Q&A: Film Story/Plot Writing?

Question by Tim: Film Story/Plot Writing?
Hey. I’m not experienced in film screenwriting, but I’m planning to write a screenplay that obviously, I want to sell. But in order to sell it, I know that I have to write a story, the plot of the the movie. ( Every movie as I can see on IMDb has story AND screenplay, but not only script.)

So I want to know what a film story actually is? Should it contain dialogue, or only narration? And in what way should I write the story? A scriptment or a treatment or something else? I know about the screenplay but about not the story.

It should be sth like this:
http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/sample_treatment.html
or this:
http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/Terminator_Treatment.txt
or sth else?

(http://www.wga.org/subpage_writersresources.aspx?id=171)

Best answer:

Answer by midibaby
ok well …i studied creative writing for 3yrs …i like to write serials and short stories [mainly mystery and dramas]……i have over time been taught about screenplay writing too [as i wanted to make my serial into a tv series one day]………my advice is locate the book “screenwriting for dummies” [yes i know its a dummies book lol]……it’d be a wise investment if you are serious as its like a step by step guide on the construction of a script ….you would also need to learn [either from film company websites or a media catalogue-a list of people seeking stories and the format they may like ti presented in]how to tailor your writing for their requirements ……..also purchase some scripts …this is easy as shakespeares works to even things like stephen kings storm of the century are available for purchase in their script format ok ……read them ,aknowledge the lay out and relate it [dont copy it though lol]….good luck and message me if you have further enquiries 🙂

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