Go Into The Story

Daily Dialogue — September 21, 2018

“This is an adventure.”

“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…

Keys to the Craft: Write Pages

The only path toward productivity as a writer is to stare down the blank page.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 20

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

The Business of Screenwriting: Never forget who the star is

We’re in the office of a studio executive. In the room are the exec, the project’s director, us, and a speaker-phone on a coffee table. The…

Daily Dialogue — September 20, 2018

“You filthy, god damn, pock-marked, fascist assholes! Take your hands off my lobby boy!”

Reader Question: What exactly is a “script polish”?

“I’ve always heard the term, but no one I’ve asked before seems to know the answer.”

Keys to the Craft: Read Scripts

Essential to read screenplays to study style, tone, feel, structure, pace…

2018 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 19

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

Script To Screen: “High Fidelity”

The delightful 2000 comedy High Fidelity, screenplay by D.V. DeVincentis & Steve Pink & John Cusack and Scott Rosenberg, novel by Nick…

Daily Dialogue — September 19, 2018

“Let me ask you something. Why would a review make the point that someone is not a genius? You think I’m especially not a genius?”

Courier 12 Screenwriting Conference

Upcoming one-day event in Chicago which will be live-streamed on YouTube.

Keys to the Screenwriting Craft: Watch Movies

Movies must be in your lifeblood. The best way to do that is to watch them.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 18

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

Screenwriting 101: Michael Arndt

On Tuesday, May 23, 2000, at 4:27 p.m., I sat down to write LMS [Little Miss Sunshine]. I wrote twelve pages the first day, thirty-seven…

Daily Dialogue — September 18, 2018

Mr. Fox on a motorcycle with Ash, Kris, and Kylie speaking to a wolf off on a distant ridge.

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

That’s the foundation of my upcoming 1-week online course.

Keys to the Screenwriting Craft: Think Concepts

The foundation of a good script is a strong story concept.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 17

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

On Writing

“What is easy to read has been difficult to write. The labor of writing and rewriting, correcting and re-correcting, is the due exacted by…

Daily Dialogue — September 17, 2018

Rosemary: Would you like to dance? Max: Yeah, but… let’s see if the dee jay can play something with a little more… REUBEN!

Thanks, everyone, for letting me know what links have gone dead.

By November, we should be seeing scripts for 2018 movies and I will add them to this roster, so be on the lookout for that.

Screenwriting News (September 10— September 16, 2018)

The week’s writing deals and movie project news.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 16

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

Script To Screen: “Heathers”

The final sequence in the 1988 Heathers, written by Daniel Waters.