Writing and the Creative Life: “The Power of Structured Procrastination” “The beauty of the structured procrastination method is that it recognizes the extreme challenge in changing that pro-tomorrow vein, and…
Page One: “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (2007) Screenplay by John Logan, musical by Hugh Wheeler, musical adaptation by Christopher Bond
Simon, I believe you are correct in that script readers often look for a writer’s transgressions… The thing is, 9 times out of 10, a writer can bypass the whole “we see” conundrum by simply describing what’s on screen. You don’t need to…
Find Your Writer’s Voice I hear this a lot in conversations with writers, but mostly with managers, agents, and producers. They’re looking for writers who cover a…
The Importance of Theme in Writing a Screenplay About an Historical Figure “You may very well have to shape the details and contour of your central character’s life-story to make it a movie. As they say in…
How They Write A Script: Charlie Kaufman “When I started screenwriting, I never really knew what I was doing, but I instinctively understood how to do it.”
The Business of Screenwriting: Do you know your stuff? It’s one thing to write a script. It’s another thing to understand the craft.
Update: 2022–2023 Award Season Screenplay Downloads — 1 New Script, 7 Total It’s that time of year again when studios and production companies make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season.
Reader Question: Do all Protagonists need a character arc? A character’s ‘arc’ is a big buzzword in Hollywood development circles.
60 Second Screenwriter: Let’s talk story structure A video series addressing key screenwriting concerns in one minute.
Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Create an argument Let’s say you’re stuck writing a flat scene. No matter how you’ve approached it, the scene just lays there.
Screenwriting 101: Brian Arnold “One of the reasons I historically have not been a big outliner is I have a lot of experience with improv. I know that’s a weird thing to…
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 it’s…
How To Read A Screenplay If you’re serious about learning the craft, here are some ways to dig into scripts.
The Curse of Shiny Object Syndrome “It’s not quite ADD/ADHD. It’s more that a new idea captures your imagination and attention in such a way that you get distracted from the…
On Writing “Three things are in your head: First, everything you have experienced from the day of your birth until right now. Every single second…
Michael, absolutely true. That said, there is a path of least resistance to breaking into Hollywood and that is — in part — staying “within the lines” of…
Page One: “The Stuntman” (1980) Screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus, adaptation by Richard Rush, novel by Paul Brodeur
Sundays with Sidney Lumet’s “Making Movies” A series featuring reflections on filmmaking by one of the truly great movie directors.
