Leveraging Emotion in Scriptwriting

SCREENWRITING TIP FOR NEW OR ASPIRING WRITERS: "The Iceberg Technique" 10/26/24 Imagine, for a second, a large ICEBERG floating in the middle of the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean BUT... 90% of it is below the surface. The last 10% of the tip represents everything your character says or does on your script page. The unseen parts of the frozen ice behemoth represents EMOTIONS, MOTIVES, TENSION, etc... that's purposely left unsaid. With that, now imagine this scene: A character just received devastating news. Your character responds with a simple, “I’m fine." Two small words, right? But what’s really beneath those words? I'm fine could mean a dozen things: -- Maybe they’re covering up anger, hurt, or even betrayal. -- Perhaps they’re trying to be strong when they’re actually scared. -- Or maybe they’re testing if the other character cares enough to see through the lie. New or amateurish screenwriter's tend to spell out these emotions directly and it irks many producers and readers. If you truly have a desire to keep the reader's attention, you need to pack action lines, gestures, or pauses with depth. If you do it right, it WILL leave your audience/reader/producer with the thrill of discovering what’s truly at play. IN REAL LIFE... People often avoid saying what they mean, especially when emotions run high. Their instinct is to protect, hide, or test others... (Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about if you've ever been in a serious relationship that went awry) ...Harsh, real relationship dialogue often dances around the truth, and as a screenwriter, your job is to echo that realness of every day life into your screenplay(s). Here are just a few tips for you young, aspiring bucks: --Instead of having a character say they’re hurt, maybe they should avoid eye contact, or their hands shake a bit. Example: Judy's last breath leaves her body. Daniel doesn't dare look at her body as she stares back with a blank expression. Daniel's shaky hands smudge blood on his face as he wipes his tears away. He looks around the rubble for an exit when the building CRUNCHES down some more. The jagged rod penetrates Daniel's leg even deeper. -- Instead of a character saying the standard run of mill, “I’m angry,” "I'm pissed." "I'm mad" crap dialogue, You might have your character say something calm but with an edge. MARIE (calm but cold) Of course... I don’t fucking mind at all. The audience will sense the tension because the dialogue suggests there’s much more underneath the iceberg. -- Short, clipped lines or pauses can hint at hesitation, inner conflict, or unspoken emotions. A character who pauses, then quietly says, “I see,” might be feeling deep sadness or disappointment without ever spelling it out. --Sometimes, silence itself is the rest of the iceberg. A character choosing not to answer a question can be as powerful, or more so, than any line you can think of.

“Aayushi… I see sooo many creators write scripts so raw I instantly relate to them. Like, how do they even remember their feelings? How do they turn emotions into such powerful stories? Because when I sit to script… I just go blank. I know I felt something, but I can’t seem to go deep enough.” A client confessed this to me last week. Frustrated. Stuck. Not because she lacked ideas. Not because she couldn’t write. But because she couldn’t translate her lived experience into words. Maybe you’ve felt this too? Here’s what I told her (and what I’ll tell you): 👉 You don’t have a creativity problem. You have a recall problem. Let’s unpack it: 1: “But I remember the big stuff!” Sure. But do you remember the texture of it? Like, how your chest tightened before sending that first DM? Or the exact thought in your head when your reel flopped after 3 hours of editing? Most creators skip the microscope moments but that’s where the magic lives. It’s not about grand emotions. It’s about ordinary details people recognize as their own. 2: “I can’t access my feelings when I sit to script.” Of course not, scripting isn’t therapy. You won’t magically recall what scared you last Thursday. That’s why memory capture is your best friend. When something hits you: frustration, fear, tiny win, jot it instantly. A sticky note. A phone note. A voice memo that says: ➡️ “I almost cried when Zoom crashed mid-pitch.” ➡️ “Felt proud when a stranger DMed me ‘your post saved my day.’” Stack enough of these, and scripting stops being blank-page panic. It becomes weaving what you already caught into storylines. 3: “But my stories don’t sound as good as theirs.” That’s because you’re polishing too early. Raw stories aren’t written polished. They’re written messy first, shaped later. The creators you admire aren’t “better feelers.” They’re better record-keepers. They hoard tiny truths until they have gold to refine. Your job isn’t to out-feel them. It’s to out-capture them. Content doesn’t connect because it’s perfect. It connects because it’s precise. Not “I was nervous.” But “I stared at the blinking cursor and wondered if anyone even cared.” That’s the line that makes someone whisper, “This is so me.” That’s how your stories stop sounding like “content” and start sounding like confessions. And if you’re ready to master content writing that cuts deep, not shallow? DM me “Olive” and I’ll show you my Recall-to-Story Method. We don’t do blank pages. We do stories that breathe.

Many of you have reached out to talk about your historical or historical fiction projects. With these messages come questions about writing speeches in a script—the ones people remember. The truth of the matter is that a speech isn't about the words; it's about the feelings it evokes. We remember feelings long after we forget words (but if a speech truly resonates, you'll find that those words won't be forgotten). When I was working on William Wallace's speech, I wasn't trying to make it sound epic. If I did, it would come across as forced, and the words would ring hollow. Instead, I focused on what Wallace believed in, what he was willing to die for. In my experience, that's where the fire comes from. Some things to keep in mind: 1. Build up to your speech. A random speech is pointless. It won't hit. Let the stakes rise, be that Scotsmen and Englishmen building their armies or lawyers making the final stand for their client. The moment must be earned. 2. Don't go overboard. The speech should feel human. If you try to be too clever, the emotion will be undercut. 3. Give your speech a purpose. It's not a vessel to sound smart. Use it to change something, a character's mind, the morale of an army (They may take our lives ...), or even the audience's thoughts. Good speeches don't just move the plot along. They move people, too. Trust your gut and write from the heart. #Screenwriting #WritingTips #Speeches #RandallWallace