Screenwriting & Writing Advice — Part 1

This advice comes from the perspective of a casual film viewer, not a critic or professional reviewer. I grew up watching movies simply because I enjoyed them. I wasn't sitting there thinking about whether a character was relatable enough or whether the story followed the correct filmmaking rules. If something looked cool, was fun to watch, and kept my attention, that was enough.

A lot of these observations came from watching Lifetime movies with my mom. Those were some of the only movies I felt comfortable watching with her. Over time, I noticed a few patterns that stood out to me.

Don't Follow the Same Formula Every Time

One of the biggest problems is predictability.

Lifetime produces a large number of movies, and the formula can sometimes become obvious. I'm not saying that as an insult. It's simply something I've noticed.

There's a difference between predictable elements and an entirely predictable story.

For example, with Disney movies, you can usually predict certain things. You know there will probably be a happy ending. You can probably guess that the main characters will survive. However, you usually don't know exactly how everything is going to happen.

That's the balance I recommend.

Follow a familiar structure if you want, but introduce enough unexpected elements that the audience can't predict every scene.

Give viewers something they haven't seen before.

The Biggest Thing: Let Your Characters Act Like Normal People

This is the main reason I'm making this entire recording:

Let your characters behave like actual people.

Characters can sometimes feel too stiff, formal, and professional.

They shouldn't constantly sound like they're at work.

For example, imagine a woman sleeps with her child's nanny. Afterwards, she might say:

"What we've done is completely inappropriate, and I think we need to establish a more professional relationship."

Technically, that makes sense.

But people don't always talk like that.

A more natural reaction might be:

"Okay, this is awkward. I don't think I want you to be my nanny anymore. I don't really want a relationship right now, and I don't know how we're supposed to keep doing this when you're taking care of my kid."

That's messier. It's also more human.

People contradict themselves. They send mixed signals. They make awkward decisions. Sometimes they know something is a bad idea and do it anyway.

Let your characters be messy.

A woman can sleep with someone and then realize she doesn't want a relationship with him. She can still care about him. She can still be attracted to him. She can still want to remain friends.

She doesn't have to immediately transform into a perfectly composed professional who explains the situation like she's writing an HR complaint.

Don't Bring the Workplace Into Every Conversation

There's a specific way most people behave at work that they don't necessarily use at home.

If someone hires a nanny, that doesn't mean every interaction with the nanny needs to sound like a business transaction.

Your characters have lives outside their jobs.

If they're flirting, let them flirt.

If they're embarrassed, let them be embarrassed.

If they're jealous, let them be jealous.

If they're confused, let them be confused.

If they're attracted to someone and don't know what to do about it, let them stumble through the conversation.

For example:

"I don't know. This is weird. You're my son's nanny, and we just slept together. I don't think I want to date you, but I also don't want to fire you because of this."

That's a person talking.

It has personality.

It creates room for awkwardness, humor, conflict, and genuine interaction.

Relatability Isn't Everything

Another important point is relatability.

I don't think a character has to be relatable for me to enjoy them.

There are plenty of characters on television that I can't personally relate to. I can understand how they feel without having experienced the same thing myself.

That's an important distinction:

Understanding a character isn't the same as relating to them.

You shouldn't have to give every character a trauma that the audience can personally identify with.

Make the story interesting enough that people can enjoy it even when they have nothing in common with the characters.

Give them something worth watching.

Make it:

• cool

• funny

• strange

• exciting

• emotionally interesting

• visually memorable

• unpredictable

Relatability can enhance a story, but it shouldn't be the only thing holding it together.

A comedy doesn't require the audience to have experienced the exact same situation as the characters. It's funny because the situation itself is entertaining.

Your story should work the same way.

Make Dialogue Sound Like Conversation

This is also about how your characters speak.

If a character has a huge monologue, don't automatically leave it as one giant speech.

Break it apart.

Instead of:

Character A delivering ten sentences while Character B silently listens...

Try:

CHARACTER A: I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

CHARACTER B: Then stop pretending you know.

CHARACTER A: That's easy for you to say.

CHARACTER B: You're right. It is.

Now there's an actual conversation.

Long speeches can work, but they should have a purpose. Save them for meaningful moments, important revelations, teaching moments, or situations where the character genuinely needs to say something at length.

Otherwise, let people talk to each other. Break that speech up into two characters having a conversation.

Conversation creates personality.

Stop Making Every Character Sound the Same

Another problem with overly professional dialogue is that eventually every character starts sounding identical.

