up- her parents died when she was only 3, her grandmother took over only to die 2 years later and she experienced 2 moves with her first and second foster families before she came to settle in with the Knights. Because of this, she’s very versatile and flexible but resistant to forming close bonds to anyone except Missy. To cope with a lot of the loneliness and boredom that came with these traits, Flora-Maya created large, elaborate, detailed daydreams to distract herself. She had an imaginary friend she took from her favourite book who would follow her everywhere and do the things she didn’t want to do (like chores) and speak up when she didn’t want to. When she meets Missy at 6, the daydreaming continues, but her imaginary friend is replaced by her first real one who behaves similarly to the person she made up and always listened to the stories she made up when she was bored.

Aside from being a maladaptive daydreamer, Flora-Maya is also very nihilistic. Because of the many changes in her life and her lack of control over them paired with her foster parents’ habit of blaming any misfortune that occurred around them on her, FA comes to the conclusion that very little changes regardless of what you do. This view rubs off on Missy a lot later on in their childhood and the pair of them very differently. FA grows a lack of regard for worry and judgement, she becomes a very spontaneous and inconsequential person, doing whatever she likes so long as it doesn’t harm anyone.

Resultantly, while FA is a lot more aware of social cues and expectations than Missy, she often disregards them. For example, Flora-Maya often had a disinterest in doing what she was supposed to in lessons, often bringing activities (like books and knitting equipment) to school to complete during lessons she considered irrelevant/unimportant and wasn’t afraid to do things that were abnormal like randomly sitting on the floor in public if her legs got tired. She wore brightly coloured clothes that may not look good together if they felt particularly comfortable or she was fond of them.

From Missy’s perspective of her this might come off a bit manic pixie dream girl-esque but I promise she’s a lot more complex than that and has a number of reasons for every choice she makes throughout the script- I love her so much and she’s so complex and precious and strong

Ladies, gents and others: Tonya Ahlström!!

Role: The sun/the ex-lover

Ideals: To love, to be loved, to see the world, to learn as much as she can

Pronouns: She/her

Ethnicity: Canadian-Norwegian

MBTI: ENFP

Alignment: Neutral good

Personality: Kind, curious, explorative, romantic, wear her heart on her sleeve, sensitive, trusting, naive, brave (or maybe stupid, who knows)

Her playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2D5nWRpL9bmSqrsbjlIWYd?si=9WHgl3ZYTO-B2cpyuSLxwg&pi=e-RlqFBPARRkmG (based on her vibes and personality, not music taste)

Tonya is my favorite disaster lesbian, she’s the type of gay to move in on the first date, get dumped on the second and then take a year to get over her ex

She skipped town with her runaway ex-boyfriend turned best friend (Lucas Bennet) after getting outed in a really fucked up, embarrassing accident (ouch).

You know that quote that’s like “If Nana was a boy, she’d be the love of my life” that but it’s a twink and a lesbian- they are platonic soulmates.

I FINISHED MY FIRST DRAFT.

My brain has stopped forming words. Thank god it's done because editing is so much better than a blank page. The word count is not high but that's because it's not prose it's a script.

But let this be some motivation. I hope you all also finish whatever you're working on!

Thinking again about the Eternals and how bad they fumbled that potential. Because you have an Oscar winning director, who ensures breathtaking cinematography, solid performances from capable and exciting actors, with set pieces and choreography that is honesty very good.

And you fuck it up with the script.

It’s the same issue we had with Batman v Superman: there’s 3 good movies fighting for space in 1 film.

Firstly you could focus on relationships, exploring the found family/ageless guardians/eternal love story route with the ‘urgent problem’ just being a more powerful or capable version of the Deviants. From Friends, to The Umbrella Academy, via The Avengers, Avatar the Last Airbender, Big Hero 6 - we love a found family trope, especially if they’ve been brought (back)together to save the world. Ultimately the other Eternals are the only beings on the planet who can truly understand and empathise with each other so let’s explore and show that bond. Tell their story across the ages of the Earth with proper time spent to flesh out these conflicts and moments which define the group as a whole and how they individually relate to one another.

