Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect, 2nd Edition

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Connecting to Screenplays

A screenplay is a film unfolding on paper. A story told for the screen. A story told to be seen. And, like all drama, told in scenes.

“The scene is unique to drama—though used sporadically in all storytelling—in being its very bonework,” William Gibson says in Shakespeare’s Game.

A screenplay is a story told in scenes for the screen.

But what is a story?

Definitions abound, but most are similar to the one I just found in the American Heritage Dictionary that sits on my desk: The narrating or relating of an event or series of events, either true or fiction.

I’m a bit of a word freak, so I took a moment to look up “event”: An occurrence, incident, or experience, especially one of significance.

Then I looked up “significance”: ...