The Heart of the Film

Chapter 31

Multi-Tasking

Screenwriters understand that it’s always better to have a scene accomplish more than one thing. It’s far better to have one scene in which three storylines move forward or one story moves forward three times, than to have three separate scenes with only one thing accomplished in each.

So for example, if you’re writing a contemporary high school version of Cinderella, you could have one scene that shows Courtney (nobody is actually named Cinderella any more) working at a fast-food franchise, treated badly, looking a mess, making minimum wage, and everything is going wrong. Poor girl.

And another scene where her stepsisters are mean to her.

And a third scene where she has a cute meet with Preston. (The “Prince.”)

You could ...