Action

Screenwriting Fundamentals

Character Exposition
Dramatic Potential
Economy
Falling Dominoes
Integration
Peaks and Valleys
Static Situations

CHARACTER EXPOSITION

All actions must be consistent with character, and all character actions should expose character. A slight and silent move properly described goes much further to show who a person is than long dialogue passages. Except in the case of external events, characters take actions based on what they want, what obstacles stand in their way, and the actions other characters take toward them. Viewed in this way, the action of the film is both defined by the characters and defines the characters.

DRAMATIC POTENTIAL

A dramatic story is in essence a vehicle for establishing and releasing dramatic potential. Every word in an action sequence should do one or the other of these things (much as with integration below). Eliminate all words that are not either establishing dramatic potential or releasing it--except where they expand character or illuminate theme.

ECONOMY

When Hollywood readers encounter overly long action narratives they tire, decide the writer really doesn't know what he's doing, and skim the rest of the script. To keep them reading . .

Use the active form of the verb wherever possible, dispensing with the "ing" progressive forms wherever possible.
(EXAMPLES: "He is dancing." becomes "He dances." "She is shouting." becomes "She shouts.")

Replace the verb "to be" wherever possible with an active verb, or simply eliminate it.
(EXAMPLES: "She is in uniform." becomes "In uniform, she . ." "It is dark outside." becomes simply "Dark.")

Make all action immediate, eliminate "suddenly", "then", "begins to", "starts to"; just make the action happen without any sort of temporal qualifier.
(EXAMPLES: "Suddenly, he runs off." becomes "He runs off." "She starts to climb." becomes "She climbs.")

Use highly descriptive verbs that eliminate the need for extra words.
(EXAMPLES: "He pushes the Man aside and takes the tiller in his hand." becomes "He commandeers the boat." "She walks sexily, showing off her curves as she goes." becomes "She sashays.")

Describe only what can be seen on screen.

Avoid character thoughts and 'novelization'.

Put the action into the dialogue instead of the narrative--not the parentheticals, but in what the characters say.

Keep action narrative passages to four lines or less wherever possible. See Word Use for more related pointers.

A useful trick to keep those readers who skim only dialogue in the action: have your characters do things that extend from what they are saying. In other words, make us see what they are doing by what they are saying. This greatly helps with staged readings, too.

FALLING DOMINOES

The overall action of the screenplay works like falling dominoes, where one event or action triggers the next. One should be able to tie together all of the major actions and events in the story by starting at the last one and working back one-by-one to the first (see David Ball on action).

INTEGRATION

Integrate each word in the action narrative into the story. Make it advance the plot or expand character (see Richard Walter on action). Illuminating the theme is important, too, but should be kept to a minimum. Eliminate all words that exist solely for the purpose of creating atmosphere. You must convince readers every word is there for a reason, or they will start to skim.

PEAKS AND VALLEYS

Give the action of the story has peaks and valleys, depending on the genre. Raise the action to a fevered pitch, then let it fall off to give the reader/viewer a rest. Then build it up to a frenzy once again, only to repeat the cycle. Without the valleys the peaks simply become plateaus- -wide, boring, flat, and very annoying. The valleys give relief to the peaks, no pun intended.

STATIC SITUATIONS

Avoid long or numerous . .

telephone conversations, especially in this Cellular Age.
sessions at computer screens.
scenes in restaurants and bars, particularly where characters order food and beverages without expanding character.
scenes in automobiles.

Instead advance the plot and expand the characters with active scenes that allow the characters to be seen and to bounce off one another (see Richard Walter on action).

See also . .

screenwriting exercises that develop and check understanding of this material.
what the classical and contemporary experts have to say about action in the Magic Star of Dramatic Writing.
Writing Point of View by Alex Epstein.
The Rhetoric of Action by Charles Deemer (search).
Action Verbs by John Rainey (search).