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If you want to sell a screenplay you have to make sure it contains that vital ingredient in all movies—its characters don’t talk and behave as we do in real life.

We all know realism is essential in a film or else it loses credibility and, eventually, the audience. However, it’s also important to remember film represents an alternate reality, not the humdrum day to day reality of every day existence.

Characters in film give the illusion of talking and acting like people in real life, but in fact their words and actions are heightened versions of our own. If everyone talked and acted in film as they do in real life, going to the movie theater would be an extremely dull experience.

One difference between real people and characters in film is that characters in film exaggerate whatever emotion they’re feeling, whether for dramatic or comedic effect.

For example, if someone is annoyed with you in real life, they may not talk to you for a while. In a film they’ll write down what they’re thinking and hold it up for you to read.

If someone’s a party animal in real life, you may see them get drunk and fall over. In a film they’ll be dancing topless in the street, singing.

Characters in film also always do what we secretly wish we could do.

Near the end of the film Slums of Beverly Hills, Vivian (Natasha Lyonne) is having dinner with her loser father, (Alan Arkin) brothers and condescending rich uncle. Her uncle continually puts her father down until she can take it no more, picks up a fork and plunges it in his leg. (This a mimicking of her father’s action during an oft repeated story.)

Now, in real life, it’s highly unlikely she would have taken such a drastic measure to shut him up. But in film, she goes through with it. You need to make your characters behave not how you think they would in real life but how they would in film.

Following on from this, characters always say what we wish could say.

In real life we walk away during an argument having only said half the things we wish we’d said, and then half an hour later curse “I should’ve said XYZ.” Not in film. In any given situation, characters always have a sharp comeback, a witty one-liner and always say the right thing at the right time. (Unless, of course, this is a trait of the character.)

So, much of the above is about strengthening character’s dialogue—keeping it realistic but making it sharper, wittier, more profound. And, strengthening your character’s actions—exaggerating whatever emotion it is they’re feeling.

This will lead them into more extraordinary situations and ultimately result in a more extraordinary screenplay. It’s those scenes in which characters climb a tree to conduct a conversation, or fake an orgasm in a diner, that the audience remembers.

The bottom line is, it’s the extraordinary not the ordinary that will help you sell your screenplay.