Go Into The Story

30 Days of Screenplays — Day 4: “Fargo”

Read 30 movie scripts in 30 days.

How to Use Go Into The Story

Blog resources to support your growth as a screenwriter in five areas: Watch Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages. Study the Craft. Learn the…

TED Talk: J.J. Abrams

In 2007, J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Super 8) gave a TED Talk. I’m sure some of you have seen it. However, like many great presentations…

Writing and the Creative Life: Boundaries of Space, Boundaries of Time

“What if in the face of our hectic lives, we claimed our creative time to be our own ‘sacred space’?”

Page One: “The Theory of Everything” (2014)

Screenplay by Anthony McCarten, book by Jane Hawking

30 Days of Screenplays — Day 3: “American Beauty”

Read 30 movie scripts in 30 days.

The Spirit of the Spec

The creative empowerment of writing a spec script.

Spec Script Formatting Primers

An amazing resource for TV writers provided by the Writers Guild Foundation.

The Business of Screenwriting: OWA

Three little letters: OWA. But they mean big things for Hollywood screenwriters. What do these letter stand for?

Page One: “Terms of Endearment” (1983)

Screenplay by James L. Brooks, novel by Larry McMurtry

30 Days of Screenplays — Day 2: “Witness”

Read 30 movie scripts in 30 days.

Writing a Story = Wrangling Magic

The very fact writers create something seemingly out of nothing is a special kind of magic.

An Argument Against Screenplay Formulas (Part 1): They are selling you a lie

“Instead of thinking about Story as a sort of paint-by-numbers formula, we are best served by starting here: Characters.”

Great Scene: “Good Will Hunting”

The bar scene. Will’s classic putdown. And a spin on the ‘meet cute’.

Page One: “The Tender Bar” (2021)

Screenplay by William Monahan, based on the memoir by J.R. Moehringer

30 Days of Screenplays — Day 1: “The Sixth Sense”

Read 30 movie scripts in 30 days.

Negative Fear, Positive Fear

“Fear of writing, understandable, but a negative influence. However, fear of NOT writing and what that prospect could mean, that can be a…

How They Write A Script: Nancy Meyers

Nancy Meyers was for many years part of the Meyers & Shyer writing team that produced numerous hit movies including Private Benjamin…

Screenwriting 101: Brandon Broussard

“What I found out here is that, it’s so cliché, but it’s not about being the most talented. It’s about being the hardest working person. I…

Page One: “Tenet” (2020)

Written by Christopher Nolan

The Low-Down on High Concept

A high concept screenplay must have a clean, simple, and basic idea.

Action Writing in a Screenplay

“More and more, we see an embrace of action writing where the writer in effect directs the action through lines and paragraphs.”

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”

Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and story as psychological journey.

On Writing

“The best stories proceed from a mysterious truth-seeking impulse that narrative has when revised extensively; they are complex and…

Page One: “Tarzan’s Secret Treasure” (1941)

Original screenplay by Myles Connolly and Paul Gangelin, based upon the characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs