{"id":3684,"date":"2026-01-23T23:57:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shirscribe.com\/?p=3684"},"modified":"2026-01-27T00:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:15:10","slug":"teaching-myself-to-write-scripts-by-reading-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shirscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/teaching-myself-to-write-scripts-by-reading-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Myself to Write Scripts by Reading Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When it comes to creativity, I scoff at formal training. Instead I think the best way for me to get good at writing scripts is simply by reading them. Come along as I embark on my script reading journey, beginning here with the classic rom-com \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally.\u201d Perhaps I\u2019ll make this into a series \u2013 we\u2019ll see. Plus, I throw in a couple of detour stories about the time I trained to be a Bible study leader and why I\u2019m reducing my social media intake. Finally, I\u2019ll end with some of my favorite lines from the script and explain why I like them so much. Disparate as some of this may seem, it all ties back together\u2026or so I think. You be the judge.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Unlike books, I can read a script in one sitting. Of course one sitting for me might be hours on end, but at least it\u2019s not days, weeks, or dare I say it, even the months that it takes me to read a book depending on how long it is. So I\u2019m kinda excited about that, because it means I just may be able to pull off one script a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to creativity or even curiosity, I\u2019ve never been a fan of formal training \u2013 that is insofar as the formal training isn\u2019t necessary (did I really just say insofar as?). Like if I wanted to play the guitar or the piano, formal training, for me, would be necessary. Even then, after I learned the basics, I would compose stuff the way I wanted \u2013 no need to follow rules. I mean who established these rules anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began writing a script for the first time towards the end of 2017. I was applying for a screenwriting program that required one, but I didn\u2019t have any. I checked out a bunch of screenwriting how-to books from the library to help me out, but they were so bogged down with minutiae, I didn\u2019t feel creative trying to follow those rules. All those books were saying how you have to write in a three-act structure, and they were being very technical about teaching me how to do so. That was enough to make me ditch the how-to books for simply reading scripts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One that was most influential to me at that time was the script for \u201cThelma and Louise\u201d by first-time screenwriter Callie Khouri. I had never seen that movie before I read the script. After I watched it, I felt like I\u2019d seen it for a second time \u2013 that\u2019s how clean and crisp her script was. I\u2019ve read other scripts after seeing the movie and was confused by how different they were from what finally made it on screen, but not with Callie\u2019s script. The movie was damn near a live-action carbon copy of Callie\u2019s words. I did a little research on her afterward and I believe she was self-taught. Don\u2019t quote me though, it\u2019s been a minute. But yeah, she got the Oscar for that script \u2013 well deserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, I have to be careful with relying on creating my own inspiration by reading scripts solely. I don\u2019t want to get so caught up in myself that I\u2019m not open to someone else\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That reminds me of the time I was in college and took a short training to become a Bible study leader. I wasn\u2019t picked, by the way, which hit me pretty hard because damn near everyone else, if not everyone else, was picked except me, and I really, really wanted to do it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me tell you the story right quick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bible Study Leader Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While I didn\u2019t go to church regularly growing up, I went to Christian school, where, in addition to mandatory Bible classes, we also had mandatory weekly chapel, which was essentially a church service during school hours. Around my junior year in high school, I started studying the Bible on my own a lot. By the time I was a sophomore in college, when I went for the Bible Study leader position, I was pretty confident about my ability to hear from God and interpret scripture in a way that I could make it make sense to others.