A treatment is a summary of your script or screenplay idea. They are used for a variety of purposes, but mostly to pitch an idea and approach for a film or video. Writers typically use treatments for corporate work, influencer scripts, YouTubers, documentary films, short runs, and other quick pitches. They are the fastest way to convey your idea for visual or audio formats.
Writers have entire worlds in their heads, filled with characters, locations, stories, and consequences. It’s a lot to keep track of when creating a story or series, which is why series bibles exist.
The first moments of your script or novel matter. They set up what is to follow and hook the audience. Or they don’t.
The best film openings establish tone, settings, and character. They establish context for what will follow or establish expectations that will be thwarted later on. They do more than simply open the film. They start the story and grab the audience.
How you start your script or screenplay matters. These opening scenes establish an expectation and either appeal or repel an audience. What a film shows in the first five minutes is critical to how an audience will react, how engaged they become, and how long they will sit watching your story unfold.
The opening shot is your chance to hook them. It’s the first exchange of information. The first connection. How you approach that is everything.
In previous blogs, we covered what to say in your writing and how. The last blog covered a list of quick tips for writing in various formats.
This blog will focus solely on writing for the ear—speeches, radio scripts, podcasts, narration tracks, and other audio forms. This type of writing is different than writing for the page.
The first two blogs in this series spoke to finding what to say in a blog, speech, article or podcast script, or other short form of writing. You can find them here and here.
Now we’re going to move onto practical tips to help you write your piece. Here are some quick tips to keep in mind:
Figuring out how to begin is always tough for writers. It’s the first big hurdle in the writing process. But with a little help, it doesn’t have to stop your progress.
This series breaks down the steps to figuring out what to write or say. To read the first blog in our series with steps one, two and three, click here.
Before you can write, you have to have something to say. It’s a pretty simple concept of putting ideas before words. Still it’s funny how often people sit down at their computer and expect to write a flawless article or speech without first considering how to develop their idea.
Now I get the whole “pantsing” it idea, but when it comes to writing short form pieces, it pays to get the idea clear in your head before you begin.
In film, producers often use loglines to discuss the content of a film. A logline is a summary of the dramatic narrative in a story that makes it easier to encapsulate the idea and sell it. Basically, a logline is the core essence of your story in 25 words or less—the shortest form of narrative summary.
Writing scripts is not like writing for the page. It takes a different set of skills. Here are my top tips if you want to write scripts for a living:
The writing I contract the most is scriptwriting. I love the combination of writing with moving images and sound. Film and video expands what I am able to do on the page. Besides it’s fun to collaborate with a production team.
The challenge with writing scripts is that it requires a different approach than writing for the page. Sometimes formal grammar has to go out the window. This is writing for the ear, not the eye, which means you can get away with more. There are also challenges working with footage and designing a script that can be filmed in budget.