Summer Romance – A Teenage Angst Script

We looked into several kinds of romantic films in July, and one of them was the Teenage Angst film. Using Titanic [1997] as an example, we uncovered three script points that made the film a success:

1. The leads are opposites in many ways.
2. There’s a secondary story that involves both leads beyond the love story.
3. It doesn’t end well—one of them dies.

So let’s use those three points as a template for you to come up with your own romantic film.

First, think about a setting and your characters. Do you want this to be a period piece or should it be set today? And where should it be set—in a confined space, like a country house on a summer weekend, or in a big city with lots of different places for the characters to meet?

As to characters, well, who are they? And in what way are they opposites—class or income or desires? Do you want to do a “conventional” teenage love story between a boy and girl or do you want to do a love story between two people of the same sex? Do you want them to be rich or poor? Or is one of them rich and the other poor? If you had to pick one defining characteristic of each character, what would it be? And beyond falling in love, what is each character aiming for… what do they want?

Second, what’s the story the two characters are involved in that doesn’t have to do with their romance? Is there a mystery they have to solve? Are they competing in a contest of some sort with one another? Is someone dying whom they both know, and if so, how is each of them dealing with that?

And third, what happens in the story that puts them in danger and leads to one of them dying? Or does one of them have an illness that’s going to end in death? Or are they simply in a freak accident and one of them dies? Or does some force of nature—tornado, earthquake, etc.—lead to one of their deaths?

Of course, looking into those three points as you put together your script is just the beginning, isn’t it? You have to ask yourself what sort of story you really want to tell—what’s the spine of the story, the heart of it. And why would an audience want to watch your film? What would make it appealing or edgy or thought-provoking…or whatever you’re going for?

So throw some ideas down on paper and make a start!

And if Adult Angst is more in your line when you think about writing a summer romance, we’ll talk about that next week.

Copyright © Diane Lake

05Aug18

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com