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I got to college, one of the first things I did was join a Christian club. This Christian club held weekly Bible studies on campus, including several in the dorms. I attended one in the dorms and wanted to lead one as well. In order to become a Bible study leader, you had to go through training. As a part of the training, I was given a passage of the Bible to study and then facilitate a discussion in a small group which would be evaluated by the person who could okay me to be a Bible study leader. This wasn\u2019t a paid position. It was just a position you could hold as a member of the club. The person who could okay me was paid, though. She was not a student. She was an employee of the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The passage I got was the one where Jesus takes two fish and five loaves of bread and feeds five thousand men, not to mention the women and children. I had studied that passage so many times in school as well as on my own in addition to hearing it preached (by this time, I was a regular viewer of preacher\u2019s like T.D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer on Christian TV), that I was so confident in my ability to deliver a powerful message. But not only that, I couldn\u2019t wait to show off my scripture-interpretation skills. I couldn\u2019t wait to get the proverbial pats on the back for the way I would be able to elucidate that passage in a way they had never seen before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And behold, I did just that. The people in my small group were amazed. They loved my study. They had such good things to say including the one that I\u2019d hoped for \u2013 that I was able to make them see the passage in a new light.  It was a slam dunk. Surely, I was going to be one of the new Bible study leaders. But alas, a week or so later, when it was time for the big reveal, I was told I didn\u2019t make the cut. I can\u2019t quite remember why. I think they gave some bullshit reason like I was too young. But I think perhaps the real reason was that I was too good. People often don\u2019t like it when somebody younger than them is better at something than they are. Not to mention I was also the only black person in that training crop. Sure I may have been a little full of myself, but these people weren\u2019t perfect either. Ultimately, that was a great lesson about dealing with Christian people \u2013 a lesson in not being surprised when they act in a way that\u2019s not very Christian-like. I stayed in that Christian club for the entirety of my time on campus, but I never tried out for the Bible study leader position again. I didn\u2019t think they deserved me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not the point I wanted to make with this story. I have the tendency to go off on little tangents. The point I\u2019m trying to make with this story is\u2026well, let me expand on the story. There was another girl, an older girl, and by older I mean 24 \u2013 I was 18 at the time \u2013 who was given the same passage to use to lead a Bible study. Interestingly enough, her interpretation was completely different from mine, and here I was thinking I had the meaning of that passage on lock. Secretly I thought there\u2019s no way her study could be better than mine. After all, I had heard directly from God (not audibly, but a knowing in my spirit) after years of intense prayer and study that began way before I ever knew these people existed.  And there she was giving an interpretation that had never even entered my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funny thing is, even though this girl was a believer, she also had her doubts. She was a baby Christian. I, on the other hand, was already saved, sanctified, washed in the blood sold out for Jesus. And yet she was able to deliver a study that was just as powerful as mine. In fact, all these years later and I don\u2019t even remember my interpretation of that scripture \u2013 I\u2019m sure I could probably find it in one of my old notebooks that I kept from back then \u2013 but I still remember hers. The jest of it was to use your resources. It was so simple. So practical. And coincidentally \u2013 or maybe not so much \u2013 quite apropos to where I am in my life right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I said all that to say, it\u2019s important to get other people\u2019s perspectives as well. God speaks to us in different ways. And life speaks to us in different ways. I guess you just have to balance that with knowing that just because someone else has a good idea doesn\u2019t mean that yours can\u2019t be good as well and vice versa. I don\u2019t want to fool myself into thinking that I can\u2019t learn from others. When it comes to creativity, I just don\u2019t want to learn in a formal setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limiting Social Media<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The other night I turned the TV on and did something I hadn\u2019t done in I don\u2019t know how long. I flipped through the channels to see what was on, then stopped at something at random and enjoyed it. I love the idea of being introduced to something new. I miss the idea of it. That\u2019s how I discovered the movie \u201cCrossing Delancy,\u201d which I came to adore. I was flipping through the channels, saw one of the girls from the movie  \u201cCarrie\u201d and was just interested in seeing her play a different character, so I stopped and watched the movie. I found the dialogue to be so unpredictable in that movie…like in a good way \u2013 it wasn\u2019t clich\u00e9. How I expected the characters to respond to something that was said was, at times, totally different in this movie then what I was used to. It was so refreshing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just seeing what\u2019s on TV, or keeping it on the same channel after something I was interested in went off, is how I started watching shows like \u201cPerfect Strangers,\u201d  and \u201cStep by Step.