How to Use Go Into The Story (Part 3): Write Pages

Some end of the year advice for blog readers.

With over 30,000 Go Into The Story articles, here’s a logical question:

HOW THE HELL DO I USE THIS STUFF?

An end of the year series to help.

Part 3: Write Pages

Many years ago, I coined this screenwriting mantra: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages.

Seriously, you can learn the craft just by doing these three things.

Today some tips on how to use Go Into The Story to help you write pages.

Dialogue Writing Prompts: Some exercises you can use to work on your dialogue-writing skills.

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: They’re not really dumb, actually quite smart, and most importantly effective.

Great Characters: Hundreds of movie characters analyzed to give you a creative jolt when crafting your own story’s characters.

On Writing: Go here to read inspirational quotes on the craft from hundreds of professional writers.

The Definitive List of Clichéd Dialogue: Avoid them or give them a twist to make them feel new, but bottom line it’s a good thing to be aware of them.

The 10 Steps: How I Write a Script: One of my most popular posts which proposes one way to approach the script-writing process.

Writing Mantras: Excellent advice I’ve picked up over the years.

But the biggest boost to write pages is something which emerged spontaneously in last year: The Zero Draft Thirty Challenge. The initial #ZD30SCRIPT Challenge attracted over 1,000 participants and was a big success. We have run the Challenge twice a year ever since (March and September). You can join the Zero Draft Facebook group which has evolved into a terrific, supportive community of over 5,000 writers.

Here’s the thing: You can’t make a sale… you can’t land representation… you can’t go up for writing assignments… you can’t have the credibility to pitch a project… you can’t do anything unless you have sat down and actually written an original screenplay.

Don’t just think or talk about it. Do it!

WRITE PAGES!!!

For Part 1: Watch Movies, go here.

For Part 2: Read Scripts, go here.

Tomorrow: How to Use Go Into The Story (Part 4): Study the craft.