What does a screenwriter do?
Essentially the job of a screenwriter is to produce a blueprint that can be used as the basis for film production. Film-making itself is a collaborative process involving many people with specialised skills: actors, directors, designers, editors and technicians.
What distinguishes a screenwriter from these (often very talented) individuals is the fact that their roles are interpretative. In other words, they can only do their jobs once a script has been written.
The screenwriter and the screenwriter alone is the sole original artist involved in film production.
That is some responsibility.
What is the purpose of a script?
A script has to perform two primary functions. At its most basic, it is a set of instructions. It needs, therefore, to be clear, concise and economical.
You would be annoyed if you bought an appliance and the instruction booklet spent six pages telling you how to plug it into the socket. Well written instructions will assume certain knowledge and skills.
But a script is also a visionary document. That means it should convey to a reader some sense of the dramatic and emotional impact of your story.
Film works through two of the primary senses: vision and hearing. It tells stories by employing a flow of edited and inflected images, sometimes combined with action and/or sound. Everything that arrives on the screen is, therefore, an immediate event, taking place in the present.
An image on the screen is always solid and specific. Your writing should strive to be the same. You need to put your reader in front of an imaginary screen and literally show him or her what happens next.
Your job and this is the fundamental test of your skills, is to use language in a dynamic way to tell a story that:
(a) Has a filmic quality
(b) Involves and excites your reader just like a good novel!
© David Clough 1995