Go Into The Story

Writing and the Creative Life: Something is Better Than Nothing

“No matter what you write, good or bad, it’s an improvement to a blank page.”

Page One: “Breathe” (2024)

Written by Doug Simon

“Beginning. Middle. End.”

Consider the universality of narrative in three movements.

The Business of Screenwriting: Movie Stars

I am staring at a cardboard standup display of an iconic movie character from an Academy Award winning movie, one of the most famous…

Great Scene: “The Deer Hunter”

This has to rank as one of the most riveting scenes in movie history: The Russian roulette sequence in The Deer Hunter (1978).

Page One: “Breach” (2007)

Screenplay by Adam Mazer & William Rotko and Billy Ray, story by Adam Mazer & William Rotko

“Get the damn thing done!”

The one unalterable truth about writing a first draft.

Script To Screen: “Basic Instinct”

No matter what you think about Joe Eszterhas, the fact remains that at one point in time, he was the hottest screenwriter in Hollywood…

How They Write A Script: Daniel Taradash

Daniel Taradash’s screenwriting credits include many memorable movies such as From Here to Eternity (1953), Picnic (1955), and Hawaii…

Page One: “The Boy” (2016)

Written by Stacey Menear

Feet on the ground… head in the clouds

A twist on a familiar adage speaks to the business of writing.

Story Type: Found Footage

In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and…

Screenwriting 101: Wes Anderson

“When I’m on a movie, part of that process is creating a setting for the story and a world that they live in. That’s the kind of movie that…

Page One: “Bound” (1996)

Written by Lilly Wachowski & Lana Wachowski (as The Wachowski Brothers)

Break your story in prep

Let me begin with this acknowledgement: There is no right way to write. Each writer is different. Each story is different. There is no…

How They Write a Script: Ted Tally (“The Silence of the Lambs”)

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

On Writing

“Character gives us qualities, but it is in actions — what we do — that we are happy or the reverse. All human happiness and misery takes…

Page One: “The Boondock Saints” (1999)

Written by Troy Duffy

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 2

Billy Wilder is my all-time favorite filmmaker. Consider just some of his movies: Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Stalag 17…

Script To Screen: “Batman”

The Final Struggle in the 1989 movie Batman.

Similar but different

Or Precedent / Analogy. However you refer to it, it’s how Hollywood operates.

Page One: “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018)

Screenplay by Anthony McCarten, story by Anthony McCarten and Peter Morgan

Great Scene: “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”

A cinematic moment in Spielberg’s classic science fiction movie.

Story Type: Fish Out Of Water (FOOW)

When a central character finds themselves WAY out of their natural element.

Writing and the Creative Life: One key to creativity… naps?

“There is a cultural bias against sleep that sees it as akin to shutting down…”