The Catholic Writers Guild

Have you ever thought about writing one of your own stories as a screenplay, or perhaps adapting another story that you love? Movies can reach audiences that books never do and can be a way to share our Catholic faith and literature in a different way. The recent success of movies such as Courageous and October Baby illustrate that there definitely is a market for movies informed by faith.

Writing a screenplay differs from writing a novel or short story, however, in that movies are a visual medium. You need to think about what the audience is seeing and how to convey emotion and meaning through images.

Writing in Pictures: Screenwriting Made (Mostly) Painless by Joseph McBride is a new book that walks writers through the process of composing a screenplay. McBride, who has spent decades as a screenwriter and screenwriting teacher, uses the knowledge he has gathered to offer a step-by-step guide to adapting a short story into short movie. He uses the story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London as his example and teaching tool. He provides the full text of the story, which is a man vs. nature tale in which nature wins. The story has very little in the way of dialogue, and therefore proves to be an excellent exercise in “thinking visually.”

McBride takes readers through the entire process, from the story outline, the adaptation outline, the character biography, the treatment, the step outline, and finally, the script itself. He also offers tips on how to break into professional filmmaking. There is a great deal of useful information packed into this book.

Whether you ever actually have one of your stories made into a film, the exercise of writing a screenplay will offer a different perspective on how to approach writing, and how to think in a more visual manner.

AnneFaye

Anne Faye writes from Western Massachusetts and is the author of The Rose Ring and Through the Open Window, and blogs at http://www.annefaye.blogspot.com/. You can follow her on Twitter at @AnneMFaye