Go Into The Story

Daily Dialogue theme next week: Baptism

Join the Daily Dialogue crew: 4,006 consecutive days and counting.

Interview (Video): John Patrick Shanley

The Season 7 episode of the PBS series “On Story” with the screenwriter of Moonstruck, Joe Versus the Volcano, and Doubt.

Daily Dialogue — May 4, 2019

Man in Black: All right. Where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink, and find out who is…

The mahjong scene is inspired, no doubt, with the game as a BOB (Bit Of Business) which provides…

“I’m so Chinese I’m an econ professor with lactose intolerance.”

Thanks for that, Steven.

Thanks, too, for your variations on Protagonist arcs. To be sure, there are all sorts of arcs: Negative arcs; stories in which Protagonists…

Mike, that’s a great question, one I’d never considered and would move Lecter into the realm of…

More likely, this falls into the category of “you’re allowed one coincidence per story,” so why not make it a BIG one!

Reader Question: How insane is it for a 46 year-old to try to start a Hollywood writing career?

It’s crazy, but then it’s crazy for ANYONE to expect to break into Hollywood.

Go Into The Story Resource: Guides to Classic Movies

Selected by GITS readers, a compilation of notable movies from the 1930s through 1990s, plus some classic international films.

Script Analysis: “Crazy Rich Asians” — Part 5: Dialogue

Read the script for the smash hit romantic comedy and analyze it this week.

Interview: Anton Outkine

My Q&A with Russia-based filmmaker on his award-winning web series It’s Complicated and half-hour VR film Kessler Effect.

Writing and the Creative Life: Lessons from a book “everyone in Silicon Valley is talking about”

The Hook: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, Investment.

Daily Dialogue — May 3, 2019

“I like to think about the life of the win. How it’s a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were…

Excellent work, Tara.

The script (and movie) works for many reasons, not the least of which is the universal theme of ‘be true to yourself.’

Here’s a breakdown of the characters in Crazy Rich Asians per their character archetype functions:

Protagonist: Rachel

Reader Question: Do query letters still work?

The odds are long, but query letters can work if you make it part of a holistic strategy of which the single most important part is this…

Go Into The Story Resource: A Screenwriter’s Guide to Aristotle’s “Poetics”

You know you should read it. This 44 part series takes you through all of “Poetics” and offers analysis from a screenwriter’s perspective.

Script Analysis: “Crazy Rich Asians” — Part 4: Themes

Read the script for the smash hit romantic comedy and analyze it this week.

How They Write A Script: Lawrence Kasdan

“I wrote screenplays as a way to get into production. I wrote six or seven before I sold one; that was The Bodyguard. I thought if I…

The Business of Screenwriting: When getting fired can be good news

No one likes to get rewritten, but sometimes there’s a silver lining.

Daily Dialogue — May 2, 2019

“‘Wine is sunlight, held together by water.’ The poetic wisdom of the Italian physicist, philosopher, and stargazer, Galileo Galilei. It…

Is My Screenplay Big Enough to Be a Movie?

This is a fundamental question screenwriters must ask themselves at all stages of a screenplay’s development and writing. Why? Because…

Go Into The Story Resource: Annual Spec Script Market Reports

Detailed information and statistics on every verified spec script deal from 2008–2018, and analysis of the spec script market and business…

Script Analysis: “Crazy Rich Asians” — Part 3: Characters

Read the script for the smash hit romantic comedy and analyze it this week.

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2019)

This is the 10th year in a row I’ve run this series in April.

Script To Screen: “Say Anything”

A memorable scene from Say Anything (1989), written by Cameron Crowe.