In my continued efforts to help you write a script that gets you noticed by the industry, I keep going back to this idea of “voice.” Second only to coming up with a killer concept, writing a script with a unique voice is a great way to a) get an agent, and b) make the Black List.
The problem with giving writers this advice (“Improve your voice!”) is that they don’t know what “voice” is. How can you practice getting better at something if no one’s able to define it? That’s one of my ongoing pursuits here at Scriptshadow – quantifying what “voice” is so writers can get better at it.
For starters, don’t get writing voice mixed up with directing voice. Directing voice is [mostly] the way a director manages the images and sounds of his movie. Terrence Malick having all those wide-angle “follow” shots of his characters, over flowery voice over and an intense music track. That’s not writing. That’s directing.
Writing voice has to do with the way you describe things, your dialogue, your humor, what aspects of the story you choose to focus on, how sparse or thick your writing is, how flowery your prose is, how much of your personality makes it into the writing, and what the overall thematic focus of your story is. A strong voice results in people being able to know that you wrote a script without your name having to be on it.
Hence, I’ve gone through a bunch of movies and screenplays to determine every type of voice out there. And I came up with ten. We’re going to go through all ten of these and, afterwards, I want you to ask yourself which one sounds the closest to the way you write. Then I want you to consider writing a script in that voice.
Although I still contend that a great movie idea beats everything, the goal here is to get yourself into the game. And if your ideas haven’t generated a lot of interest on the screenwriting market, then “voice” may be the better way in. Okay. Are you ready? Let’s get into it.
Voice 1 (Snappy Dialogue): This is probably the most popular version of “voice.” It’s the snappy clever dialogue script. It’s Juno. It’s The Breakfast Club. It’s The Social Network. This class of voice is reserved for people who are gifted in the art of dialogue. The characters are all smart and have great comebacks to whatever the other character says. There’s an effortless lyrical quality to the exchanges. You never quite know what anybody’s going to say next. Big balmy monologues come effortlessly to these writers. Just remember that in order to write snappy dialogue, you need genres and situations that support snappy dialogue. Don’t write thrillers or horror or sci-fi if you want to write in this voice. Write in genres where there’s naturally a lot of talking.
Voice 2 (An Elevated Dark Sense of Humor): For whatever reason, “regular” humor doesn’t get you the “great voice” label. As good as The Hangover was, nobody categorized the writers as having a great voice. When it comes to humor and voice, you have to go dark to make an impression. Some of you were pointing out that Tuesday’s script, Wait List, would qualify as dark humor. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is a recent high-profile script that we’d place in this category. I’d put Get Out in there as well. Possibly Nightcrawler. The reason I say “elevated” is because just having a dark sense of humor isn’t enough. There has to be a level of intelligence behind it. It has to be clever, cunning, biting.
Voice 3 (Saying What You’re Not Supposed To Say): One of the key tenets of “voice” is that you give the reader something they haven’t seen before. That’s why your script stands out. It’s providing the reader with a new experience. When you say things that you’re not supposed to say, you’re giving the reader something that they don’t hear. This is what separated Louis C.K. from so many other comics. He started talking about how idiotic his kids were – a huge ‘off-limits’ topic for comics. But because there was truth to what he was saying (a lot of parents secretly felt their kids were idiotic), they loved it. It was choices like this that make him such a unique voice. On the movie side, we can tweak it a little to explore things that you’re not supposed to explore. American Beauty became a gigantic hit in part because a 40 year old father was pining after his high school daughter’s best friend. You’re not supposed to write about that. But it’s because nobody else is writing about that that doing so makes you unique.
Voice 4 (Going Super Dark): There’s a floor to how low general audiences are willing to go. The super-dark voice is when you plunge a hammer through that floor and jump down into whatever’s beneath it. The most famous example of this voice is Seven. That script got a ton of attention specifically because it was so dark. A more recent example would be True Detective. I might even put Promising Young Woman in there. You want to figure out where the average person’s threshold is and push past that. I would actually put the now secretly famous Osculum Infame in this category. The risk with these scripts is that they will offend some people. So you might receive some uncomfortable rejection e-mails. I know I did with Osculum Infame. But when someone likes it, they tend to really like it.
Voice 5 (Mixing Genres That Shouldn’t Go Together): This one is how Tarantino got famous. He came up with his own genre – the “Tarantino” genre. He did this by mixing Westerns with Blaxploitation with Black Comedy with Noir with Crime Drama. Clearly, when you do this, you’re going to come up with something that feels different. Remember back in 2010 when writers started mixing history with horror? We got Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. We got Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. You can play this game any way you want and come up with some wild concepts. You could mix Westerns and Musicals, Sci-Fi and Black Comedy, Romantic Comedy and Fantasy. You use any of those combinations and you instantly get tabbed as having a unique voice.
Voice 6 (Full Weirdo): This is when you throw out any pretense of writing a Hollywood movie and just write something WEIRD. The Lobster comes to mind. Sorry to Bother You. The Lighthouse. Swiss Army Man. For both the concept and execution of these scripts, turn off the logical side of your brain and let the right side do all the work for you. The weirder you get, the more voice points you earn.
Voice 7 (Put Your Stake In A World People Aren’t Writing In): When I read Taylor Sheridan’s stuff, I’m not sure any specific voice jumps off the page. However, I always know when I’m reading a script of his, which is one of the components of a “voice” script. What I realized is that Sheridan found this universe that everyone else was ignoring and staked a claim in it. Americana. Struggling Middle Class America. Conservative values. He then treated that world with sophistication, whereas everyone else was writing really cheesy movies in that space. There are writing landscapes out there that people are ignoring. Go out there and find them and you can become the voice of that world.
Voice 8 (Quirk It): Twenty years ago, a movie called Little Miss Sunshine burst onto the scene and became the little movie that could. It was, maybe, the quirkiest movie ever produced. And it started a movement. Quirk was in. “Quirk” is any idea that’s weird, goofy, and leans into awkwardness instead of avoiding it. The voice here comes from the characters who will all be playing outsized versions of their real-life counterparts. The character will never just be depressed. He’ll be the depressed guy who’s made a vow of silence and only speaks with his hands. Garden State, Ghost World, Safety Not Guaranteed. All quirk-fests. And yes, I know Juno could be placed in this category. There is going to be some overlap between voices. Don’t get too caught up in that.
Voice 9 (The Gimmick Script): The Gimmick Script is less about the movie and more about the reading experience. The Gimmick Script might be written in first person. There might be a lot of breaking the fourth wall (with the writer speaking directly to the reader). The prose may have a lot of needless swearing in it, or asides that have nothing to do with describing what’s going on. It may take a well-known property and flip it on its head (Exploring the Charlie Brown characters all grown up). One of the first scripts that made my Top 25 was called “Passengers,” (there’s a link to it over on the right panel), a weird alien invasion story told in the first person. Gimmicky voice is probably the cheapest type of voice available to writers. But it can work.
Voice 10 (Create Your Own Style by Mixing and Matching): It’s important to understand that voice is always evolving. You can create a new voice at any time. Shane Black wrote big fun masculine movies with sparse playful prose that he sometimes broke the fourth wall on. That was his style. Just remember that your voice is, ultimately, your personality. So pick the “voice modules” that best reflect your personality. That way, you’re writing organically as opposed to forcing it. And that’s it, folks. I hope this helped!
Let’s see if you learned anything. Here are ten movies. Do these movies have a writer’s voice or no? Leave your answers in the comments. In a little bit, I’ll provide the actual answers.
Die Hard
The Hurt Locker
Birdman
Inception
Dune
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Free Guy
Old
Napoleon Dynamite
Alien
