Go Into The Story

Screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr., based on a novel by Richard Hooker

Hundreds of observations about the craft of screenwriting from professional writers.

A week-long analysis of this Oscar-nominated screenplay. Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Plot Wednesday: Characters Thursday: Themes Friday: Dialogue Saturday:

With yours truly offering a “golden nugget of wisdom” about screenwriting. I summed it up in one word. Can you guess what that word is?

Screenplay by William Goldman based on his novel

“You cannot impose anything on characters. They help you, they give you all, but you have to respect them.”

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

We end up with a ceaseless cesspool of formulaic crap carving its way into and ultimately out of Hollywood movie and TV development…

How budget issues helped to create the memorable ice rink scene.

Examples from movie scripts demonstrate these two tiny forms of punctuation can be a valuable asset for a screenwriter.

Screenplay by Michael Mann, based on the book “Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris.

Some of Hollywood’s top screenwriters share insights from my interviews.

The simplest way to imbue a story with a strong, central conflict is to have your Protagonist confront a Nemesis.

Diana single-handedly takes on the German Army in the breathtaking No Man’s Land scene from the movie Wonder Woman.

From Season 11 of the PBS series “On Story”.

Written by Steven Knight

Script readers are Hollywood’s threshold guardians, so it behooves writers to try to understand their mindset.

You hear this a lot in script meetings: “It’s like that scene in…”

Ted Tally is yet another screenwriter who started out as a playwright. His film credits include White Palace (1990), The Juror (1996), All…

Part 4: What Is / What Could Be / What Is / What Could Be / What Is…

Written by John Musker and Ron Clements, based on a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen

Everything you need to know about the subject… and probably more.

Featuring John August, Ava DuVernay, Eric Roth, Aline Brosh McKenna, David Seidler, Dustin Lance Black, and more.

Is it necessary for more character-oriented movies to feature a specific Antagonist figure?

Part 6: Rolling out a new writer’s spec script.