How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas (Part 5): Gender-Bending Changing the gender isn’t a minor thing, rather it can alter the entire landscape of a story.
What is the connection between the Protagonist and the inciting incident? “The inciting incident raises this question of the Protagonist’s journey: ‘Why does this story have to happen to this character at this…
How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas (Part 4): Titles A great title can lead to a great story idea and a great script. It can suggest a plot, key characters, the central conceit and story…
What is your daily writing “workout” routine? Some advice from A Quiet Place screenwriters Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.
The Business of Screenwriting: Act Two Blues The weird synergy between the Protagonist’s challenges in the middle of their story… and that writer’s life.
Page One: “The Spirit of St. Louis” (1957) Screen play by Billy Wilder and Wendell Mayes, adaptation by Charles Lederer, based on a book by Charles A. Lindbergh
Video: How Professional Screenwriters Outline A compilation of outlining approaches featuring screenwriters and filmmakers including Vince Gilligan, Quentin Tarantino, Alex Garland…
How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas (Part 3): Images Take a clue from Alfred Hitchcock whose movie North by Northwest had its origin with a single image of a scene he had in mind.
5 Keys to the Screenwriting Craft Think Concepts. Watch Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages. Live Life.
Great Scene: “Rushmore” What a terrific movie Rushmore (1998) is. Co-written by Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson, who also directed the film, it’s a stellar follow-up…
Here you go. https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/the-business-of-screenwriting-selling-scripts-and-shooting-scripts-b629d6c24f9e
Write a Worthy Nemesis Workshop your story’s antagonist character in my 1-week online course. Begins Monday, October 24th.
How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas (Part 2): Halliwell’s Film Guide What can a writer do with a resource containing 24,000 loglines?
Reader Question: What’s the best way to approach pitching? There’s not one way to pitch, but this way works.
Screenwriting 101: Neil Drumming “I have a tendency to write characters that are flawed in a way that I know or I feel familiar with. I like characters who have a journey…
Page One: “State of Play” (2009) Screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray, based on a television series by Paul Abbott
What are you afraid of? The single greatest inhibitor to creativity is fear. Do you recognize any of these voices?
How to Generate and Critique Story Ideas (Part 1): What if… The two most important words for generating story ideas.
Video: 5 Screenwriting Questions with Adam McKay The writer-director of The Big Short, Vice, and Don’t Look Up talks about how he beats procrastination, balancing comedy and drama, and…
On Writing “Art must take reality by surprise. It takes those moments which are for us merely a moment, plus a moment, plus another moment, and…
Sundays with Sidney Lumet’s “Making Movies” A series featuring reflections on filmmaking by one of the truly great movie directors.
