"My advice for aspiring screenwriters is to always read as much as possible: screenplays, teleplays, novels — and to watch as much TV and film as they can," shared our Screenwriting Competition guest judge Zoe Cheng. A Taiwanese-American TV writer for drama series across Netflix, Amazon, and ABC, her expert advice below can make or break your screenplay. Check out her tips before submitting your 400-1000-word script on March 23rd.
Screenwriting is such a specific type of writing, and not a form that is commonly taught in school. How did you discover that screenwriting was something you liked, and what did it look like to pursue it as a career?
My love for screenwriting started with a love for writing. I read a lot growing up, and when I was a teenager I began writing poetry and short stories. It was a mode of expression that allowed me to experiment with language and form, and I still enjoy writing prose to this day. At the same time that I was in high school, though, was when Netflix first started putting out shows and the act of "binging" TV became a thing. I remember sitting on the couch for hours on end devouring BREAKING BAD and MAD MEN, and marveling at how inventive, subversive, and emotional the writing on those shows were. Not only that, but how many people were watching these shows. That's when it clicked for me that someone out there was writing TV as a job, and I decided that I wanted to do it. I decided to apply to film schools, and ended up pursuing my BFA in Writing for Screen & Television at USC. While there I made the most of my surroundings by networking and taking internships, and I've been lucky enough to be climbing my way up in this industry ever since. It's an incredibly difficult field to break into, and I recognize that my journey is a combination of both hard work and luck. But it's truly a dream job, and I am grateful every day to be doing it.
How is screenwriting different from other forms of storytelling, like novel writing? Do you have to release information differently on the screen than you might in a book?
Screenwriting is a visual medium, first and foremost. In that sense it is very different from prose writing, but it's also similar in that all you're really doing is telling a good story. The basics apply to each medium: you need a compelling protagonist, a compelling world, and a compelling engine that keeps audiences either turning the page or clicking "Next Episode." The biggest way screenwriting is different is in the saying: "Show, not tell." In movies and TV, we cannot hear what the character is thinking in their head (unless there's a voiceover). Whereas in books, you can have pages and pages describing someone's internal turmoil. Onscreen, if I want to show who a character is, I do so through action. It's always much more exciting to watch someone do something, than watch them explain why they did it.
You’re currently a writer on the TV show CHICAGO MED. So cool! What does day-to-day work look like for you? Are you generally writing an episode by yourself, or is there a whole team of writers? Do you map out the whole season in advance, or work on one episode at a time?
My day-to-day varies depending on where we are in the course of writing our season. There is a team of writers I work with, and we are assigned episodes by the showrunner as the season goes on. Usually we all meet in-person in the writers' room each day: we start the season talking big-picture storylines for each character, and then as the days go on we start talking about each episode one by one, arcing out character storylines for that episode, as well as the medical cases of the week. Once we know every story beat that is happening in a certain episode, the writer of that episode will go off to write an outline and then the script. Then eventually the writer of each episode will go to set to produce that script, which is a whole different set of skills in itself.
For this competition, writers will be working on a very short screenplay, no longer than 1,000 words. Your episodes are, I assume, many more words—but still, they’re much shorter than a movie. Do you have any suggestions for the art of tackling a shorter bit of film (i.e. what types of scenes should be focused on, what needs to be communicated, how to achieve multiple things quickly, etc)?
Shorter form screenplays, and short films in particular, are always about a small slice of the main character's life. But within that small slice of life, ample story can still be told -- and it's always about demonstrating who your protagonist is, through the choices they are making. No matter the constraints, whether it's 15 minutes or 10 pages or 1,000 words, you want to ask yourself — Why am I choosing to tell this story, and what is the most interesting way I can tell it? What choices can I give my protagonist that will surprise or move my audience? I think that should always be the goal, no matter how long or short a screenplay is: simply introducing the audience to a character they want to understand, and then building the story up to a pivotal choice or climactic moment that really shows who that character is.
What are you looking for in a winning entry? Any tips for our young writers, especially those new to writing screenplays?
I am looking for entries that create compelling characters and that show the writer's unique and promising voice. My advice for aspiring screenwriters is to always read as much as possible: screenplays, teleplays, novels — and to watch as much TV and film as they can.
