Twitter Screenwriting Tips: Opening Scenes that Grab You
Social media can be a great place to learn. Script shares advice from writing partners Scott Beck and Bryan Woods on writing an opening scene that hits all the marks, sharing a scene written by M. Night Shyamalan.
Grab the reader by the throat. That's what you want, especially on page one. Those first few pages make all the difference in giving the reader confidence to keep turning the page.
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods @beckandwoods, writers and producers of A Quiet Place, tweeted out an image of the first page of The Sixth Sense, written by M. Night Shyamalan. (We have a great interview of Beck & Woods here.)
We zoomed in on the scene they were referring to:
Awesome example!
The lesson? There are two.
1. Write an amazing opening. One the reader can't resist.
2. Read scripts written by talented writers. If you aren't sure how to find scripts to read, I share tips in "How to Find Professional Scripts to Download."
Try to read as often as you can. I promise, seeing how the pros do it will improve your writing. You should read scripts from bad movies, too, then analyze why you think it didn't work.
The other value in reading scripts that have been produced is seeing how the director and actors interpreted the words on the page. I even read a script while I'm watching the movie. A great lesson in production!
If you want more tips on writing opening scenes, Danny Manus wrote a great article here.
Make sure to follow our growing list of Twitter accounts that inspire us... but don't spend all day on Twitter! Get your ass in the chair to write!
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Jeanne Veillette Bowerman is a Senior Executive at Pipeline Media Group and Book Pipeline, Editor-in-Chief of Pipeline Artists, Director of Symposium—a year-round conference in the arts, co-host "Reckless Creatives" podcast, partner at Fringe Press, former Editor-in-Chief of Script magazine and a former Senior Editor at Writer's Digest. Recognized as one of the "Top 10 Most Influential Screenwriting Bloggers," her "Balls of Steel" column was selected as recommended reading by Universal Writers Program. A compilation of her articles is now available at The Writers Store—Balls of Steel: The Screenwriter's Mindset. She is also Co-Founder and moderator of X's weekly screenwriters’ chat, #Scriptchat, and wrote the narrative adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery by Another Name, with its author, Douglas A. Blackmon, former senior national correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. More information can be found on her website. X: @jeannevb | IG/Threads: @jeannevb_ | BlueSky: @jeannevb.bsky.social