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How to Find Your Voice as a Screenwriter
by Julia Camara


Something I heard a lot as a new screenwriter was this talk of a “writer’s voice,” and whether it was a strong voice, an interesting voice or an intrusive voice. Like many other concepts around screenwriting, I always thought this one was a bit elusive and abstract. How can I, the screenwriter, have a voice if the job of the screenwriter is to essentially write something where the writer is invisible?

In a novel or short story, you can spend several pages talking about someone’s background, their likes and dislikes, their world views, their wounds, their quirks. Usually, that’s where the writer’s voice can truly shine, by showing the writer’s command of human emotion and behavior. You can’t do that in a screenplay. You can only add things that can be photographed. Unless you write a long montage of scenes, you can’t reveal your character’s entire life story or background in one big chunk. I also don’t recommend you write that elaborate montage unless it’s pertinent to your story.

You can’t showcase your voice by writing flowery and poetic prose because that’s not what the screenwriter’s job is about. If anything, if the action and description are too inflated, the reader might end up distracted and disconnected from the story.

Since you can’t include any of the things I mentioned above, how do you develop your voice, and what is it exactly?

Developing your writer’s voice starts with choosing your story. If the story you set out to write is something you are deeply invested in creating, if it’s something that has a lot of meaning to you, if it’s something that keeps you awake at night, you will, no doubt be writing a story that will resonate with others, and your writer’s voice will appear naturally.

Make sure you know why you are telling the story you are writing. Especially with newer writers hoping to break into the business, having something to say will contribute to honing your writer’s voice. Your writer’s voice should be there to service the story and to enhance the story.

If you are passionate about the story, if there’s so much of you in it you feel a bit exposed anytime someone reads it, your writer’s voice will shine.

Finding your voice will also come from figuring out genres and styles of films that you absolutely love. You never want to be the writer who doesn’t like or watch movies in a genre you are writing. Why bother? Write a story you want to read! Write a movie you’d love to sit down and watch even if you weren’t the writer.

I always recommend experimenting and taking risks. As much as I have outlined all the things you shouldn’t do, feel free to ignore my advice and try some things for yourself to see how it feels.

Above all, find exactly who you are as a writer, what types of stories you write, what you are good at writing and what you need to improve on; what’s your genre and what themes do you gravitate towards writing. Knowing these things will not only help your writing be stronger and more specific, but also will develop your writer’s voice. Knowing yourself as an artist is one of the most important things for any screenwriter or filmmaker.

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Julia Camara is a Brazilian writer/filmmaker. Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, she freelanced for years as a Portuguese translator for film and television subtitling. She has written and directed several award-winning short films. Her feature directorial debut, “In Transit,” an experimental drama shot mostly in one day and with improvised dialogue, won Best Experimental Film at four different festivals. Julia also wrote the sci-fi feature, “Area Q,” starring Isaiah Washington; the road movie, “Open Road,” starring Andy Garcia, Juliette Lewis and Camilla Belle; and the award-winning, sci-fi, horror feature, “Occupants,” starring Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Picardo. “Occupants” has screened at over 150 festivals all over the world and has won over 100 awards including a Telly Award for writing. Julia also teaches Screenwriting at UCLA Extension. Julia’s latest endeavor, the eBook, “That’s What She Wrote,” a collection of articles and interviews about screenwriting and filmmaking, is available on Amazon. To find out more about Julia, visit her website or follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

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