Daily Dialogue — May 31, 2019 Goldie Wilson: [rushes up to George] Say! Why do you let those boys push you around like that for? George McFly: Well, they’re bigger than…
Beginning. Middle. End. In Poetics, Aristotle wrote, “A whole [story] is what has a beginning and middle and end.” His articulation of each of these three parts…
Go Into The Story Resource: Screenwriting 101 Hundreds of observations about the craft of screenwriting from professional writers.
Scene Description Spotlight: “The Matrix” Still for my money, one of the best scripts for action-writing. The Wachowskis use the basic elements of visual writing — strong verbs and…
The Business of Screenwriting: Withdrawing screen credit and pseudonyms Let’s begin this post with a quote from arguably the dean of contemporary American screenwriters William Goldman:
Daily Dialogue — May 30, 2019 Iris: God, you’re square. Travis Bickle: Hey, I’m not square, you’re the one that’s square. You’re full of shit, man. What are you talking…
So-Called Screenwriting Rule: Unfilmables I don’t know who came up with this term — unfilmables — but please stop! How much proof does one have to see to know it is a wrongheaded…
How They Write A Script: Nancy Meyers “My first draft was exactly 250 pages. I didn’t have brads deep enough, long enough to get through the script.”
Go Into The Story Resource: The Story Behind Script Coverage Script readers are Hollywood’s threshold guardians, so it behooves writers to try to understand their mindset.
Screenplays are stories, not formulas William Goldman famously wrote, “Screenplays are structure.” That is true in a tangible sense because at some point, a script becomes a…
Script To Screen: “The Shining” This notable scene from the 1980 movie The Shining, screenplay by Stanley Kubrick & Diane Johnson, based on a Stephen King novel.
Daily Dialogue — May 29, 2019 Dan: I just wanted to come here. Herb: To Winkie’s? Dan: This Winkie’s. Herb: Okay, why this Winkie’s? Dan: It’s kind of embarrassing…
Pound Out That First Draft! Go from FADE IN to FADE OUT in my upcoming online writing workshop. Starts June 10th!
Tweetstorm: F. Scott Frazier on Writing Action Set-Pieces A series of tweets delving into what goes into crafting action scenarios.
Go Into The Story Resource: The Spirit of the Spec Creativity meets Productivity in the 5 stages of writing a spec script.
The Virtues of Non-Linear Writing If you’re stuck with a story, try this: Write whatever scenes you want.
Screenwriting 101: Amy Berg “There’s more rising and falling tension in a television show versus a film where it tends to be a more steady build to the climax… A way…
Daily Dialogue — May 28, 2019 Walter Sobchak: You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don’t wanna know about it, believe me. The Dude…
Movie Story Type: Revenge There are genres (e.g., Action, Comedy, Drama). Cross genres (e.g., Action-Thriller, Comedy-Science Fiction). Sub-genres (e.g., Romantic…
Great Scene: “The Silence of the Lambs” Two flashbacks to Clarice as a young girl are critical to the narrative. Plus, the script for a third flashback which was never shot.
Reader Question: Is it okay for there to be more action lines in an action script? Once again into the breach against so-called screenwriting ‘rules’.
Go Into The Story Resource: Black List Writers on the Craft Some of Hollywood’s top screenwriters share insights from my interviews.
On Writing “The funny thing about it all is that literary talent isn’t rare. Lots of people can write good stories with good characters and great…
