How They Write A Script: Diablo Cody If there’s a modern day ‘talisman’ for anybody who dreams of breaking into Hollywood as a screenwriter, that would have to be Diablo Cody…
Script Analysis: “Eighth Grade” — Part 5: Dialogue Read the script for the hit movie which won the Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay Award.
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.
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…”
Daily Dialogue — June 7, 2019 Prof. Robert Crawford: [to Jamal] Perhaps your skills do reach farther than basketball. Jamal: “Further” Prof. Robert Crawford: What…
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek “Almost without exception, the stories we write involve a character or characters who, along with whatever else happens to them along the…
Script Analysis: “Eighth Grade” — Part 4: Themes Read the script for the hit movie which won the Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay Award.
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…
Reader Question: How can I immerse myself in the story I’m writing? “I find I get way too many projects on the front burner, which is overwhelming.”
Script Analysis: “Eighth Grad” — Part 3: Characters Read the script for the hit movie which won the Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay Award.
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.
Script To Screen: “Silverado” An early scene in the 1985 western Silverado, written by Lawrence Kasdan and Mark Kasdan.
Cameron, I look forward to your analysis of the plot. As I was reading the script, I kept thinking about John Hughes in reference to Eighth Grade. The movie is a completely different aesthetic…
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.”
Script Analysis: “Eighth Grade” — Part 2: Plot Read the script for the hit movie which won the Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay Award.
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?
Screenwriting 101: Donald Margulies “Research can be seductive. Writers try to convince themselves that research is writing but the truth is research is research… But there…
Daily Dialogue — June 4, 2019 “Playing music is supposed to be fun. It’s about heart, it’s about feelings, moving people, and something beautiful, and it’s not about…
This is a wonderful script, so heartfelt and real. She is dancing her heart out. No one is paying attention. She doesn’t notice. She doesn’t care. Eyes closed. Hips and arms and hair wildly…
