Mark W Travis - Focus on story not writing

Sometimes a piece of advice comes along that I find so encouraging and helpful I can't help but want to share it. This time, with the jubilant return of the free On the Page podcast (178), writer/director Mark Travis had some really interesting thoughts on what an initial screenplay should be. He argues that a screenplay is merely a suggestion for how a story could be told on screen and that the story, not the writing, was key.

“There's a whole difference between a story and a script,” he told the On The Page podcast. “The script is a tool, a map, or a blueprint; 'Here's how I think we can get this story up on the screen.' It's not the story. In fact it's a compression of the story. But at the core this there is a story.”

This interested me because it took the burden off the writers' collective shoulders by saying the focus should be on the story, rather than the presentation, when writing I find I can get overwhelmed by the idea that I should be developing a brilliant story and then write it equally brilliantly – it's a lot to bite off all at once.

“There are many times... I'll read a script and go: 'This is a great story but a terrible script. But that's OK, that's fine, we've got a story.'... I have also read great scripts that aren't great stories but they're brilliantly written... That kind of a script, once it goes into [production], the writing will disappear because it's become a film. So the power of the writing will disappear – like it always does – but if the story isn't good it won't work as well because the story has to carry the film.”

This was really the mind blowing part for me. He's absolutely right! I can be as witty as the writers of Scott Pilgrim are or poetic as I like but most of that won't ever see the screen. What movie makers are looking for is a core story.

“The writing gets absorbed into the whole process and by the end you have a film where acting comes forward, where visuals come forward, and sound comes forward. The thing that really has to carry it is the story.”