If you are thinking about taking a screenwriting course online then here are a couple of things that you should do in order to prepare yourself and get a proper head start. First things first, if you are considering taking this course then you should also have thought up a couple of ideas, this does not mean you need to have a whole script mapped out but have some ideas for your characters, settings and themes and once you have these ideas, the learning part on how to turn these three things into a script will come naturally. - Thinking of Interesting Characters First things you have to consider when taking a screenwriting course are your characters. You have to come up with an interesting character and here I will give you just a few simple tips on how you can come up with one right now, it’s quite easy. First of all, think, preferably into your past. Think of anyone there that you met but do you do not really know. Try to remember what the person was wearing when you met him or her, think about the way they talked and try to recall if they had a job and what the job was. Now jot down as many details about that person as you can remember. While doing so, somehow you should already be starting to form the basis of a character in your head. Keep doing this with a couple more random people until you have come up with about four or five characters and then you can pick the character you think you would prefer to use in your screenplay. - Formulating an Interesting Setting Thinking of a good location is the next part of your screenwriting course. Formulating a setting is even easier than thinking up characters because the setting does not necessarily have to be interesting, just as long as it becomes interesting through the characters. For instance, a car park is not exactly the most exciting of places but when you think about the kind of people that could be in that car park; probably a gang of drug dealers. Just by doing this, you have already built up some kind of tension in association to that particular setting. It’s the people that make a place. Just stop take a moment to think to yourself now about someplace you know and then you can place your character in that location with reason as to why he or she is there. From this small exercise you can come up with a way to expand your ideas and create a story. - Coming Up With a Central Theme What your film is all about comes up next and I guess you can say this is the hardest part of the screenwriting course and the theme of your script is basically what your film is about. You should have the ability to summarize your film in one sentence and once this has been done, you will have your theme. A good example for a theme could be the theme for Star Wars which is: "Evil takes over when good people do nothing." So basically once you have come up with a theme, it will then help you decide where you can get more ideas from and once you have something new you can very easily implement it. Before you can register for an online screenwriting course, it is probably best if you try to come up with a few good ideas using the simple techniques mentioned above. You will be surprised at just how much faster you will be able to finish a script when you are properly prepared. Taking a screenwriting course online could just be exactly what you need to get yourself motivated and to help you turn your ideas into something great.
