The key question that all screenwriters should be asking is: how do I write a script that Hollywood wants to buy? Most writers mistakenly think that success is all about connections and star power. Not so. The real trick to writing a script that will sell is knowing and using the core Hollywood marketing strategy. And that can be summed up in one word: genres.
Former Universal Pictures Chairman Marc Shmuger recently said: “There is no question that the star system is in transformation. Arguably the two biggest stars in the first half of 2009 were Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop). and Liam Neeson (Taken)… That’s a significant shift in the meaning of star power and a shift towards the premium that’s being given to the concept and the genre.”
Shmuger tells any screenwriter smart enough to listen to the first rule of the world-wide entertainment business: buy and sell genres. Genres are story forms and each have 8 to 15 special story beats (story events) that make up the form. The reason Hollywood marketing is gender based is that executives sell to a worldwide audience. And people all over the world love particular types of stories that speak to their deepest desires. I’d like to tell you about 10 story techniques that need to be in your script if you want to have the best chance of selling it in a genre-dominated business.
1. Know the 10 most popular genres.
Step 1 in writing a script that Hollywood wants to buy is knowing the 10 most popular story shapes. If you write a script that doesn’t draw from one or more of these genres, your chances of selling it plummet. They are Action, Comedy, Crime, Detective, Horror, Fantasy, Love, Myth, Science Fiction and Suspense.
2. Combine 2 or 3 genres.
In the genre-focused entertainment business, the most important story strategy today is to mix genres. 99% of the movies made, not just in Hollywood but around the world, are a combination of the ten most popular genres. Why? It all goes back to that old sales rule: give the customer 2 or 3 for the price of 1. That’s how, in a nutshell, Hollywood works.
Let me give you some examples. The super popular Twilight movies are horror + fantasy. The Bourne movies are action + thriller. Knocked Up is comedy + love. Little Miss Sunshine is myth + comedy. Titanic, the most popular movie of all time, is love + disaster movie + myth. The Dark Knight is crime + myth + fantasy. The most popular books of all time, the Harry Potter stories are fantasy + myth + horror + coming-of-age drama. Pirates of the Caribbean movies are fantasy + action + horror + myth.
3. Find the right genre for the story idea.
The most important decision you make in the entire writing process occurs right at the beginning, when you are developing your premise or story idea. The decision is: what genres should I use for this idea? Here’s a shocking but revealing fact: 99% of scripts fail on the premise. And because? It’s not because his original ideas for the story weren’t good. They fail because the writers didn’t know the best genres to go from a 1 line idea to a 2 hour 120 page script.
Each genre will take the idea of a story in radically different directions. So when writers choose the wrong genres to develop their idea in, the result is not only a lot of bad scripts, but also the waste of thousands of great story ideas. Since you can use many genres to develop the same idea, the key question is: which ones are the right ones? The secret to choosing the right genres is hidden in the very idea of the story. You need to dig into the premise and find the genres inherent in that idea. Instead of trying to copy a popular movie from the past, you need to find what’s original, what’s organic to your story. One of the powers of genre is that the right genres highlight the inherent strengths of the idea and hide the inherent weaknesses.
In my genre classes, I talk a lot about techniques for digging into your premise and finding the best genres for you. One of them is to focus on the wish line, one of the seven main steps of the story structure. It turns out that each gender has a unique and default wish line. For example, the wish for Crime is to catch a criminal. Detective is finding the truth. Horror is defeating a monster. For Love, is to find love. The myth is to go on a journey, which ultimately leads to oneself. Find out your hero’s goal and see if it matches the desire of any of the major genres.
4. Use myth as one of your genres.
Because Hollywood only wants scripts with blockbuster potential, your story needs to be popular in over 100 different cultures and nationalities. That’s a lot of communication barriers to cross. Unfortunately, most writers don’t know which genres travel well and which ones don’t. For example, comedies based primarily on funny dialogue DO NOT travel. The myth, on the other hand, loves to travel. That’s why the myth is found in more blockbusters than in any other form.
Myth is the oldest of the 10 most popular film genres and is surprisingly complex, with 15 special beats. But boy, is it popular. Try adding up the box office of these myth-based movies: Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Shrek, Star Wars, and The Lion King.
5. Combine myth with one or two other genres.
While myth is the basis for more blockbusters than any other genre, it almost never stands alone. That’s not just because Hollywood wants to give people 2 or 3 genres for the price of one. It has to do with the deep weaknesses found in the form itself. The form of the myth is thousands of years old. And it’s very episodic in structure, so it can get tedious and lose power midway through the story. The best professional screenwriters know this, so they always add 1 or 2 more genres to modernize the mythical form and surpass its episodic quality.
6. Make one gender the main one.
Screenwriters who are smart enough to study Hollywood as a business know that it’s all about blending genres. Where they sometimes fail is in execution. It’s one thing to say, “Take 2 or 3 story shapes and put them together into a seamless whole.” Another thing is to do it well. Blending genres is harder than it sounds, because of what it does to the structure of the story below the surface. Each genre has a default hero, opponent, wish line, thematic focus, etc. That’s why most genre-blending writers end up in structural disarray. They have too many heroes, wish lines, opponents, themes, and story beats. Any one of these structural errors will kill a script, so imagine what happens if you make them all.
When mixing genres, the key is to make one form the main one. This will give your hero, a single wish line, a single story line, and the most important unique story beats. Then place other genre elements where they fit, so they amplify the primary shape.
7. If you’re writing a script for an independent film, write horror, suspense, or love.
One of the best ways to break in and stand out from the thousands of screenwriters in the world is to write and make your own movie. Of course, that requires keeping costs to a minimum. And the cheapest genres to shoot are horror, thriller and love. These genres require the fewest actors, sets, and special effects. Of these, horror is the most popular around the world. But the biggest determinants of what genres you use for your independent film are what genres are best for your story idea and what genres you write best.
8. Play all the rhythms of the genre.
Blockbuster movie writers always know their genres so well that they touch on each of the story beats uniquely in their own way. In genre writing, this is known as “paying your due.” And it is absolutely essential or the public feels cheated. Remember, they are there to see the story forms they love, so you have to know your genres better than anyone and give the audience what they crave. And that means knowing how your genres work below the surface, in the structure, where the real story work is done.
9. Be original, transcend genre.
It may surprise you that the number one reason a reader rejects a script is because it’s “derivative.” That’s a fancy way of saying that the writer hit all the beats of the genre, but nothing more. Readers have read scripts of all genres hundreds of times. So you can’t stand out from the crowd by simply “paying your dues”.
That is why professional scriptwriters not only play all the rhythms of the genre, but they do them in an original way. This is known as transcending gender. And you simply can’t be successful if you can’t transcend the genres you’re working on. Unfortunately, there are no simple rules on how to do this for all genres. Transcending gender is different for each form. In the 1 day class that I teach in each genre, I spend a lot of time figuring out exactly how to do this. Transcending depends on story beats that are unique to your form. It also requires you to study the best movies in your way so that you know what has already been done.
10. Be honest with yourself and specialize in the forms that are right for you.
Genres are extremely powerful structural tools for a screenwriter and are the key to their success in the entertainment business. But they are complex story systems. I don’t know of a single professional screenwriter who has mastered more than 2 or 3 of them. That’s why it’s so important that you take an honest look at yourself and assess your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Determine which genres highlight your strengths and express the themes you believe in. Then apply laser-like focus to tame those shapes. When you let the genres do the hard work of the story and you focus on writing them in an original way, you will be surprised how good and successful your scripts will be.
For more screenwriting techniques, visit http://www.truby.com.