Screenwriting: The Back Story (Mine)

January 21st, 2010 | Posted by jasonmckinnon in Screenwriting

When I was younger, I used to write short stories all the time. The goal was always to take the plunge and pump out a novel but I was ultimately too lazy for that. I tried to find a short cut by writing a series of short stories in the hopes that a novel would be the result. I just couldn’t get my head around the enormous word count.

It’s ironic because when I finally settled on a writing style that suited me, it meant more work than I ever imagined…

Screenwriting & Dial-Up Modems

Back when we still had dial-up internet and shareware games dominated most of my free time, I stumbled across the screenplay format. For years, I had been making movies with my friends but we had been making them up as we went along. There was never a script because none of us had ever seen one.

In those days, we filmed our movies in order with virtually no room for error and no time for scripting.

Discovering screenwriting was a turning point in my life. Screenplays had far less pages and a miniscule word count when compared to novels. I had found my outlet. I would write screenplays. It’s funny how I found my passion in life through laziness. I find that humerous.

Studying the format

Right off the bat, I thought that producing a script would be easy. I was mistaken. However, I was so fascinated with the medium that I soon became obsessed. I made hundreds of trips to libraries sometimes borrowing the same books multiple times. I devoured every book and resource I could get my hands on for years before I felt comfortable enough to write my own scripts. I started a bunch but I always felt like I would learn something new that would render my efforts useless.

In the mean time, my parents kept buying me books on plot, character, form and more. Each new page I read taught me more and more about the craft. (In an upcoming post, I’ll be listing the books that have inspired me over the years.)

By the time I was 16, I had gathered enough knowledge to give it a shot. The story was called Action and it was about the mafia finding a way to steal people’s money electronically using a ‘device’ called Mya. I wrote it using a template in Microsoft Word.

Note: Above is a picture of the elusive script. There aren’t many who have seen it and less than 5 on the planet Earth who have read it.

The story featured a ton of action as you may have guessed. It also had people named Spear and about a million spelling mistakes. Entertaining to read though. Lets just say I’ve evolved since then.

Action was the catalyst. The moment I finished that script I was hooked. When I printed it out for the first time, I knew I would be writing screenplays the rest of my life. It’s too much fun!

I’ve been addicted ever since.