Major Project Unit- Developing a Scriptwriting Identity and Critical Analysis of my Own Work

Something I have noticed about my script-writing style, is that it seems very forced and cookie cutter. Although I believe my confidence with writing description and believable dialogue is improving, I think there are several ways that my script language and stye could be improved, in order to create a much more personal and interesting read.

During the course of my research, I came across a script for an episode of LOST, and found that the descriptive language and stage instructions seem much more informal compared to the kind of instructions and directions I have written in my own script.

The above script excerpt contains some elements that make it seem much more chatty and conversational when compared to my own work. Strong language in the stage directions and the inclusion of words and phrases that go against the "Do not script something you cannot show onscreen" rule make the script much more humanized and informal.

This got me thinking about my own work. After re-reading some of my scripts so far, it seems that my scripts are very impersonal, and almost robotic in nature- in terms of the directional and descriptive language used. Although I disagree with some of the ways the writers of LOST have written their scripts, I understand that it is simply a different writing style to my own.

It was interesting investigating other people's scripts, especially those that were used to create actual television products, as a lot of them were incredibly different in style, which suggests to me that there is no particularly right style in which to write a script, and that the style in which a script should be written should simply be done in a way that appeals to the commissioner/ producer or whoever is looking to purchase a script.

Although I have seen several scripts adopting this more informal style of writing, I think it would be beneficial for me to retain some sense of formality in my own scripts in order to appeal to a much larger percentage of potential commissioning possibilities.