Billy Wilder's Ten Screenwriting Tips, by Saviour Pirotta

Billy Wilder is one of my all time heroes. An Austrian by birth, he fled the Nazis first to Paris and then to Hollywood where he quickly established himself as a talented screenwriter, film producer and director. He might be forgotten by many today but his films live on among film afficionados. They include The Lost Weekend, Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot, Emil and the Detectives and one of my absolute favourites, Sunset Boulevard.  The last line in Some Like it Hot is widely considered to be the best comedic end line in cinematic history. When Jack Lemon in drag tells a besotted Joe E. Brown, 'I can't marry you, I'm a man,' the reply is 'Nobody's perfect.'

Wilder always claimed that 80% of a film's success is down to the script, and he spent a lot of time honing the writing, usually in collaboration with his father. In interviews with author Cameron Crowe for Crowe's book, Conversations with Wilder, he listed his ten tips for writing a great screenplay. They work just as well for writing in any genre with a narrative, so here they are:

1. THE AUDIENCE IS FICKLE

By this, Wilder meant that audiences' tastes change very quickly. So don't waste your time chasing trends. Write what you want and feel you can most commit to.

2.  GRAB THEM BY THE THROAT AND NEVER LET THEM GO

Start your story with an eye-popping scene. You have the rest of the book to fill in the 'building up'.

3.  DEVELOP A CLEAN LINE OF ACTION FOR YOUR CHARACTERS

Establish the character's objective and their plan for achieving it. The readers must feel that they are in on the ride. 

4.  KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING

This really means where the story is going. It doesn't matter how you plan the character's journey, in a notebook, in a writing programme or on notecards, make sure the characters stick to it and don't wander off.

5. THE MORE SUBTLE YOU ARE AT HIDING YOUR PLOT POINTS, THE BETTER YOU ARE AS A WRITER.

Some people say there are only seven stories that keep being retold over and over again. The hero's journey to redeem himself, the pact with the devil etc. The audience knows this and want you to stick to the script. But they want to forget they know it while reading. Be original in how you deliver the plot points.

6. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE THIRD ACT, THE REAL PROBLEM IS IN THE FIRST ACT.

I think this is one of Wilder's best tips. The third act features the resolution to the story. If it feels contrived, it's because the foundations laid in act 1, and also 2, weren't solid enough. I try and solve this problem with careful planning and, if I'm writing with planning, I correct during the second edit.

7. LET THE AUDIENCE ADD TWO AND TWO. THEY'LL LOVE YOU FOR IT.

Let your readers anticipate at least some part of what's going to happen. They'll enjoy it because it makes them feel a part of the story.

8. IN DOING VOICE-OVERS, BE CAREFUL NOT TO DESCRIBE WHAT THE AUDIENCE ALREADY SEES. ADD TO WHAT THEY'RE SEEING.

For me, this applies mostly to picture books. Don't describe what's in the illustrations. Add things the readers cannot see - sounds, smells, feelings.

9. THE EVENT THAT TAKES PLACE IN THE SECOND ACT TRIGGERS THE ENDING

The beginning of the book sets the objective and the journey but something HUGE must happen in the second act that triggers the way the ending happens. 

10.  GIVE THEM THE ENDING, THEN DON'T HANG AROUND

The ending must deliver a punch. A grand finale. Once it's done, that's it. Don't add anything else and dilute the action.

I've used these tips in most of my books, although not always all together, in fact hardly ever all ten in the same book. I hope I've explained them clearly and that you find them of some use...nd now I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille.

PUTTING THINGS IN THE RIGHT ORDER by Penny Dolan

For readers too young to remember, this circular object was used to hold a stack of photographic slides. Slide holders came in horizontal, less space-age devices as well

Last century, photographic transparencies were positioned in this device, in an upside down but orderly set of 20 or 30 or 50 or more. When placed within a projector and illuminated by a strong light bulb, each photograph image appeared in turn, right way up, on a special screen - or bed-sheet or blotchy wall - as long as someone remembered to turn the lights off. 

Although slides could be used for educational purposes - and were - along with the slide show came, all too often, a commentary like this:

 A. “And here's Reg and Mary from Luton. We met them at the Hotel Bellissima.”

B. “No, that’s Ron and Margaret from Ipswich. You wanted to show how big the swimming pool was, and that was just before . . .”

(Whirr, Click.)

A. “Sorry, we’ll be on to the next slide now. It's us with our foreign ice-creams and . . .”

(Whirr Click. Roars of laughter and - dare I say - mockery. The slide has appeared upside down. Ha ha!)

A.“Did you do that, our Dave? Well, all I can say is that you’ve ruined the whole evening for me and for everyone and for yourself too. .  .”

(Shouting, arguing and slamming of doors follow.)

A:“Well, I hope he’s learned his lesson. On to the next box of slides now . . .”

You think we didn’t have fun in the olden days?

Now, during the time I’ve been involved with children’s books, I’ve noticed a deep change. Once written by dons and teachers and librarians in their studies or inglenooks in pubs, children’s books gradually expanded to include the voices of a new round of socially-aware teachers, keen to promote a wider social world to their young readers. 

(Meanwhile, at home, "ladies" fitted their typing in between gaps in the housework, or had in “a woman what did” or “scribbled” while their off-spring were at nursery or school. On the other hand, they could also become supposedly neglectful mothers and writers, doomed by dreadful popularity.)

Then the world changed. Writing itself became a subject of study. Courses were planned and free grants granted. Writers wrote. (Often on the dole!) They flourished or faded or became lecturers on even more writing degrees, or went into publishing or teaching - and then along came a second world of film-studies and script-writing and screen-plays. I wonder if it is possible, now, to write a children’s book without some awareness of script-writing? (Some - those that read like "novelisations" - could be said to have much too much awareness.)

Even if you only intend to write novels, I'd suggest the task of working on a drama script or screen-play can be a really useful learning process. I know my own local playwriting group helped me to really visualise scenes, sharpen my storytelling and be much more willing to cut and change my oh-so-precious words. 

Now I’m part-way through editing another long novel, I’m wondering about browsing through my screen-writing notes and “bibles” again.

However, back to that slide-projector image. 

Remember how the machine worked. one slide at a time? 

Rather like stop-animation, in my opinion. 

Right now, while I work through scene after scene in my tome, trying to judge how effectively the section works in my story, I return to the words  of a certain children’s film-maker that I find very pointed. 

This film-maker and animator said:

 “I also found myself thinking very carefully about the choice and sequence of the shots. In the same way that writing a story is not simply a matter of writing lines of words, but calls on the writer to assemble the sentences in such a way that the reader receives them in the right order for stacking them in the mind so, too, the task of filming the story in pictures calls on the film-maker to present the pictures in such a way that the feeling of what is going on is delivered and the viewer has the sense that it is actually happening.”

 

The man?  

Oliver Postgate, writing in his autobiography “Seeing Things.” 

Onward, onward. Time to get my own scenes stacked correctly . . .