The Poetry in Writing for Screen
Using a Rule Poets Employ to Enhance Screenwriting Descriptions
How writing a screenplay can be like poetry, and how it is also the absolute opposite, from word choice to the way you present your concepts and ideas. This article explores how to maximise effectiveness in writing screenplay text by taking tips from the stylized form of poetry and executing it in a way that serves the visual medium of the screenplay.
Amongst many of the great sayings by the legendary poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, there is one that stands out as advice to writers:
“I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose [equals] words in their best order; - poetry [equals] the best words in the best order.”
This is as relevant to the screenwriter as it is to the young poet that Coleridge mentions. Why? Because writing a screenplay is often one of the hardest forms of writing that there is. That is because it could be seen as taking elements from both poetry and prose without being either one exclusively.
The Screenplay Format
A screenwriter must create compelling visuals using blocks of “action,” giving the person reading the script a sense of tone, of direction, of movement, conviction, emotion and, most importantly, dramatic flair without ever once letting on that they are doing so.
The art of writing a screenplay must be found in its ability to be simple. That is to say, it is like poetry in that must have the best words in the very best order, or it will ultimately be inefficient and will lack clarity.
How To Incorporate Simplicity Into Screenplay Writing
Consider simple sentences. There is nothing more confusing to a reader than a sentence that twists and turns through four or more lines without direction. To avoid this, try to keep your complex sentences to a minimum, using them only when necessary to create a sense of drama.
Otherwise the screenwriter is served well by using short, simple sentences that act more like statements. These will convey to the reader your exact meaning. And being exact is the reason why poetry and screenwriting differ.
Why Poetic Turns of Phrase Don’t Always Serve You Best
For instance, once you’ve written your dramatic action scene that tests your hero into becoming the man that you’ve convinced your audience he could be, you re-read it and find that you’ve used simile and metaphor in abundance. There’s nothing wrong with that, but consider that, when describing a scene of looking out onto a late evening sea view, what is one man’s ‘Burnt, and shadow peppered ocean’ is another man’s, ‘The water is on fire’, and you begin to see how subjective your creative language could be.
Screenwriting Is A Visual Medium
You are presenting a series of images, therefore evocative language is aloud and encouraged, so do not be disheartened if your screenplay reads colourfully. Try, however, to read those passages with a lot of action detail to several different people and then ask them what happened in that passage you just read them. If all of them can recite it back to you clearly and concisely, then you have nothing to worry about. If they can’t, it means that you don’t yet have the best words in the best order to convey the message of your screen play.
In essence, a strong, visual backbone is required in screenplay writing that allows someone to invest in the story you are telling and get taken along on that journey. Ensuring that you have the best words in the very best order will make that trip a smooth and enjoyable one for any person who will read your screenplay, and allow you to reach one step closer on the ladder of your screenwriting goals.
