Go Into The Story

Page One: “Natural Born Killers” (1994)

Screenplay by David Veloz & Richard Rutowski & Oliver Stone, story by Quentin Tarantino

Screenwriting Mantra: Enter Late, Exit Early

“You always attack a movie scene as late as you possibly can. You always come into the scene at the last possible moment.”

Reader Question: How to write period-authentic dialogue?

The three keys to writing dialogue which sounds like it is authentic to a specific time period: Research, Character Development…

Character Introductions: Part 7

Think there’s nothing to introducing characters in a script? Think again!

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything You Wanted to Know About Specs

Part 10: Creating Buzz.

Page One: “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982)

Written by Douglas Day Stewart

The Spirit of the Spec

The creative empowerment of writing a spec script.

Set-up and Payoffs

One of the most important narrative elements screenwriters have available to us is set-ups and payoffs. The basic idea is this: We…

Spec Script Deal: “The Delivered”

Sculptor Media acquires drama-thriller spec script The Delivered written by Harrison Query. Via Deadline:

Script To Screen: “Almost Famous”

A terrific movie Almost Famous (2000), written and directed by Cameron Crowe. One of the keys to creating drama is to put characters under…

Page One: “Pitch Perfect” (2012)

Screenplay by Kay Cannon, book by Mickey Rapkin

Tweetstorm: Selwyn Seyfu Hinds on Developing and Delivering a Pitch

“You’re ready to pitch when you find the emotional center of the story & your connection to it. The story has to turn emotional gears in…

The Story Rules

The first and last commandment of writing.

Great Scene: “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”

Butch and Sundance return to the Hole in the Wall Gang… and a challenge.

Screenwriting 101: Francis Ford Coppola

“When you make a movie, always try to discover what the theme of the movie is in one or two words. Every time I made a film, I always knew…

Page One: “Raging Bull” (1980)

Screenplay by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin, based on the book by Jake LaMotta

Break your story in prep

My only Prep: From Concept to Outline workshop of 2021 begins July 5.

We’re on the road to… somewhere.

A really long-ass bridge… story outlines… and YOU!

Script To Screen: “The Apartment”

A key revelation scene from my favorite movie, the 1960 The Apartment, written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. “Izzy” Diamond.

On Writing

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to…

Page One: “Nebraska” (2013)

Written by Bob Nelson

Sundays with Stephen King’s “On Writing”

A series featuring reflections on writing from the famed author’s memoir.

Reader Question: How to go about the query letter process?

“Is there any direction as to how to go about the query process? Should I target a few dream-list agencies or should I paint the town with…

The Inward Path of the Protagonist’s Journey

Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell remind us that the outer journey of the hero is about the inner journey into the Self.

Video: Richard Curtis on Writing Romantic Comedies

Observations by the screenwriter of such notable movies as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually.