Scott Myers

Interview (Video): Tess Morris (“Man Up”)

A nice sit-down with Tess Morris, screenwriter of the movie Man Up. Here she talks about how to write a rom-com. I’ve got good news: I’ve been in touch the movie’s producers and it looks like they will be making public the screenplay for Man

Daily Dialogue — November 14, 2015

Lipnik: Okay, the hell with the story. Wallace Beery is a wrestler. I wanna know his hopes, his dreams. Naturally, he’ll have to get mixed up with a bad element. And a romantic interest. You know the drill. Romantic interest, or else a young kid. An orphan. What do

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 13

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 13. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

“I want you to write a theme”

Check this out: My guess this is a pretty typical reaction to anything having to do with the subject of Theme. Groan. Head shakes. Quivering stomachs. Loathing. Why is this the case? In part, there is a lot of confusion about what Theme actually means. What does theme mean? How

Interview (Part 5): Craig Borten

I first met Craig Borten at the 2014 Austin Film Festival where he was a panelist in a session I moderated. We discussed the movie he co-wrote and was nominated for an Academy Award: Dallas Buyers Club. Seeing as The 33 is coming out this week, another movie Craig

What It Takes To Win The Nicholl Screenwriting Competition

Interesting Q&A with some of the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition judges: Stephanie Allain (Dear White People, Hustle & Flow), Albert Berger (Nebraska, Little Miss Sunshine), Julia Chasman (25th Hour, Quills), Peter Samuelson (Arlington Road, Revenge of the Nerds), and Dana Stevens (Safe Haven, Life or Something Like

Interview (Video): David Foster Wallace

The complete 84 minute interview with David Foster Wallace from November 2003 with German TV network ZDF. From YouTube.

Daily Dialogue — November 13, 2015

“Sometimes when I think of how good my book is going to be, I can’t breathe.” — Capote (2005), screenplay by Dan Futterman, book by Gerald Clarke The Daily Dialogue theme for the month: Writers and Writing. Trivia: The director, Bennett Miller, and Philip Seymour Hoffman were both graduates of

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 12

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 12. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

Interview (Part 4): Craig Borten

I first met Craig Borten at the 2014 Austin Film Festival where he was a panelist in a session I moderated. We discussed the movie he co-wrote and was nominated for an Academy Award: Dallas Buyers Club. Seeing as The 33 is coming out this week, another movie Craig

To Edit While Writing or Not: That is the Question!

A major point of the Zero Draft approach to writing is to move forward. Just keep pounding out pages from FADE IN to FADE OUT. For some writers, that comes more easily than others. In this latter camp, those who like to edit as they go. This issue has come

Writing and the Creative Life: Dark Places

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” This is a quote from Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, and it speaks to a fundamental truth not only about life, but also creativity. For in order to write stories that are authentic

Daily Dialogue — November 12, 2015

The Ghost: Well don’t tell me you’re going to read it now. Richard Rycart: Not all of it, just the beginning. There’s something very important about it. The Ghost: Yeah, it’s the cure for insomnia. — The Ghost Writer (2010), screenplay by Robert Harris & Roman Polanski

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 11

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 11. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

Interview (Part 3): Craig Borten

I first met Craig Borten at the 2014 Austin Film Festival where he was a panelist in a session I moderated. We discussed the movie he co-wrote and was nominated for an Academy Award: Dallas Buyers Club. Seeing as The 33 is coming out this week, another movie Craig

Think of Your Spec Like an Assignment

So if you’ve been bit by the procrastination bug… Or the Voices Of Negativity have squashed your ambition… Or you’re just not feeling creatively inspired about your most recent spec script… Rojo Mayne over in Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group has this suggestion? The way I try to

Great Scene: “Blue Velvet”

Blue Velvet (1986) confused many viewers and even critics. Was it a thriller? A satire? A dark comedy? But one thing was certain: This scene is one of the most memorable in the last two decades. Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) finds himself in a most interesting situation: Stripped to his

Daily Dialogue — November 11, 2015

Spoon feeding a bedridden Paul some soup. Annie Wilkes: The swearing, Paul. There, I said it. Paul Sheldon: The, uh, profanity bothers you? Annie Wilkes: It has no nobility. Paul Sheldon: These are slum kids, I was a slum kid. Everybody talks like that. Annie Wilkes: THEY DO NOT! What

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 10

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 10. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

Interview (Part 2): Craig Borten

I first met Craig Borten at the 2014 Austin Film Festival where he was a panelist in a session I moderated. We discussed the movie he co-wrote and was nominated for an Academy Award: Dallas Buyers Club. Seeing as The 33 is coming out this week, another movie Craig

Three Things About Screenplay Structure

Seeing as today is Day 1o in the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge, many if not most of the writers participating it are working on the middle section of their scripts. Here and over in the Facebook group, I noticed several comments wherein writers worried about how long their first act

Screenwriting 101: David Mamet

“A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.” — David Mamet

Daily Dialogue — November 10, 2015

“I decided to stop pitying myself. Other than my eye, two things aren’t paralyzed, my imagination and my memory.” — The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), screenplay by Ronald Harwood, book by Jean-Dominique Bauby The Daily Dialogue theme for the month: Writers and Writing. Trivia: The screenplay for

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 9

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 9. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

A different approach to “theme”

Nearly everything I’ve ever read on the subject of ‘theme’ in relation to screenwriting has felt either confusing or impractical. What does theme mean? How should we understand it? How can we use it in our writing? The ironic thing is theme is incredibly important: * Important in helping us