Go Into The Story

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 11

Billy Wilder is my all-time favorite filmmaker. Consider just some of his movies: Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Ace in the…

Spec Script Deal: “Darby Harper Wants You To Know”

20th Century Studios acquires teen comedy drama spec script “Darby Harper Wants You To Know” written by Wenonah Wilms and Becca Greene. Via…

On Writing

“A wise editor once observed that the easiest decision a reader can make is to stop reading. This means that every sentence has to count in…

Page One: “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (2005)

Written by Judd Apatow, Steve Carell

Sundays with Stephen King’s “On Writing”

A series featuring reflections on writing from the famed author’s memoir.

Is the key to creativity “unlearning”?

What if everything we have learned in our lives has actually diminished our creativity?

Script To Screen: “The Fisher King”

A notable scene from the 1991 movie The Fisher King, written by Richard LaGravenese.

The Theology of Cinema: Redemption

“Metaphorically bondage can translate into being tied to some event or circumstance in the past, a character bound to it emotionally, even…

Page One: “Twelve Angry Men” (1957)

Written by Reginald Rose

Stacking projects

One key to the craft: Learning how to manage several projects at once.

Is My Screenplay Big Enough to Be a Movie?

This is a fundamental question screenwriters must ask themselves at all stages of a screenplay’s development and writing. Why? Because it’s…

The Curse of Shiny Object Syndrome

“It’s not quite ADD/ADHD. It’s more that a new idea captures your imagination and attention in such a way that you get distracted from the…

Screenplays are stories, not formulas

“If you go in with formula, you come out with formula.”

Interview (Video): Eric Roth

A pair of conversations with the screenwriter of Forrest Gump, A Star is Born, and Dune.

Page One: “The Wrestler” (2008)

Written by Robert Siegel

There are no screenwriting rules

There are guidelines, conventional wisdom, patterns, and principles… but no rules.

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 10

Billy Wilder is my all-time favorite filmmaker. Consider just some of his movies: Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Ace in the…

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…

Writing and the Creative Life: Look… don’t overlook

As writers in order for us to have any hope of securing a meaningful degree of understanding of a story universe and its characters, we…

Page One: “The Wild Bunch” (1969)

Screenplay by Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah, story by Roy N. Sickner

Writing Dialogue

There are many intangibles about the craft of screenwriting. Much of that derives from the fact that story itself is organic. Stories —…

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 9

Billy Wilder is my all-time favorite filmmaker. Consider just some of his movies: Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Ace in the…

The Business of Screenwriting: “If it ain’t got no soul, it ain’t gonna sell”

The time the legendary musician Taj Mahal laid words of wisdom on me.

Page One: “American Beauty” (1999)

Written by Alan Ball

Do It Because You Love It

Back in 2012, a longtime reader of the blog forwarded me some numbers in a post I titled: Facing the Odds. I included his observations in…