The 75 page dilemma

Okay, so you have reached about the 75th page of your screenplay. A typical screenplay, and therefore a movie you watch, will always (if you don’t believe me, watch any movie) makes a complete turn at the midpoint (half way). This, depending on the number of pages of your screenplay, is where the story makes a 180 degree turn. Everything that has happened before this moment is just a false victory or a false defeat for your antagonist. He or she has entered a whole new set of problems he/she has to deal with.

Back to writing screenplays. Hours have been put into writing your script at this point. After hours spent thinking about and/or outlining, it turns to actually writing scenes on the page. Since the midpoint is half of your movie in your mind, this is the time, as a screenwriter, that is the toughest. You either know you have something and you go on with a big smile on your face, or you are contemplating that you have made a mistake even getting to this point. The problem in realizing you may have made a mistake is that you have already put several hours into writing actual scenes. If you are like me, instead of progressing the story, you go back and start re-writing. Re-writing at this stage can be brutal for spec screenwriter. If you spend hours tinkering with something you have already written, you may not truly believe you have a good story to tell. In a way you are trying to find answers for your story which means it might not be good enough. This can be really tough because spec screenwriters must be able to sell a script when he or she is done writing. Only a 10% of getting an actually movie or TV show put on screen is dependant on your quality of writing. If you don’t have it, you are dead.

A step back.

Stories, characters, scenes, or sequences of scenes go through my mind on an hourly basis. Everything I see and every person I have contact with is magnified. Even a mannerism someone makes will probably end up in a story I write. This being said, writers are quick to jump on something or someone, thinking they have a story to tell. Dozens of movies pop up in your mind. As a writer you have to explore everything. This means we start writing scenes and thinking about new screenplays on a weekly basis. When this happens those little fingers start a’typing or they start writing on anything that you can find. This pulls us away from the project you have already started.

The 75 page dilemma.

After all those things that go through your mind and with all of those stories you’ve started writing, you have to settle on a screenplay and go with it. Hours and weeks later you are at that 75th page knowing that if you go on you may not have a good story, but if you give up you’ve lost that time developing something you hope someone will buy.

Did I mention only 10% of getting your screenplay getting it on screen depends on the actually quality of your writing?

I believe in this story… I must go on.