\u201d It\u2019s how I came to watch the movie, \u201cPoint of no Return\u201d which ended up being one of my favorites. These are shows and movies I would have never sought out on my own had I not haphazardly come across them the way I did. And that\u2019s, I think, the danger of the algorithm and the way social media is set up, where it just gives you more of what you\u2019ve searched for and rarely introduces you to something different. Sometimes I want something different. So I stopped scrolling on Instagram to get reintroduced to my imagination and see where my mind can wander on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, when it comes to Instagram, I must admit, I\u2019m kinda sick of seeing a bunch of regular people, who\u2019ve now become experts since they have a platform and followers, giving me advice. Not that I\u2019m judging those people. I\u2019m a social media follower of some of those people. I regularly take in their advice. Furthermore, I don\u2019t even believe you need to be a so-called expert to give good advice. But at the same time I also want to be influenced by happenstance. I want to be influenced by regular ole life \u2013 I believe it\u2019s the best teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not to say that I\u2019m completely eliminating my Instagram and YouTube time. I\u2019m just significantly reducing it. No more scrolling for hours. Besides, I think my attention span has been significantly reduced because of it. Even when I\u2019m on Instagram, if people don\u2019t get to the point fast enough, I scroll away. I feel like that impatience has seeped into my writing time making it harder for me to concentrate. If I can\u2019t think of something to write fast enough, my mind wanders, I get bored, I want something else to do. No, I need to slow it down, get back on track. So I\u2019ll see what this does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Harry Met Sally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That is why I\u2019m teaching myself how to write scripts. I\u2019m finding them on the internet, reading them then watching the movie, or watching the movie then reading the script. First up is the romantic-comedy said to have changed the game \u2013 \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally.\u201d I really like this romantic-comedy. I feel like I\u2019ve been saying that a lot lately, but it\u2019s true. I like this movie for the simplicity of it. There is no huge plot twist, no heart-wrenching drama, or overarching climax. It\u2019s really just a series of conversations with friends and lovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though I\u2019ve seen it several times, it\u2019s been years since I\u2019ve seen it last, so it was interesting recreating the scenes in my mind. I believe the script that I discovered was the shooting script, not the original script that was used before they started filming because it already has the current ending. I was watching a clip of Rob Reiner, the director, on The Drew Barrymore Show stating that originally (spoiler alert) Harry and Sally didn\u2019t end up together, but that he met his wife during the filming of the movie and changed the ending after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also mentioned that Billy Crystal, who plays Harry, added several lines, like that famous line he says to Sally at the New Year\u2019s Eve party, and that famous line the older woman in the diner says, \u201cI\u2019ll have what she\u2019s having\u201d after Sally fakes an orgasm at a table nearby. It would be interesting to compare the original script to this one, but I was happy just to have something to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading this script made me feel really good about my script \u2013 the one script that I\u2019ve completed, but am still feverishly tweaking. It\u2019s helping me to realize that my script isn\u2019t so bad after all, and that maybe all this tweaking is a moot effort. There is only so much I can do at this stage. It\u2019s just a testament to how much a movie is truly a collaborative effort. And that unlike a novel, all the feels you get when you see the movie don\u2019t come from the writing alone. Unlike a novel, a script really needs actors and all the other players to make the story come alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 So I think reading these scripts will be really good for me. I think it will help make it easier for me to eventually let the ones that I\u2019m writing go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite Lines from the \u2018When Harry Met Sally\u2019 Script<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Much like my Movie Scenes that I Love series, where I highlight a scene from a movie that stood out to me in some way, I came across some lines in this script that I particularly enjoyed. I thought they cleverly made a subtle statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t remember if these lines made it into the movie, but reading them gave me something to write about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first one came from Harry talking to his friend Jess about his wife leaving him. Here it is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lines from the movie “When Harry Met Sally.” Original screenplay by Nora Ephron, Rob Reiner and Andrew