SCREENPLAY – Six Great Tips for Showing, Not Telling

The mantra in screenwriting classes everywhere is 'Show, Don't Tell', but what does that mean in practise? Take a look at our six tips for exposition excellence.

1. The thing to avoid is clunky exposition. Exposition is the act of letting the audience know the backstory. We've all seen it in movies – the characters telling us something which, in real life, would sound stupid. For example: “David, we've been brothers for how long now?”. Imagine saying that to your real-life sibling. They would think you've got early on-set dementia. So before you write that line, stop yourself and ask: “Would I say that in real life?”
   
   
2. Film is a visual medium, which is to say that although when writing the script you may be able to hear the dialogue going on in your head, you really need to make that extra imaginative leap and force the characters to live in your head. Have them walk, move and interact in your imagination, not just talk to each other. This will help you to work out what way they would act in a certain situation.
   
   
3. Convert speech into action – Any time you want to express something in speech, ask yourself if there is a way you can tell it in an action. Let's say you want to tell the audience that a man lives alone. Having them walk in the front door and exclaim to an empty house that they're home, is a little clunky. What about if you have him come home, make himself a mac'n'cheese from the packet and eat it straight from the pan with the wooden spoon? That reeks of loneliness! 
   
   
4. Use shorthand. Where you do use dialogue to convey the backstory, ask yourself if you can reduce the exchange in some way. Real people use shorthand and don't exclaim things that they already know. For example: A man walks into a diner and takes a seat. The perky waitress walks over. “Hey Charlie! That's the fifth time this week you've been in for lunch!” Clunky, right? How about: The man walks in and takes a seat, the waitress walks over but doesn't offer a menu. “Usual?” she says with a smile. “Thanks Estelle,” says Charlie. You've just reduced a toe-curlingly cringe-making exposition to three words.
   
   
5. Don't insult your actors – trust them to convey the action. If you're writing a script for TV or film, you're going to have some top-notch actors speaking the lines. In which case, don't burden them with dialogue which is heavy, long and unnecessary. It's an insult to the actors to have to say those lines when they can do it with a look, so let them use their skill to complement yours.
   
   
6. Avoid voiceovers. I was going to leave this out, as I'm a fan of the occasional voiceover, but only those who contribute to the story, instead of painstakingly explaining everything that's going on. The voiceover can be a lazy way to fit in any bit of action you weren't able to convey. If you put in a V/O, then fine – but you better have a blinkin' good reason...
   
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   SCREENPLAY is a series of posts looking at the art and craft of writing for film and television.

   
   image: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/jaylopez