Go Into The Story

Go Into The Story at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival: January 30

Notes and reflections from Park City, Utah.

Reader Question: What are three good ‘how to’ scripts to read?

Three scripts essential for learning the craft.

Character Type: Rebel

Tradition. Ordinary. The Way Things Are. Enter… The Rebel.

The Business of Screenwriting: The Travails of Pitching (Part 2) — The Surprise Visitor

After the humbling experience of pitching the latest project to a distracted exec, we actually sell it to another studio. We head out to…

Daily Dialogue — January 31, 2019

Ronna: Dead celebrities. Loser goes up. Mannie: Omar Sharif. Ronna: Steve McQueen. Claire: Michael Landon. Mannie: Lee Marvin.

Character Type: Rebel

Tradition. Ordinary. The Way Things Are. Enter… The Rebel.

Go Into The Story at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival: January 29

Notes and reflections from Park City, Utah.

How To Read A Screenplay

If you’re serious about learning the craft, here are 7 exercises you can use to make the most of your script-reading and analysis.

Dialogue-Writing Exercises [2019]

Here are prompts for the 5th annual GITS Dialogue-Writing Challenge. Use these to improve your dialogue writing chops.

Great Scene: “On the Waterfront”

“This is my church. And if you don’t think Christ is down here on the waterfront, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Daily Dialogue — January 30, 2019

“We have to go through with it, Walter. The tough part is all behind us. We just have to hold on and not go soft inside. Stick close…

Go Into The Story at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival: January 28

Notes and reflections from Park City, Utah.

Mickey Fisher on Writing, Selling, and Producing a TV Pilot Spec Script

An excellent guide from TV writer-producer (Extant, The Strain, Reverie).

2019 Dialogue-Writing Challenge: Day 20

A chance for you to work on your dialogue chops and win free prizes!

Screenwriting 101: Patty Jenkins

“Every villain has their belief system that makes perfect sense to them.”

Daily Dialogue — January 29, 2019

Otter and Mrs. Wormer are in the supermarket vegetable section.

Keys to Handling Exposition

Take my 1-week online class to learn ways to make exposition entertaining.

Character Type: Clown

“Clowns tend to be Trickster figures and often defy convention or authority. As such, they upset the normal state of affairs, creating…

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?”

On Writing

“Spend some time living before you start writing. What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence, “Write what you know.”…

Daily Dialogue — January 28, 2019

“There’s a box of Twinkies in that grocery store. Not just any box of Twinkies, the last box of Twinkies that anyone will enjoy in the…

That scene with Carla is chilling.

I have a slightly different take on the car crash. The Coens have a sustained interest in the fickle nature of fate. In fact, I wrote a…

Go Into The Story at 2019 Sundance Film Festival

Daily reports from Park City starting today.

Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: “Destroyer”

The entire 6 part series delving into the gritty crime drama.

Screenwriting News (January 21 — January 27, 2019)

Script sales, pitch deals, greenlit projects, talent attachments, and more.