Amy Suto

When it comes to selling your scripts, the most powerful weapon you have is being able to make your audience feel something. Emotion will get you where structuring and formatting and perfect grammar alone cannot. That's why today's post is all about finding ways to connect with the emotional core of your story!

This post was originally intended to be a satirical comment on the state of female characters in screenplays written by men.But, ironically enough, after talking to a handful of male screenwriters, I realized that there is a legitimate, long-standing issue amongst male writers when it comes to writing female characters.I say this without judgment: some male writers just don’t know how to write female characters. Which is why I’m here to help!How Are Female and Male Characters Different?

The phrase write what you know can be damaging to a writer when taken too literally.If I wrote only what I knew, I would be limited to the quirky adventures of a screenwriter and her friends in Los Angeles. My main character would spend most of her time writing, running, and blogging, with occasional trips up to abandoned ski resorts to film horror movies or battles done with crocodiles in the harbors of Mexico.In short, the movie that I want to write does not resemble my life.But that's not how "writing what you know" is supposed to be interpreted. It means that you're supposed to use what you do know as a jumping off point to write what you don't know anything about, thus lending authenticity to your writing.Here are 5 ways to write what you don't know, in a way that will ring true with the reader:

Some gurus tell you that the three act structure will kill you, while others tell you that if you don't hit every story beat, your screenplay will be doomed. Still, others tell you that outlining is a hoax and you should just write a screenplay with no structure at all because that kills your creativity. Then there are the champions of the outline who say that without it, your script will die in the rough draft phase, and if you do manage to get a final draft out of it, it will take you twice as long as if you'd done an outline.

You've seen it before.Two starstruck lovers fall into such a perfect, idealized form of true love that their passion for each other could burn out the sun if it was one kilowatt brighter. These two youngsters resemble all of our romantic hopes and dreams, and we want them to overcome every obstacle in their path in order to be together.But, of course, their love is doomed due to timing.

Welcome to AmySuto.com! You may also know this website by its alternate name, "Gratuitous Photos of Delicious Caffeinated Beverages."Now, you may be asking "Amy, how on earth are you able to craft an extended metaphor around lattes and screenplays?" And to that I laugh and exclaim, "silly readers! I'm a writer! I make extended metaphors for a living!"Anyways.Here are four reasons why screenplays are like lattes:

I've learned some very important lessons from my overseas travel, but one message actually applies to screenwriting: always prepare yourself for the journey ahead. Writing a script, is, in essence, a journey. Don't be that guy who gets stopped at the border because you forgot your passport and who drinks the water the moment his boot hits Mexicano soil.

You should write a novel.I know, I know, you're a screenwriter. You're a movie person. Why write anything that doesn't have a chance of appearing on the big screen?Here's why: you can learn quite a bit from studying different mediums. (This goes for novelists, too!) There's power in crosstraining. That's why professional football players do ballet and yoga in their offseason.