Don’t stand in water where you should be fishing I use fishing as a metaphor for one’s approach to screenwriting. Seriously.
Great Scene: “No Country For Old Men” “You need to call it. I can’t call it for you. It wouldn’t be fair. It wouldn’t even be right.”
Writing and the Creative Life: Nothing succeeds like failure Re-thinking the role of failure in the creative life.
Update: 2022–2023 Award Season Screenplay Downloads — 2 New Scripts, 12 Total It’s that time of year again when studios and production companies make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season.
Story Type: Mockumentary In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and…
Page One: “Gladiator” (2000) Screenplay by David Franzoni and John Logan and William Nicholson, story by David Franzoni
Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Highlight Your Verbs I featured this bit of wisdom from screenwriter Larry Ferguson before here, the key quote being:
Story Type: Mistaken Identity In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and…
The Business of Screenwriting: There’s a green light… I’m attending a fundraiser for my son’s elementary school. It’s an alternative private school on the Westside, an institution that prides…
Make More Writing Time by Organizing Work Time Five tips to work smarter and create more time for your writing life.
Story Type: Martial Arts In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and…
Great Scene: “Heat” The 1995 movie Heat, written and directed by Michael Mann, is superior entertainment. Here’s an IMDb plot summary:
Page One: “Unbroken” (2014) Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson, book by Laura Hillenbrand
The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling My one-week online class begins Monday, December 5th.
Story Type: Heist Movies In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and…
Screenwriting 101: Jeffrey Boam “Ultimately, plot is of little importance, more of a mechanical contrivance against which characters come to life. Plot tries to engage…
Page One: “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” (1992) Screenplay by David Lynch & Robert Engels, based on the TV series by Mark Frost & David Lynch