Tell the eternal love story of Sersi and Icarus, but consider the view of the brilliant Only Lovers Left Alive: Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swindon convincingly portray an ageless love, unconcerned with immediate worries. They are currently living apart but both know that eventually they will make their way back to one another, and they are in constant contact across the globe. Sersi and Icarus could be that: they have been/are/will be together but as they measure life by millions of years living separately for a couple of decades is nothing. They will be drawn back together again and in their hearts only the other can truly know and love them for all that they are. Explore this while they fight for the planet they both have come to love.

Or consider the less brilliant but arguably more entertaining eternal love in Hitchcock: Charlize Theron and Will Smith are thousands of years old and have been driven apart by circumstance but now Charlize loves another man and wants to spend his moral lifespan with him. Both acknowledge that it’s inevitable they will be together again as some point in the future but for the next 60ish years they will live apart so she can experience that love. Maybe in the time they’ve been apart Sersi has come to love another and now that war has brought Icarus back into her life and they have to fight together their different assumptions are being tested; Icarus assumed they would fall back into their love, while Sersi wants another 60 years with her mortal lover. All to the backdrop of fighting to wipe out The Deviants forever and be released from their duty.

Secondly you could tell the story of soldiers betrayed by their general and commander, using the same plot from the actual movie. The Eternals are foot soldiers stationed to defend the human population and have devoted their lives to their growth and safety. They’ve even stood aside when other threats revealed themselves (the MCU up to this point) because their mission was Celestially Ordained and to deviate from it would compromise their purpose. To realise that devotion was twisted and they must now stand aside and allow those they spent their lives protecting to die horribly would be traumatic; explore and tell that story. Again we love an underdog discovering they have been lied to or used and turning on their previous corrupt commander; Mission Impossible, Gladiator, all the Bourne movies. We *like* the story of cogs in the machine realising they have been used and standing up for their principals. Have them discover this news earlier and the movie then deals with their decision to accept their assigned role or rebel against their commander. Add Athena’s PTSD and past memory revelations to bring home the stakes of their choice, with a ticking clock counting down to ‘emergence’, and you’ve got a real tragedy brewing,

Furthermore, weave in the power struggle between Sersi and Icarus regarding who will be leading them with Ajax dead. Icarus is the loud and commanding ‘leader” type stepping forward to assume command, but Sersi is the reassuring rock for the team who each member finds themself turning to for advice, guidance, or to ask what she wants to do next with the expectation they will follow her. Or Ajax isn’t dead here but Icarus has fallen in line as her loyal lieutenant, assuming the rest would follow his lead. Instead of the eternal love story being the focus it’s instead a clashing of ideologies and personalities; upon learning of the betrayal and their assumed role Icarus and Sersi react very differently, showcasing what kind of leader they would be. The team being forced to fight one another as they also split along lines of ‘acceptable collateral’ allows for personal stakes and drama for the audience as well; we’ve spent the movie learning about this family and now they’re being forced to destroy one another…? In the words (and voice) of Benoit Blanc ‘it compels me’.

Finally, you could tell the mystery of an unknown threat present on the planet who takes out Ajax without warning or explanation. The team must gather or be gathered to solve the whodunnit, assuming Deviant involvement despite flimsy and unconvincing evidence, and the shared mystery brings the group together once more, forcing them to confront buried history and historic disputes while they plan an attack on the remaining clusters of Deviants. The Umbrella Academy S1 followed similar lines but you’ve got a list of movies that also circle this plot: R.E.D, The A Team, Watchmen. The revelation of betrayal from within doesn’t need to go hand in hand with the Celestials betrayal plot , as long as Icarus has another reason for turning on the team.

