Screenwriting: What Is The Most Important Story Element?

If you’re creating a story, what is the most important element? Structure? Plot twists? Clever dialogue? Formatting? Writing exciting action set-pieces? A cool drone shot?

The answer is: None of the above. Indeed, the most important element of any story is: people.

Because stories are about people. They are about us. Even Disney films about mice or cats are really about people.

This goes for any story you are creating – if it’s a video diary, a travel video, an advertisement, a blog post or anything where you want to engage an audience. But often when we sit down to create a story, such as a screenplay, we forget to think about people.

Stories are driven by actions.

How we act comes from who we are. And who we are comes from our past.

A new screenwriter spends her whole day mostly thinking about people (including herself). But then, when she sits down to write, she starts thinking about a whole load of other things. For example, those elements listed above. As if writing a story is a mechanical process detached from humanity.

This is why many new writers (and quite a few more experienced ones) end up creating clunky, unengaging stories.

So, you read the screenwriting manual. Followed the instructions. Came up with a quirky premise. Put the turning points in the all the right places. Job done, right?

I don’t believe in rules for creativity, including screenwriting. You can use any method you wish. However, if you are creating a story and it doesn’t have people at it’s core, you are going to find that your readers are left cold. The reaction is most likely going to be “meh”.

So, if you are struggling to get your screenplay into shape, if the tinkering just isn’t getting you anywhere, here’s what I suggest.

Forget about everything else in your story except the people. Now take the main character and write about her. Don’t worry about being a “good” writer. Just write the first stuff that comes into your head. And keep writing.

Who is this person?

What motivating desires do they have? What fears do they have which hold them back?

Ask these questions and more. Imagine you are interviewing your character: What would you ask? What would they say? What are they hiding?

Spend as much time as you can thinking and developing the characters in your story. If you know them well enough, you will have almost infinite resources for the beats in your story. You won’t be scratching your head thinking, “What happens next?” Well, only because you will have so many options available to you it will be difficult to decide.

Often in unengaging screenplays you find people acting “logically” or – more precisely – following the writer’s logic and not the character’s. The characters act as the writer would act and therefore there is no definition of character. They all tend to speak the same, as well.

Or worse, the character does what the writer needs them to do to get to the next plot point. When the writer neglects to think about the people in this way; when the people in your story act as if under remote-control to get everyone to the dramatic climax on page 100, the characters become inconsistent.

Because people do not act generically. On seeing a spider, one person might scream, while another person might be fascinated and lean in to get a closer look. What would your character do?

If you have one scene where the character runs screaming from a giant spider, then a later scene where she runs towards it to kill it, you better have a transformation sequence in between where the character somehow overcomes her fear of spiders. (Do you see how this one simple sentence is a story? Because it’s about a character. And I bet you can even picture it in your mind)

If you’re creating stories, in any form, and you want to engage your audience more, remember this. Character is the most important thing in your story. Why?

Because character is story.

Next: Writing Screenplays: First Steps

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