Happy Birthday, Go Into The Story!

Launched on May 16, 2008, here we are 3,653 consecutive days of blogging later… but what does it all mean?

I didn’t know what I planned to write on the occasion of Go Into The Story’s 10th birthday, but I figured it should be something reflective and thoughtful.

Yet, as the day drew closer, I kept pushing off thinking about it. How can one adequately sum up what has been for me quite literally tens of thousands of hours spent pounding out to date 24,135 blog posts?

Then in a wonderful bit of synchronicity, the dilemma was swept away in the form of an email from a GITS follower: Fuad Omar from the U.K. I met Fuad at last year’s London Screenwriters’ Festival and we have been in touch ever since as he has managed to work his way into and upward in the filmmaking community in England.

When I checked my email yesterday, Fuad had sent the following note. It pretty much says everything that needs to be said. I reprint it here in its entirety by permission:

Hey Scott,

Wow.

10 Years.

A whole decade of not just writing about movies, screenplays, psychology and beyond, but ten years of writing! And that, too, daily. What a milestone.

A decade ago on a Friday, you sat down to compose your blog and began with the first Daily Dialogue, which was an apt quote from Atticus Finch unknowingly predicting what Go Into the Story would eventually do.

“If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

Not just great advice for a writer where character is involved, but story, structure, theme, dialogue and everything else. It’s what writers do. We walk inside other people’s skin and present not only their world view but its place in the universe. You taught thousands of writers many tricks, shared your experiences and devoutly dissected screenplays old and new. In those ten years, writers who came across your blog and learned from it ended up getting careers out of writing, some even became filmmakers, and undoubtedly everyone left feeling a little more inspired and grateful for your efforts.

Go Into The Story has evolved from a blog to an essential resource for writers everywhere, especially for screenwriting. I’ve shared this with you personally, but the entire section on The Business of Screenwriting was a crash course for me when I was thrown into the industry back in 2015 and boy, am I glad you put everything online. Since then, you’ve obviously helped me a lot offline, but I never ask you a question without checking out what you’ve said online first.

From interviews with Nicholl Fellowship winners and up and coming screenwriters to becoming the official blog of the Black List and teaching writers about the art, craft and business of screenwriting, you really have a lot to be proud of.

And a lot we are grateful for.

A whole ten years worth of content you’ve curated, written and presented for us. I don’t think there are any words that could reflect this milestone, but I hope you realize that your work is an important part of cinema itself because it helped create the next generation of writers and filmmakers. The Friday you put your blog out, Iron Man (a then fledgling new studio called Marvel’s debut feature) dominated the weekend box office (just behind Prince Caspian) still going strong two weeks after release. Today, like your blog, Marvel is a force to reckon with and a game-changer for Hollywood.

Not bad company to be in, my friend.

Thank you. For all your efforts, for inspiring and educating thousands, and for taking us into the story to find the animals.

It’s a lot easier to do because of your blog and your herculean efforts.

Happy 10th and here’s to the next 10 years!

Ten years ago, I was a TV producer and had no idea that in August of that year, I would begin an eight year stint as a visiting lecturer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in their Writing for Screen and Stage program. Today, I am an assistant professor at the DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts in Chicago and in my spare time teach through the unique online platform I co-founded eight years ago: ScreenwritingMasterClass.com.

But through it all, I’ve hosted Go Into The Story.

Where will I be ten years from now? If I’m fortunate to receive tenure, I expect I’ll continue to teach at DePaul because I love what I do as well as my students, my colleagues, and what our program is becoming — a truly unique film school. I foresee some screenwriting and movie books in my future including my first of which I hope to have some news within a few months.

But assuming I’m still around and kicking in 2028, I believe I’ll be here… every day. It’s not sexy work, however, it’s very much in the spirit of the daily engagement we writers experience in wrangling magic and bringing stories into existence, the ritual of returning again and again to our desk to go into the story… and find the animals.

Thanks, Fuad, for your kind thoughts. Thanks to Franklin Leonard and the entire Black List team. And thanks especially to those of you who have intersected with this website over the years.

Onward.