How to write a story | Tips and points to write a better story for your next Film

 Welcome to photographycinema. Hi I'm VEERA PRAKASH many of us have this wish to do a short film or to be a filmmaker, But we did not take up any course or gone to a film school for those, for those who have interest in filmmaking but don't know how to materialize it.

I am starting this article for you guys. So, without wasting your time LET'S get into the content quickly.

So let's start from the story.
before going into that I want to clarify two things

1.) I didn't go to any film school just like you so, if you find any points to be wrong please forgive me.
2.) What we are going to say is only for beginners. If you can create a unique and fresh script sorry this blog isn't for you this is for those Who only have a plan to make a short film but have no idea how to proceed any further.

first of all we should understand the difference between story and screenplay.

Difference between story and screenplay
    A story should describe the start and end of a film within two lines or two pages, Whereas screenplay is to develop the story scene by scene that describe, Which should be first and last in a sequential format.

For example:-  If I'm going to take a movie about 'a day in my life' Now I will have enough data of 24 hrs of my life which includes watching TV, sleeping, eating etc., of my life and some incident and how I overcame that, now if I'm planning to present it as a film would I simply include every aspect.  No I will include only which conveys the story and important parts to the understanding of story this is screenplay. We won't be seeing on 'how to write screenplay' which can be done as a separate blog itself.

     In this blog we will be discussing only about how to write a story. For debutant short film makers the first problem they face is story. Fix yourself whether you are a writer or an director. If you can direct well But you have problem in writing don't lose hope there are many good writers you can collaborate with them.

     As there is no necessity that you should be the one writing & directing it. If you start to believe in yourself and start writing a story with confidence the first thing you should do is observation.

     There are some shortcuts to write a story that we found out by observing some films we will share some of that with you. First one to develop a story from a plot which means to develop a story using an interesting scene, incident or a situation. By giving front and back and include new characters into the story.

A good example for this would be the Hindi film "Andhanan".   

     If you look at this film, they took a scene from a short film from a different language and Created a front and back to make a feature film out of it. The scene is a husband in order to surprise his wife asks a blind pianist to come and perform in his house, The blind guy also agrees to do so, Upon arriving the husband is murdered by the wife and another man while the blind pianist plays.

    This is the scene, the interesting aspect in this scene is the guy is just a fraud who is posing to be a blind pianist.

     Now they have taken this scene and made a head and tail for it by giving a flashback as why he is posing to be a blind pianist and how he is going to move across with the information and how is he going to react with it.

They created a big feature film out of it.

     Like this we can also take up an interesting incident out of our life. Our friend may have told us some interesting thing. Even a small line from newspaper which is interesting can be taken as a plot and create front and back and create a script.

     Another style is to develop a character and develop a story out of it, What we should be doing is to develop a unique character and place the character in a different scenario and how it reacts to it.

    We have many examples for this type in Tamil movies like MICHAEL MADANA KAMARAJAN in this movie the extension of the Brahmin character played by Kamal is the movie NALA THAMAYENDHI  starring Maadhavan. How this character will survive if travels to a foreign land and loses his passport and visa is the plot of the film.

     Another example is the character from DASAVADHARAM "BALRAM NAIDU".  They tried to make a feature film out of this character (SABASH NAIDU) but the film didn't get released. What should be taken from this is we can develop a story out of a character. What we should do is observe every character in our lives in our society and note down any peculiar characters .. we can develop a story by this way too.

     Another style is same plot but from a different time zone with different backdrop we feel like another story.

    Examples for these are Tamil movie VIETNAM COLONY and Hollywood movie AVATAR are similar to each other, even Telugu film BAHUBALI 2    has the same plot from Tamil mega serials which are sibling disputes and fight between mother in law and daughter in law.

     Even if it is funny to hear this is the reality but, Same plot with different backdrop with new characters it creates a new flavor to the film and conveyed as different film to your audience.

Stay clam, observe and write


If you are capable to think and write a story by yourself, just keep in mind the six questions i am going to ask you.

1.) Who is the protagonist in your story it can be either male / female even it may not be a human being But keep in mind audience should connect to this character and travel through the film. By stating the objective, motto, behavior, ideologies this will clear and keep reasoning the activities of the character in future.

Example:-   Take the Tamil film 'SARKAR'  a character like Sundar Pichai comes to know that his vote has been faked and already cast. What he does he being an educated and highly influential person. He looks for a solution through the law and that is how the story moves, like this the activities of the character should influence their ideologies and belief.

2.) Next we should be clear of the antagonist of the story this can also either be a human / a problem faced by our protagonist. The difficulty of the problem should be clear and how the protagonist faces them with his activities and what they are, Because the activities should come under his ideologies and beliefs.


3.) Protagonist should have a character arc in our story, meaning that when the protagonist gets into a conflict and comes out he should have some transformation. If you write a flat and blunt character it won't create interest among the viewers.

Example:-    The movie OK KANMANI the film character AADHI have different thoughts in the start of movie, by seeing Prakash raj and his wife, he take up his transformation. By the end at climax he will appear to be a different person.

This character arc in another recent film is KAIDHI Tamil film. The character DILLI  strongly says no to helping police officers,  but by climax he will gift an earring which he bought for his child to the policeman's daughter.

4.) We should be clear about the genre of our story.
This change is character arc inn our story ,when the protagonist gets into a problem and comes out he should have some transformation in him. While taking a thriller if you include more of comedy sence audience will lose grip in the story. Use in horror, thriller or action so that audience will have clarity.

5.) Style and color tone should be decided during writing. Style meaning that shot divisions, and dialogue writing should be decided in writing which will have a good impact on output of the film.

6.) The content you write should be clear in whose point of view the story moves along, either the protagonist point of view or third man perspective. Shifting from protagonist to 3rd man perspective maybe tough for beginners and will impact the film badly.

By Keeping this six points in your mind and you start write a script you may develop a good story.

So far the points I told are for beginners. If you are going to take an experimental film you can devise and write script as you wish these point don't apply for you.

If you have come up with a script with above points it is called rough draft, before moving onto final draft just check for three more points.

1.) The thing you want to convey through dialogue, try to visually frame it instead by this lesser dialogues and let your picture speak.

2.) Check whether every scene you wrote is helping to convey the story. If you feel it is unnecessary however best the scene maybe, cut it out.

3.) Most important point the dialogues you write for the character should not be written as how you talk. Transform into the character and write the dialogues.

For example:- If there is a conversat between police and theif, their attitude, thougths, manarism and behaviour are different in the both perspective.

If you follow the above points mentioned, surely you can write a good story.

If you have any questions or doubts mention them in comments or contact through contact us page. Subscribe our blog with your gmail account to get updates and notifications through your Gmail application. I hope this blog post will help to improve your writing skills for your filmmaking. Take your time and keep trying, one day you will achieve it.