“Stakes” in Scriptwriting

It’s really a challenging task to stay innovative in the aspects that we do on an everyday basis. Especially being in a creative department, it is mandatory to stay unique with our ideas and innovations. The simple and the most spectacular way is to think out of the box.

We shall take about “Stakes”.

As a writer, while writing a situation I always ask myself, “What if”. This phrase helps me in thinking out of the box. Especially in writing a screenplay. In the process of screenwriting, after I write a Linear format of the story, I have to ask myself a question “What If” to make the story more interesting. For instance, If the hero of the story needs to have more complication that will help the magnitude of the screenplay to increase which helps to hold the grip of the entire story.

So, the stakes make me get an idea which is entirely out of the way. But the stake should work out with the theme and the motivation. When many numbers of versions of the scripts are written and it’s been revised for a lot of times, we get to know where we need to apply the stakes and in which character we can bring into. This is also applicable in introducing a scene, shot or a dialogue. A story gets a new dimension when we apply stakes into a screenplay. If you could revise a lot of Blockbuster movie screenplays, you could witness the stakes been applied. This should have helped the screenplay to be more interesting and engaging for the audience.

A writer should never comprise to write numerous numbers of versions of his script to get various dimensions applying stakes that will help the story stand ahead of others assumption. The more you scribble, the more the screenplay gets engaging.

The dramatical questions never change. ’But the answers’. They have been changing for ages. And we still look for some different answers every day. Answers are nothing but ‘Solutions’. And questions are nothing but the ‘Conflicts’ – The basic formula to work on scriptwriting.

- VIKRAM KUMAR. B
(SCRIPT WRITER)- D'fine art