Scheinman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As someone who is perpetually single, one of the things that gives me some comfort about my singledom is how fucked up so many marriages, if not most marriages are. In all my 46 years of living, I have never seen a happy marriage. And that\u2019s not to say that I don\u2019t believe marriage can work, because I do. I even belief in love at first sight. I just think that good marriages are rare \u2013 rarer than even the divorce rate indicates. My only reference of a good marriage would be the stuff that I see on TV and in movies. I\u2019ve only seen marriages that are either bad or ones I haven\u2019t observed enough to form an opinion on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People talk about marriage and treat marriage as if the marriage itself is the prize. But I don\u2019t believe that marriage is the prize. I think the prize is finding someone who loves you and who you love in return. But wait, \u2018cause it doesn\u2019t stop there: that love then has to manifest itself in the way they treat each other. It\u2019s not just about two people who are attracted to each other, or tolerate each other. It\u2019s about love like it\u2019s spelled out in Corinthians chapter 11\u2026or is it 13? Read your whole Bible, you\u2019ll find it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, that type of love is not a prerequisite for marriage. People get married for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with love \u2013 social pressure, familial pressure, they\u2019re getting older, they\u2019re settling, they want to have someone to come home to, tax breaks, they want to move up in their career, on and on and on. I may be single and unmarried, but there\u2019s an awful lot of single married people out there too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s why I was taken by these lines from Harry, particularly the last one where he\u2019s recounting his wife telling him, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever loved you.\u201d  It was a true example of art reflecting the charade that so many marriages are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, as a read down a little further, I came across these lines from Sally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lines from the movie “When Harry Met Sally.” Original screenplay by Nora Ephron, Rob Reiner and Andrew Scheinman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What really stood out to me about her lines came towards the end where she talks about spending time with her friend\u2019s little girl, and the little girl spotted what she called a family. Also how she tells her boyfriend that they never just up and go to Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found this to be particularly poignant because it alludes to the lie some of us childless singles tell ourselves about being unmarried and\/or without kids. It\u2019s a status that some singles pump up for the said freedom you have to do what you want when you want without having to consider the wants or needs of others like a husband and\/or kids, when in reality, for many, the absence of these people can be devastating. It\u2019s like that Kanye West song says, \u201cOn that independent shit. Trade it all for a husband and some kids.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as I can appreciate not being in a sham marriage and don\u2019t mind doing things alone like eating out or traveling, I have to also admit that, while doing those things, there is always a moment, or a few, where I think it would be nice if someone else was there with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember the time when I was staying at a hotel, enjoying a relaxing night swim, when suddenly, a dad and his young brat, who had escaped the chaos of the family pool, invaded the serenity of the adults only pool \u2013 the younger of the two doing cannonballs, much to his father\u2019s delight, into the calm water. I had the mind to go tell on them \u2013 yeah, I\u2019m that chick \u2013 but no need, the pool staff was on it. They kicked the petulant pair out, despite the father\u2019s protest. While I took pleasure in watching them go, as father and son walked back to the crowded family pool, just a short distance away, I couldn\u2019t help but think that it might be nice if I were the one heading over there with my precious progeny to float on one of those giant blow-up cheerios, watching whatever kiddie movie they were playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freedom of singleness is often touted by singles. But freedom is relative. It just depends on what type of free you want to be.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yeah, I love that these lines from Harry and Sally touched on these perspectives of marriage and singleness, even if in an elusive way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime I\u2019ll be plotting my next solo trip. I mean, I currently can\u2019t afford it, but a girl can dream. Right now I have my sights set on Detroit, London\u2026perhaps a stop in Belgium, for waffles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to creativity, I scoff at formal training. Instead I think the best way for me to get good at writing scripts is simply by reading them. Come along as I embark on my script reading journey, beginning…<\/p>\n

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