Happy Birthday, Go Into The Story!

Launched on May 16, 2008, here we are 5,000+ days of blogging later… but what does it all mean?

Sixteen 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.

I couldn’t fathom that a few years later, I along with my friend and fellow screenwriter Tom Benedek would co-found ScreenwritingMasterClass.com.

I could never have imagined I would become an assistant professor (now an associate professor) at the DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts in Chicago where I am today.

It wouldn’t have remotely occurred to me how today, I would have written The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling, an Amazon 5-Star rated #1 Best Seller.

But with all that, perhaps the most surprising revelation of all is the longevity and impact of Go Into The Story.

I have blogged here over 5,000 days, my consecutive day streak broken only because of shoulder surgery which meant I couldn’t type for two months. Even with that momentary lapse in content, the site had 3M+ unique visits last year. 60K+ Medium followers. 85K+ Twitter followers. 5.1K+ members in the affiliated Facebook group Zero Draft Thirty.

Through my partnership as the Official Screenwriting Blog of the Black List, I have been a mentor and workshop facilitator at every one of their feature writer labs and mini-labs, all twenty-three of them.

Due in large part to this blog, I have been invited to do presentations and writing workshops at the London Screenwriters’ Festival, the Willamette Writers Conference, the Austin Film Festival, the Internationale Filmschule in Cologne, Germany, gave the keynote address at the Cologne Film Festival, and led a Go Into The Story Master Class in Paris, France.

In 2018, Go Into The Story was named “Best of the Best” Scriptwriting Website by Writers Digest magazine.

Yeah, Go Into The Story has been good to me… but that’s not the reason I started the blog, nor continue to host it today.

That reason is you.

Having been a complete Hollywood outsider with nary a sniff of a film school education, I broke into the business by selling a spec script. Ever since, I vowed to do what I could to help others who couldn’t afford a USC MFA… whose parents weren’t studio executives… who didn’t live in the 405–10–101–110 bubble (although I’m happy to help them, too).

My vision for the blog was to create a site which updated every day with articles on the craft and business of screenwriting, features and reflection on creativity, track spec script deals, and over time create a resource rich with useful free content.

I think it’s fair to say Go Into The Story is an asset to the online screenwriting community. I know for a fact there have been dozens and dozens of writers who cite the blog as a contributing factor to their success in the business including two examples here and here.

Therefore, today is a time to celebrate 14 years of blogging, but also to look forward. The world of entertainment has changed radically over the last decade, but one thing is for sure: There has never been a better time to be a content creator and that means us — the writers.

My daily goal is to keep on keeping on and provide information, insight, and inspiration as we forge ahead into this brave new media world.

Here are some wonderful previous comments on social media about the blog.

Franklin, of course, is founder and CEO of The Black List. Stephany co-wrote Toy Story 4 and is one of the hottest writers in Hollywood right now. Don Winslow is a New York Times bestselling author.

Armed with such kind words, I’m ready to charge into Year 17 of Go Into The Story!

Remember my mantra: Begin with character. End with character. Find the story in between.