Talking Draft Blog
How Do You Write a Movie for Beginners?
To begin writing a movie script you need to first outline your story. Outlines provide you with a roadmap.
If you don’t have a story yet, you must figure out your beginning, middle, and end. Think of these three things as three distinct moments, or beats. Describe them in a single sentence.
This is how you write the “beat sheet,” the most simplified, big-picture view of your story. You can use our free script outliner to help you do this.

Before you begin writing your movie you must pick an ending. One way to experiment yourself into an ending is by using a trick called “When-But-Then.”
Write your story in three sentences. The first sentence starts with the word “When.” This is the first big thing that happens. For example:
“When a tornado hits Dorothy’s Kansas farm she flies to the Land of Oz.”
The next sentence is your middle of the story. This sentence begins with the word “But.” In this portion, there is a reversal of fortune – a but – or there is something unexpected that makes your main character’s life very difficult.
“But in Oz she is hunted by an evil witch.”
The next sentence starts with the word “Then.” This is how you want it all to resolve. Go ahead and skip to the ending that feels satisfying. If you want a happy ending, skip the how and just show it:
“Then Dorothy magically arrives safe back home in Kansas.”
Now, let’s fill in the muddy middle and flesh out the unknown spaces. How? Just keep asking yourself “why” and “how.” For example, why is the witch hunting Dorothy? How does she get home? You can elaborate on your existing sentences to answer these questions. For example:
“But in Oz she is hunted by an evil witch who swears revenge after Dorothy accidentally killed her sister.”
Now what? Next we have to expand the story…but there are rules:
Expand Your Story
There are rules in this game for how to add sentences to your story.
First, insert a sentence after “But” which starts with the word “Therefore.” This sentence represents a consequence to your main character’s actions. A consequence which also propels the story forward. Feel free to include new characters:
“Therefore a good witch, grateful to Dorothy for her homicide, promises to help Dorothy return home by instructing her to walk to the Wizard of Oz.”
Next, insert a sentence before the “then” sentence which starts with the word “Until.” This marks another reversal of fortune – maybe a breaking point. You will need to think about the previous sentence and what the end result of that trajectory will lead to. It cannot lead directly to the the next sentence (“then”) or your movie would be over too soon. So something else goes wrong!
Don’t worry about filling in all the details, you can skip ahead to whatever moment best helps paint the picture of a breaking point – a pit of despair. This sentence does NOT bring your main character closer to her goal.
“Until the Wizard of Oz sends Dorothy on an impossible mission to fight the evil witch who captures her and puts her in jail.”
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Five Line Story
Now you have five sentences and they begin with these words:
- When
- But
- Therefore
- Until
- Then
If you find that there are big logical gaps between your sentences, add a sentence which begins with either “but” or “therefore.”
In this example, one big gap is between Dorothy being in jail and her magically waking up in Kansas. So obviously two things need to happen:
- She needs to get out of jail somehow, and
- She needs to get home somehow.
So experiment with your next “but” or “therefore” sentences until you solve those problems. For example:
“But her friends break her out of jail.”
This raises questions — which is fine because now we know that at some point she makes friends. We can go back and flesh-out her walk to Oz to include scenes of her making friends. However, she still needs to get home to Kansas somehow…
“Therefore the good witch tells Dorothy she had the magic power to get herself home.”
Bringing back a character you’ve already introduced is always a good idea. Though this implies that something went wrong with the Wizard’s way to get Dorothy home. We can fill that in too, as long as the sentence begins with either “but,” “therefore,” or “until.”
Something like:
…”But when Dorothy’s dog Toto jumps out of the balloon basket she exits to save him, the balloon leaves without her.”
Add to your plot only with sentences that start with “but,” “therefore,” or “until.”
But + Therefore + Until
Now you have a story. What comes next are mere adjustments.
For example, usually the first sentence that begins with the word “when” is actually a key moment called the “catalyst.” This moment tends to come 10% of the way through your story.
As a result, you will need to come up with a sentence that sets the stage for your main character before the catalyst strikes. This portion of your movie is called the “Setup.”
In the Setup, we learn what your characters are like on a human level. Classically we’re told to make them sympathetic and easy to root for. Maybe Dorothy is an orphan. Maybe she saves a dog. Maybe she feels like she doesn’t fit in. You have a few scenes to let the audience share some universal emotions with your main character before the “when” sentence kicks the story into gear.
It’s a good idea to start this “setup” sentence with your main character’s name.
“Dorothy Gale is an orphan in Kansas who doesn’t fit in, her neighbor wants to kill her dog, she even thinks about running away.”

As you can see, the when-But-Therefore-Until-then trick does a good job of helping force a shape upon your story. It forces you to finish — and this is key: Finishing.
Once you have a story, then you begin writing a movie script using The Talking Draft Method: the absolute fastest way to create the first draft of a screenplay.
Only the Talking Draft app is specifically engineered for the needs of screenwriters. The Talking Draft Method is also designed to help you finish your first draft — fast.
This is also vital to writing because most first drafts don’t get finished.
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- how to achieve a creative flow state
- overcome common first draft traps
- popular screenplay structures
- common beat sheet examples
- proven techniques for revisions
- the screenwriter’s “notes” decoder
- never fear a blank page again
- the history of the method
- tips for aspiring writers