Monday, Aug. 16

Breaking the Rules to Serve the Story

Scott Myers makes a good case for tossing aside the supposed “rules” of proper screenplay prose – if it will make the story read better.

None of the highlighted scene description above can be shown on the screen or heard in dialogue. Much of it is, in effect, ‘directing’ the actors. Two supposed rules - broken. But in service to the story. To convey to the reader the importance of what’s happening in the moment.

I imagine this rule about “show, don’t tell” was created because there were so many writers out there who are not Alan Ball and who abused the ability to communicate directly with a reader.