A couple of years ago at the Sundance Film Fest, two young filmmakers tried to tempt Roger Ebert to come in and watch their movie. When he asked them what it was about, well.... after a couple of minutes of listening to wandering sentences and half-formed ideas, Ebert gave them a patient smile, some patronizing words of encouragement, and then left. They couldn't tell him what their movie was about.

On super-successful screenwriter Terry Rossio's wordplayer.com website he paints a typical scenario where a reader has just finished reading a script and is approached by a producer and a director. "It is precisely at this moment that your screenwriting career will be made or broken." The reader is going to relate the script's premise in one or two sentences, and if she can't because it isn't clear, no one will ever hear anything about that script (If she even bothered reading past page 10).

Every script needs to have a clear premise: a main story through-line (or central conflict). That can be summed up in a paragraph or less. And it's amazing how many scripts get written that don't.

The elements above are inherently present in 99% of all well-written stories. These are simply the “who”, “what”, “how” and “why” of the premise.

In the most common types of screenplays, the driving force behind what's moving the story forward falls into one of two categories:

THE PROTAGONIST'S PLAN DOMINATED STORY
-- where your protagonist wants something (that being an objectified and measurable goal) so badly that nothing will stand in their way.
-- or –
THE ANTAGONIST'S PLAN DOMINATED STORY
-- where the antagonist has a master scheme that your protagonist must stop them from accomplishing.

Depending on which type of story it is, you will obviously have to give more weight to the WHY ELEMENT of whoever's plan dominates the story. ALSO, depending on whose plan dominates the story, you must make sure that the character that wants to stop the other from reaching their goal must have (a) a goal they want that is in strong conflict, or better yet, diametrically opposed to what goal their opponent wants, and (b) a credible reason why they want to stop them.

Are their variations on what you'll put on these 7 lines? Sure. In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the antagonist (or force of antagonism) is never personified, but is a series of obstacles that all relate to Butch and Sundance's central problem: that their time has past. In any Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, the antagonist is whatever form the Mr. Hyde personality manifests itself as (which could be as an internal antagonist).

If you can do a variation and make the storyline clear, you should still be able to fill out all of the required elements. But if you think you're too smart to have to think out these elements, or you think your story is too complex to be able to reduce it to its 9 elements, I suggest you read a few columns at Terry Rossio's site. You'll find there (as you'll hear from any Hollywood pro) that most scripts stink because the writer didn't want to put the time into making sure their premise contained the most basic elements.

Lets take a look at the sheet... Each Question needs to be answered as clearly and economically as it can be. There are helpful notes in a small font for guidance.

Too many of the synopses heard during TSA meetings (as well as the scripts read in contests and covered by Hollywood production companies) offer a series of events taking place, but lack the underlying elements that give those events meaning and give that story drama.

WHAT IS DRAMA?

Drama is a portrayal of the human struggle to maintain values and give meaning to the actions taken in life. In a screenplay, that struggle and those actions are taken by your Protagonist.

It is the character of your Protagonist -- what their values are, what it is they are seeking emotionally, and ultimately what they believe is worth fighting for -- that determines the direction of your screenplay. The manner in which the events of the story develop are governed by the decisions of, and the resulting actions taken by, your Protagonist.

WHAT GIVES THESE EVENTS MEANING?

In a screenplay, the events lead up to a battle between the opposing viewpoints that you've defined as those held by your Protagonist and your Antagonist (or Force of Antagonism). Who wins that battle (over what the ultimate goal of the story is, what is at stake in your story) will define the meaning of the story by telling and showing the audience whose viewpoint is victorious.

This viewpoint is yours, the writer. And whatever happens at the end defines what you as a writer are trying to say about some aspect of the human condition that you want to comment on. This is your story's meaning. This is the realization that your Protagonist has by the end of the story's events.

At its heart, this is what your story's central conflict (the story premise) is truly about.

By first filling out the STORY PREMISE WORKSHEET you can see:

1) What GOAL the Protagonist and Antagonist (or Force of Antagonism) are in diametric opposition over, you can define what the highest STAKES OF YOUR STORY are.

2) Whether you have the right Protagonist for your story; have the Protagonist who is uniquely qualified to push forward the events of your story.

3) Have a Protagonist who is internally motivated in such a way so that the highest STAKES OF YOUR STORY have enough meaning to him/her that he/she will be willing to carry the battle with the Antagonist (or Force of Antagonism) all the way until the end.

By working through this PREMISE WORKSHEET you can see:

1) What emotional goal is driving your Protagonist in the story's beginning and thereby create AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION with him/her.

2) What the Protagonist (or other people within the story) learn from the series of decisions and actions that the Protagonist takes throughout the story to achieve their goal (the CHARACTER ARC of the screenplay).

3) What STATEMENT ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION (your viewpoint, your THEME) that you are trying to make sure you are conveying to the audience.

And now knowing what the stakes of your story are, what is motivating the Protagonist to fight over those stakes, what he will do to win, and how he will change (or change others) -- now you can write a professional synopsis.