They're all calm.

They're all respectful.

They're all articulate.

They're all explaining their feelings in exactly the same way.

That becomes predictable.

A character can be mature without sounding like a corporate employee.

Someone can be intelligent and still say:

"What the hell are you doing?"

Someone can be kind and still get irritated.

Someone can be professional at work and completely chaotic at home.

Personality should affect dialogue.

Give Characters Different Lives

The same problem applies to occupations.

Sometimes fictional characters feel like they were randomly assigned one of three jobs.

The poor character works at a diner.

The middle-class character is an accountant or works at an office.

The wealthy character owns a business.

Everyone starts blending together.

Give your characters different careers and lifestyles.

One might work construction.

Another might be a dancer.

Another might work at a coffee shop.

Another might be a mechanic.

Another might be a teacher.

Another might be a nurse.

Another might have an unusual job you've never seen represented in that kind of story.

At one point, I actually used random generators to choose my characters' occupations because I didn't want to fall into the same patterns repeatedly.

The job doesn't even have to become a major part of the story.

Sometimes it's simply part of who the character is.

Diversity in characterization isn't just racial diversity. It's also diversity in personality, occupation, background, behavior, interests, and worldview.

Let Your Characters Create the Drama

Don't make the plot the only source of conflict.

Your characters can be the problem.

A character doesn't have to be completely good or completely evil.

Give them traits people will love and traits people will hate.

You can even create a character the audience genuinely dislikes.

That's not automatically a writing failure.

Sometimes it's fun to watch people argue about a fictional character.

Some characters have absolutely terrible traits and still develop devoted fanbases. Other characters can do something relatively minor and become universally hated.

That's interesting.

You don't have to make your protagonist morally perfect just so the audience will like them.

For example, maybe your protagonist cheats on her boyfriend.

The boyfriend becomes furious and turns into the villain.

Now the audience has something to argue about.

They might dislike what she did while still sympathizing with her.

They might hate him for his reaction.

They might defend one character and condemn the other.

Give the audience something to talk about.

Explore Different Perspectives

Another way to break familiar formulas is to change whose perspective we're following.

For example, imagine a villain hurts someone's child to get revenge against the child's parent.

Usually, the story might focus on the parent.

But what if we followed the child?

That immediately changes the emotional experience.

The same applies to other situations.

Maybe someone is being targeted because of something another person did.

Maybe a vigilante is being hunted because someone wants revenge against a ruler.

Maybe a person becomes involved in someone else's conflict without understanding why they're being targeted.

These situations can be much more interesting when you tell them from the perspective we don't normally see.

You Don't Have to Like Your Main Character

You also don't have to make the protagonist perfectly likable.

A character can be flawed without being some completely irredeemable monster.

They can make selfish decisions.

They can cheat.

They can lie.

They can hurt someone's feelings.

They can make terrible choices.

They can still be an interesting character.

The goal isn't necessarily:

"Make the audience love this person."

Sometimes the goal is:

"Make the audience interested in what happens to this person."

That's a much broader goal.

The Nanny Example

Here's the kind of situation I'm talking about.

Imagine a woman hires a male babysitter she's already friends with.

Over several months, they become closer.

They flirt.

Eventually, they sleep together.

Now she realizes she doesn't actually want a relationship.

A stereotypically professional version might be:

"I believe our relationship has become inappropriate, and we need to establish professional boundaries."

But a more natural version could be:

"Okay, this is awkward. I don't think I want to date you. Can we just be friends? And maybe you shouldn't babysit anymore because I don't know how we're supposed to act normal after this."

The second version gives her more personality.

She's still an adult.

She's still capable of making a reasonable decision.

She's simply talking like a person instead of a policy manual.

That's the distinction I'm trying to make.

Professional dialogue isn't inherently bad. The problem is when every character uses the same professional tone in situations where they wouldn't realistically need to.

Break the Cookie-Cutter Pattern

The problem isn't that these characters are necessarily unrealistic.

At first, their behavior can seem realistic because they're mature and composed.

But after seeing the same behavior repeatedly, it starts feeling artificial.

You begin thinking:

"Why is everyone talking like this?"

That's when realism turns into a formula.

Don't confuse professionalism with realism.

Real people can be mature, responsible, intelligent, and still be awkward, emotional, impulsive, petty, sarcastic, jealous, messy, or ridiculous.

Give your characters room to be human.

And most importantly:

Don't let a formula become more important than the characters themselves.