Go Into The Story

There is no right way to write

Learn all you can, but ultimately it’s about your Stories and your Creative Self.

The Business of Screenwriting: Going From Suck to Non-Suck

Screenwriters experience persistent suckitude. The key: Go to non-suck.

Page One: “The Goodbye Girl” (1977)

Written by Neil Simon

2021 Spec Script Sales Analysis: Buyers

Yesterday, we looked at 2021 spec script deals by genre. Today, we break down the numbers per streamers, major studios, mini-majors…

Script Analysis: “The Tomorrow War” — Part 3: Characters

A week-long analysis of the science fiction script and movie. Download. Read. Discuss.

Script To Screen: “A Quiet Place”

The horrifying opening incident is a master class in demonstrating how to use individual paragraphs of scene description to individual…

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Adopt a different writing persona

This is a first in this humble blog’s history: Another Dumb Little Writing Trick That Work, only this one isn’t my idea, but from some…

Page One: “Good Will Hunting” (1997)

Written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck

2021 Spec Script Deals Analysis: Genres

By my count, Hollywood studios, production companies, and financiers acquired 34 spec scripts in 2021. During this week, I’ll be breaking…

Script Analysis: “The Tomorrow War” — Part 2: Plot

A week-long analysis of the science fiction script and movie. Download. Read. Discuss.

Reader Question: What are three good “how to” scripts to read?

Three essential scripts for learning the craft.

Screenwriting 101: Paul Thomas Anderson

“Writing can happen really fast if you’ve done your research about the setting, time and the characters.”

Page One: “Godzilla” (2014)

Screenplay by Max Borenstein, story by Davie Callaham

2021 Spec Script Deal List

Every year since I launched the blog in 2008, I do a week-long analysis of the recent year in terms of spec script deals. This week, we…

Script Analysis: “The Tomorrow War” — Part 1: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

A week-long analysis of the science fiction script and movie. Download. Read. Discuss.

On Writing

“The character on the page determines the prose — its music, its rhythms, the range and limit of its vocabulary — yet, at the outset at…

Page One: “Go” (1999)

Written by John August

Some folks on Twitter have provided push back to the point where movies or TV which alter…

That said, I go back to the OP and the point about the emotional truth of a story. One could argue that a filmmaker may have gotten all of…

Pixar and Visual Storytelling

A tiny bit of business in the movie Up reminds us that movies are primarily a visual medium.

Go Into The Story Interview: Daniel Hanna

My interview with the 2021 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Screenwriting and Historical Accuracy

When writing a movie based on actual historical events, how accurate does a screenwriter have to be?

Video: 20 Screenwriting Tips from Paul Thomas Anderson

The writer-director of Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, and Licorice Pizza.

Page One: “Giant” (1956)

Screen play by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat, novel by Edna Ferber

Reader Question: Are there any script rules that really shouldn’t be broken?

Or this: “How can you break screenwriting rules if there are none?”

Interview (Part 6): Daniel Hanna

My interview with the 2021 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.