Where Does the Creation of a Great Story Begin?

A 10-minute video excerpt featuring… me.

It’s funny how social media works. Fellow screenwriter and colleague Brad Riddell, an associate professor at the DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts, lobbed a tweet at Karen Worden and David Branin, the proprietors of the video writing resource Film Courage:

That led to an email exchange between David, Karen, and myself. As it happened, I was going to be in Los Angeles the week of August 5th to help lead a week-long Black List Feature Writers Lab, so we scheduled a time at the Film Courage L.A.-area studio. Karen, who conducted the interview, and David, who ran camera and sound, couldn’t have been nicer, and I’d say it was a pretty solid 80–90 minute conversation.

Here is a 10-minute excerpt in which I discuss the variety of ways writers can generate story ideas. Then I talk about the ever evolving nature of screenplay format and style, and why people who say about writing a script, “You can’t do that” or “You have to do this” are probably folks you’d best avoid. Instead, read contemporary scripts written by professional screenwriters. You’ll learn a lot more from people who actually work as writers in Hollywood.

There’s more of the interview to come over the next few weeks, so check out the video clips at Film Courage. Let me know if you agree, disagree, or if you learned anything from the conversation.

Thanks to Brad Riddell for kick-starting this, and to David and Karen at Film Courage for their hospitality and professionalism in conducting the interview.

Twitter: @filmcourage.