Go Into The Story

How to Decide Which Story to Write

Are you trying to figure out which of one or more stories to write next?

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 20

Billy Wilder. Cameron Crowe. Conversation and creative insight.

2021–2022 Award Season Screenplay Downloads —2 New Scripts

It’s that time of year again when studios and production companies make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season.

Writing and the Creative Life: Why You Should Write Three Pages of Garbage Every Morning

“Freewriting forces you to keep moving forward, keep creating, without a thought given to quality.”

Page One: “American Graffiti” (1973)

Written by George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck

Bruno, that was much the same vibe which occurred in the late 80s when scripts inundated with beats.

The funny thing about the level of emotion around this subject is it’s such a minor detail. I mean picayune. Whether a writer chooses to…

“Go Into Yourself”

Words of wisdom from Rainer Maria Rilke in his Letters to a Young Poet.

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 19

Billy Wilder. Cameron Crowe. Conversation and creative insight.

Two Writing Functions: Receptive and Executive

One that allows your characters to come alive. One to craft sentences which draw the reader into the scene.

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Read your dialogue aloud

This is truly one of the easiest things you can do to improve your dialogue writing: When you finish a draft of your script, read aloud…

Writing and the Creative Life: “The hard is what makes it great”

Wisdom about writing and creativity from the movie A League of Their Own.

Page One: “All the President’s Men” (1976)

Screenplay by William Goldman, book by Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

To beat or not to beat: That is the question

Some reflections on the use of Beat in a screenplay.

Screenplays are stories, not formulas

William Goldman has famously written, “Screenplays are structure.” That is true in a tangible sense because at some point, a script becomes…

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 18

Billy Wilder. Cameron Crowe. Conversation and creative insight.

Spec Script Deal: “Wayland”

Lionsgate acquires drama thriller spec script “Wayland” written by Simon Kinberg. Via Deadline:

Great Scene: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

Many of the best movie scenes are payoffs to plot elements that have been set up earlier in the story. Often the set-up and payoff involves…

Page One: “All About Eve” (1950)

Written for the screen by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, story by Mary Orr

Screenwriting as Scene-Writing

My unique 1-week online course begins Monday, November 15th.

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 17

Billy Wilder. Cameron Crowe. Conversation and creative insight.

If you’re stuck in your writing…

A modest suggestion on how to find inspiration on the page.

Screenwriting 101: Billy Wilder

“Make it clear to them, but don’t spell it out like the audience are just a bunch of idiots. Just aim it slightly above their station and…

Page One: “An Affair to Remember” (1957)

Screenplay by Delmer Daves and Leo McCarey, story by Leo McCarey and Mildred Cram

The scene description is a great example of narrative voice.

https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/narrative-voice-f0601fd4b65b

Don’t stand in water where you should be fishing

I use fishing as a metaphor for one’s approach to screenwriting. Seriously.