There's No Time Like The Present (Tense)

WORDS IS HARD

Learning how to screen-write can at first feel like you're learning a new language, whether you're coming in as someone who's been writing novels for ten years or someone who hasn't written anything since their last term paper.

While sharing similarity as a form of telling fantastic tales, screenwriting is very different from penning a description heavy, internally monologue filled, can-go-on-as-long-as-you-want-to eight-part novel.

Mainly because description (dubbed as "action") lines are required to be concise and generally no more than three sentences in length, you literally can not tell an actor (via character) what they're feeling in their heart of hearts, and you only have 90-120 pages to tell your story -- and a lot of that is going to be white space.

But I'll talk about all of that in later posts. For now, we're to tackle the topic of tense.

One of the hardest of the new formatting rules to grasp can be understanding and properly utilizing the proper tense. First, let's define.

Tense (noun): a verb-based method used to indicate the time, and sometimes the continuation or completeness, of an action or state in relation to the time of speaking.

Or, more plainly put, "When is it happening?". In screenwriting, the answer should always be: RIGHT NOW.

See, in most -- if not all -- of our other written works, we use what is called "Past Tense", meaning we're addressing things that have already happened.

EXAMPLE: "Jane walked across the room and slapped John in the face."

You'll find this in everything from books to essays to résumés, and probably not even notice it because it's so natural to us. (The tense, not the slapping.)

But this is simply not proper grammar for screenwriting.

The correct way to craft action -- which covers everything from dancing to drag racing to kung-fu (essentially anything that isn't dialogue) -- is to use present tense.

Present tense indicates something is happening in the, you guessed it, present.

EXAMPLE: "Jane walks across the room and slaps John in the face."

Why do we write like this?

Because when an actor picks up your script, they're going to be performing all of this "action", and they're going to be doing it in real time. Unless we're stuck in some weird Christopher Nolan-esque time loop, they haven't done anything yet.

"Jane" hasn't slapped "John" -- until she does.

It may seem like an unnecessary add or feel clunky and uncomfortable at first, but don't worry -- just like how Shakespeare seems indecipherable until you give it some time, you'll get the hang of it.

And note this well, reader -- this is, as above mentioned, a rule. You may have the juiciest dialogue, sweetest romance, and meta-level enlightened plot, but if you write your screenplay in any other tense but present, this will have a drastic effect on the possibility of future success. So it's a skill worth learning.

GOES OFF TO WRITE IN PRESENT TENSE