Go Into The Story

Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Writing for the Censors [Part 3]

“You must be twice as careful as writers in any other field or your story will surely be returned to you with a rejection slip.”

2019 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 20

Write some scenes. Win a great prize.

Daily Dialogue —August 31, 2019

“Profits.”

The Disunity State of Clarice Starling

How the opening of The Silence of the Lambs establishes the Protagonist’s psychological starting point for her transformation-journey.

2019 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 19

Write some scenes. Win a great prize.

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 5: Reader Identification

Imbue the Protagonist with qualities with which a reader can connect.

Writing and the Creative Life: There are no useless ideas

“If it is true that the best way to come up with a good idea is to generate lots of them, that means we will intersect with plenty of ideas…

Daily Dialogue — August 30, 2019

“Excellent!”

The Writer as Psychologist

“It is our responsibility to understand each of characters to the core of their emotional, spiritual, and psychological being.”

2019 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 18

Write some scenes. Win a great prize.

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 4: Character = Function

Every character in a screenplay has to be there for a reason. That is their narrative function, who they are and what they do tied to the…

The Business of Screenwriting: Commencement of Principal photography

When your movie officially starts production, that triggers a writer’s payday.

Daily Dialogue — August 29, 2019

“Liar!”

Begin with character. End with character. Find the story in between.

A 6-minute video excerpt featuring… me.

Of Genres and Spec Scripts

Is it better to write a straight genre piece or is it harder to set up a script which mashes two different genres?

2019 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 17

Write some scenes. Win a great prize.

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 3: Plot Emerges From Character

No matter what paradigm or theory you use to craft your screenplay’s plot, the single most important thing you can do is this: Start with…

Daily Dialogue — August 28, 2019

“Adrian!”

2019 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 16

Write some scenes. Win a great prize.

Hollywood and the ‘Similar But Different’ Business Model

The saga of K-9 and Turner & Hootch provides an object lesson into the mindset of movie development executives.

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 2: The Protagonist’s Arc

Transformation lies at the heart of the Hero’s Journey.

Screenwriting 101: Simon Beaufoy

“With adaptations, all I promise the author I’ll do is remain true to the spirit of what they wrote. The first book adaptation that I did…

Daily Dialogue — August 27, 2019

“Whoa.”

There is no short cut

There is no golden method. There is no guaranteed approach to writing a million dollar spec script. All of that hype is bull shit.

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 1: Writing Scenes

With every scene, you should ask yourself this question: What is the scene’s Beginning, Middle, and End?