What exactly are you looking to make this Machinima be about? Will it be one video or will it be a series? Will it be medieval? Perhaps Sci-fi? As the creator, the choices you make are entirely up to you and will be the foundation of your Machinima. If you need some help brainstorming, just start jotting down ideas into a Mind Map. If that doesn't work for you then you can always ask around your friends and online community. There's a lot of friendly people out there.

Once you've come up with an idea for your Machinima, it's time to put your words to paper. Open up your preferred text-editor and get writing! (Alternatively you can search for a person/writing group that will write your script for you. However it is always better to write on your own)


Obviously, stories are composed of a Beginning, Middle, and an End. Your decision of making a series or a lone video will have an impact on your story structure. For example: If you chose to create a series, you may want to leave out some details and end the episode on a cliffhanger. This can yield 2 results.

1. You will leave viewers wanting more and will generate more hype for the next episode in the series.

or

2. Viewers will be so upset that you left the ending with so many ties that they will never watch your videos ever again. Ever.

If you are going to end the episode with a cliffhanger, try to make it so viewers will be waiting for the next episode with open eyes, not closed ones. There will be plenty of time for heavy endings later, but give the viewers some time to get used to machinima.

Now I am not a writer. I want to make that clear. So should a "Professional Blogger" see this and prepare to write a comment on how I'm so bad... Don't. Don't even think about it.





Beginning

Introduce the characters. Give the viewers a taste of what the Machinima will be like. Perhaps by feeding them some backstory, lore. Give them characters that they will love. Give them characters that they will loathe. Make them feel like immersing themselves in the story. Make them want to keep watching

Middle

This is where you can lay-down some heavy plot. Build up the action. Slowly put more and more tension onto the story. Create problems and loose ends. Allow the viewer to relate to the problems and characters. No one wants to sit through a 30 minute snore-fest. Give your viewers something to enjoy. If you wouldn't watch it yourself, change it so that you would.

End

Now start slowing down a bit. Give the audience some time to breath and think about what they just watched. Make sure to give them some answers to those problems and loose ends you made in the middle, but not too many! Leave them wanting more. Now for the love of all that is holy, do not end the episode with something cliché like: "Uh oh the Main Character looks like he's gonna die!" or "... And they all lived happily ever after". Making an ending is arguably the most difficult thing about writing a script because you need to write something that answers some questions, but doesn't give them all away.


As for what your script should look like. That's up to you. You can follow the basic:

Bob: Steve what did you eat for dinner?
Steve: Oh just some porkchops.

Or you can add a bit of flare in order to help the voice actors better understand the situation and atmosphere like this:

Bob: "I can see you've already had dinner. What did you eat?"

*Steve slowly raises his head to look Bob in the eyes. Steve sound's raspy, like he's holding back tears*

Steve: "Bob... I'm so sorry. But... Your pet pig Porkers..."

*Steve breaths out a sob*

Steve: "He... He was the only thing available! I... I had porkchops for dinner, Bob. Porkchops."


Obviously the difference there was huge.

You've reached the last step of writing your glorious masterpiece. All that's left is to proof-read it. Now you may be asking yourself "But if I'm the only one reading the script, why should I Proof-Read it?". That's a good question. The answer is that you won't be the only one reading the script. Your voice actors will be as well. For reasons that I will state in another part, it is much better to have Voice Actors record their lines externally, and having them synced up with the video.


It will be much easier for the Voice-Actors to do their lines when they are rid of spelling and grammatical errors. By giving them a copy of the full script, they'll get a better feel for the atmosphere and plot in which they are acting for. This is very important. There are alternatives to giving the actors a copy of the whole script if you aren't too trusting, which I will provide in a different part.