How to Write a Movie in 33 Days - The Dev Movie Method

I practice writing on a movie script.

• Because most movies follow a clear structure. And
• Because I love movies.

Here is a drawing I made of my main character Hal (11).

I used writing prompts from “How to Write a Movie in 21 Days - The Inner Movie Method” By Viki King. Sounds too good to be true, I know. But it IS good.

Here are some of the writing prompts I used:

• What’s my story and
• how am I going to tell it?
• What do you know so far about your movie?
• Imagine you’re in a theater and your movie comes up on the screen, Run it in your head right now, No matter how little you think you know, run it quickly like your life flashing before you.
• What is my point of view, and
• how can I see it?
• Do you have a story that can be told visually and that hinges on action and external events? Then your story is a movie.
• Let’s decide what your story is about
• Keep asking, “What if?”

Here’s a brainstorm session.

• So what’s the story?
• Can you say what your story is now?
• Do it in layers.
• Ask “What if.”
• Take note of everything you know about it so far.
• What’s the beginning,
• middle, and
• end?

Bits and pieces will come to you. This is the jot stage. Try not to get too detailed yet. Keep looking at the big picture, the overview. Any one scene that’s too detailed at this stage can throw the whole out of balance. If a scene does come to you in detail, jot it on a 3x5 card and put it on a “scenes in detail” pile.

Keep it simple. Write big, say very little. Paint word pictures: “Night. Storm. Desert.” Use nouns. Let the nouns describe the picture; instead of “huge, expensive house,” say “mansion.”

• Jot down now for 8 minutes everything you know so far about your movie.