Today’s guest post is written by John Fitzgerald .

Like most young wannabe filmmakers, I learned the basics of screenwriting by hanging out on film sets and reading books.

Books such as Syd Field‘s 1979 treatise on the three-act dramatic structure, simply titled Screenplay. Fields contends that writers must follow a rigid three-act structure in order to free themselves to develop their characters.

Twitter’s 140-character limit is not unlike the three-act structure in screenwriting. It’s rigidity forces the writer to be disciplined and economical with words while creating a strong visual to convey the story.

The challenge in great storytelling is two-fold:

1. To work within the constraints of the medium to make people empathize with the main character, the protagonist or,in your case, you/your organization.
2. To create an emotional connection with the viewer. Screenwriting and tweeting both give the writer that power.  Yet Twitter’s ability to incorporate photos and videos allows the user to go a step further than screenwriting allows, making it even more visual.

What would happen if you applied the storytelling principles of Screenplay in your every day Twitter usage?

It might go something like this:  (more…)