This plot could dive more into the tensions and strain of their posting to Earth; they’ve had different opinions on how problems with humans should be solved, leading to fall outs and separations. Sometimes one or other of them has ‘called it wrong’ and another has had to come bail them out of a situation they created. But what unites them was a shared purpose and assumption that they would what’s have one another. Losing that surety is scary and forces character exploration.

All of these ideas were present in the actual movie, but were fighting for screen time to do their plot lines justice. The Eternals was such an interesting concept and honestly was executed well in so many regards. But trying to tell all these tales, while also encompassing the breadth of time and circumstance they encompass, and allow for personality and individuality in each team member to be showcased… that movie is bursting at the seams and the poorer for it.

THE BASICS OF STORY PLANNING - introduction

"THE BASICS OF STORY PLANNING" is based in a screenwriting seminar by Dany Campo, A writer of cinema and advertising, analyst of scripts for movie producers and also independent producers and finally a scriptwriting teacher in various colleges and on his Youtube channel, and also by a seminar I gave in the writing Discord server “Whisper Of Words”.

This seminar will focus on the basics of story planning and the elements that conforms it.

Now, how can this help you improve your writing? Aren't these too obvious? Well, it's no secret that these things are known to most but not for everyone, and it's so easy to make a mistake in one of the essential elements that can it make your work hard to understand or less attractive to spectators in search of a juicy story. Which is why I believe it's important to master the basic knowledge to understand your work, since these elements are what your story is truly about

Two thousand years ago, there was a man called Aristotle, whom you've probably already heard of, who asked himself some the questions we are making ourselves today: Why are there stories that endure time and others that are forgotten? Why are people attracted to these that are still remembered today?

To find the answers to these questions, he did a field research, studying the stories that had endured time until then, two thousand years ago. THE POETICS was product of this investigation, one of the first essays about narrative.  He discovered that many of these stories had a series of  common elements that can be resumed in the following.

There was a character, whom he called hero, with a goal and a dream.

The hero  does things to reach his dream.

And on the way to achieve his goal, difficulties, obstacles appear which then created a conflict for the hero and the spectator. This conflict was what defined the center of the story.

To briefly explain this theory, the first act serves to understand the protagonist and the goals he wanted to accomplish, the second act has to do with what they do to face the obstacles that's on their way and finally, the third act in which they overcomes the obstacles, the protagonist goes towards the culmination of his journey and the "achievement" of their goal.

A clear division of the story. The approach/statement, the development and the outcome.  A clue to this theory in proportion is that the second act is the double of the first and the last. It means that while the 1st and 3rd act could be 25%, the middle act will be 50%. It is important to note that these measurements will not be always exact as they just are a reference.

Now, other forms to tell a story have appeared throughout history such as the Dramatica Act Structure, Michael Hauge's "Six Stage Plot Structure", John Truby's "Twenty-two Building Blocks" and Freytag's Pyramid "Five-Act Structure"; but so far, this has been the most rentable and effective way to tell a story as it has been demonstrated for thousands of years and is still being used today. But of course, it also depends on the writer rather than just the theory alone.

The three-act theory was constantly reformulated as the time went on, especially when the industry of cinema came to be, and it ended in a quote which will help us to build everything and the most important of this seminar.

Do not forget it.

Someone wants something with intensity and finds obstacles to get it.

This quote alone resumes the core of a story and its respective elements that facilitates story planning for both plotters and pantsers. To have a better understanding of the key sentence of this seminar, it could be explained like the following:

A protagonist is someone who does things to achieve his goal for a reason; the conflict is when we face two options: a bad one and a worst one. And finally, once the conflict is overcomed and a solution is found, it must be put on practice and achieve the goal, leading to the conclusion of the story.

As I established previously, there are other methods to plan a story but this is one of the most basic and known ways to do so, and thus, you are not obliged to strictly follow a certain method.

"It depends on the storyteller who needs to know how to apply the knowledge they have acquired rather than just the theory itself."

The upcoming posts will explain in detail all the elements contained in the quote: the protagonist, the goal, the motivation, the conflict and the ending; the 5 basic elements in story planning.