Put Down Your Book and Pick up a Screenplay

Maybe you are somewhere between a bookworm and movie buff. Maybe you want to read more but the conventional layout of novels doesn’t keep your attention. Maybe you miss the dialogue style of plays you read in high school (without the old English). Whatever your story, I promise that reading a screenplay will captivate you, from the opening scene to the ending credits.  

The first draw of reading a screenplay is how easy they are to (virtually) get your hands on. You can download free PDFs of big feature films on links like (http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/free-script-downloads/) that tend to get updated just before movie award seasons. I find this format so convenient because I can read a few pages between classes while I already have my laptop out. Since the pages are all on one running doc, you can keep the screen scrolled to where you left off, no dog-ears or bookmarks necessary.

Next, screenplays strike up all the excitement and emotion of a novel or movie without the time commitment. This is not the dusty book on your bedside table. Screenplays, like movies, are a lot more compact than novels. Instead of the pages spent on character introductions and setting the tone, the writer gives you a blurb of concise stage direction and the dialogue speaks for itself. You also don’t have to feel the guilt you might for taking a two-hour movie break. It feels much more natural to mark your place and come back to reading a screenplay than it would to pause a movie every 20 minutes.  

Unless your book is by Lemony Snicket, you don’t often think of the author as the storyteller. When you watch a movie or read a novel, the voice that comes through likely belongs to the characters or maybe an omnipresent, anonymous narrator. However, when you read a screenplay you get to experience a unique connection to the writer. You hear and picture the story as they tell it, before it is interpreted by directors and actors. You literally see the writer’s line of thought, as they explicitly show the words or actions in the scene they want to emphasize.

Lastly and most importantly to me, reading a screenplay feels more active than receiving the finished product as a movie or novel. The best way to describe the feeling of reading a good screenplay? It’s like you are in on a big idea before it materializes. It allows you to be the director as the lines play out in your head. You get to use your imagination and explore the potential that the words on the page still hold.

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