* Please note that \u201cRomance\u201d is not a proper filmic genre as it is in publishing. I read a very odd script recently that was a cinematic interpretation of what I thought was probably very close to a romance novel.
\n<\/em>
\nBe Consistent Throughout
\n<\/strong>More often than not, where genre is a problem, I see a script that opens with one genre in the first act and then morphs into another genre later on in the script.<\/p>\n

I read a script recently that opened with a 17 page straight horror sequence wherein a group of teens were slaughtered in a really bloody, gruesome attack by a psycho. This clearly sets a script in the realm of \u201cFriday the 13th.\u201d In reading this, my expectation is absolutely clear: I am reading a horror movie, and the psycho will hunt down the young female protagonist and kill everyone along the way, but she will magically survive for one reason and one reason only: it\u2019s the convention of a horror movie. However, with this project, on page 18, the script suddenly morphed into \u201cLaw and Order\u201d and it became about the NYPD and the FBI. There was no blood. No guts. No gore. No female protagonist on the run, peeking into dark corners. There was, however, a lot of legalese about jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s the Protagonist?<\/strong>
\nI am a firm believer that the best way to introduce the reader into the protagonist\u2019s world is to follow that protagonist. We should see and experience his\/her world as that character does. This way, we have something to grasp onto, something to track. Sometimes the genre confusion is rooted in the fact that the writer doesn\u2019t track the protagonist. The writer is trying to do something fancy that ends up failing and is hopelessly confusing. With the above project, we were tracking the escape of a teen female, but then at page 18 it turned out the protagonist was actually the NYPD guy and not this girl. I suppose the writer thought he was doing a great job with an action-packed opening, however, this opening should have been tracked by and motivated through the protagonist\u2019s perception of these incidents \u2013 because that is where the protagonist\u2019s story begins. To write 20% of your script and not have clearly established who the protagonist is, what the genre is, and what type of story world we\u2019re in \u2013 that\u2019s a losing combo. Hone the story and get into the meat of the protagonist\u2019s journey as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

The Love Story is the B Story<\/strong>
\nAnother fairly common mistake I see is scripts written where the A story \u2013 and only story \u2013 is some light flirtation that leads to a \u201cgirl gets the guy\u201d type of relationship. In stories that work, the love story is never the A story \u2013 it\u2019s always the B story. As many American stories represent an interpretation of the hero\u2019s journey, within our cinematic conventions, the romantic journey is the B story. The filmic journey should be that the man or woman falls in love while trying to accomplish the A story objective (i.e., getting the green card, getting the job, keeping the job, winning the competition). If the love story is your A story, it\u2019s likely you haven\u2019t created enough story to float your project. Reading a project where the A story is the love story is like pulling teeth. There just isn’t anything to motivate turning the page. <\/p>\n

Study Genre Conventions<\/strong>
\nThe best way to learn about genre is to study it and then write it. Choose five to seven films within your specific genre and genre sub-set, watch them, beat them out (do a scene by scene breakdown with the story beat of the scene), and then look carefully at how they\u2019re structured, which elements fall at which breaks, how they layer the stories. This process can be done for any genre, and in fact should be done before you embark upon crafting your beat sheet for your own story.<\/p>\n

The best way to learn about genre and structure is by beating out TV shows \u2013 both sitcoms and dramas. If you want to learn how to write a great mystery or thriller, beat out a couple of episodes of \u201cLaw and Order\u201d and \u201cCSI.\u201d Study exactly how they build the stories, how they layer in the red herrings, what the story and character arcs are. Then, compare and contrast these with your seven film beat sheets of thrillers, mysteries or legal thrillers, and you will start to get a very good idea of how story is crafted.<\/p>\n

Once you have mastered the basic conventions within a genre, you can play with those conventions (go non-linear, have the guy not get the girl, etc.). However, if you mess around with the standard genre conventions without first having a basic mastery, the reader will primarily be confused (annoyed), and then will assume you didn\u2019t do your homework (and can\u2019t write).<\/p>\n

I will post more information about genre conventions as the blog develops, and go into more detail about each genre, but please pay attention where genre is concerned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most sweeping and common mistakes I see in about 30% of the scripts I read is confusion of genre. And, by \u201cgenre,\u201d I don\u2019t mean \u201chorror.\u201d There are a variety of genres, and each specific genre and genre sub-set has its own conventions. By convention, I am not talking about overall structure. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7,10,11,1],"tags":[27,5,28,23,25,3,4,13,26,17,19,20,15,16],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.screenwriter-to-screenwriter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}