Go Into The Story

Daily Dialogue — June 7, 2015

Mitchell Stephens: Well, enough rage and helplessness and your love turns to something else. Alison: What… does it turn to? Mitchell Stephens: It turns to steaming piss. — The Sweet Hereafter (1997), screenplay by Atom Egoyan, novel by Russell Banks The Daily Daily dialogue theme for the week: Grief. Trivia: Author

Daily Dialogue theme next week: Voice-Over Narration

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Voice-Over Narration. Forrest (V.O.): Sometimes I guess there just aren’t enough rocks. Sometimes a story cries out for voice-over narration such as The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, Sunset Blvd., and A Clockwork Orange The key is doing it right.

Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: The Imitation Game

This week, we have been reading, analyzing, and discussing the script and movie The Imitation Game, written by Graham Moore. IMDb plot summary: During World War II, mathematician Alan Turing tries to crack the enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians. Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Major Plot Points Sequences Psychological

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 189th installment of Saturday Hot Links. Black List Live! presents THE SHOWER, Saturday, June 13, 2015, 8:00 PM, Los Angeles. Critics’ Choice TV Awards: The Biggest Snubs and Surprises. Top 10 Takeaways: ‘San Andreas’ Opens Big But Box Office Continues to Sag. Comedies, Superhero Movies to

2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Week 1

For the third straight year, June is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a scene-writing prompt. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. Upload your scene here in the comments section

Interview (Written): Brian Duffield

A Final Draft interview with Brian Duffield whose writing credits include Insurgent and Jane Got a Gun: FD: You’ve mentioned before that you don’t like to outline. That you feel it stifles your creative output when you spend that much time being analytical. When you sit down to

Daily Dialogue — June 6, 2015

SALLY: It was the curse, wasn’t it? He died because I loved him so much! AUNT FRANCES: Oh, my poor little girl. We had no idea when we cast the spell. SALLY: What spell? What are you talking about? Ohhh. Oh, you didn’t. You didn’t. Please tell

Reader Question: What advice for someone wanting to give writing a full-time shot?

First and foremost, you have to want it. I mean really want it. The competition is fierce. Think of it this way: Any time you aren’t writing, someone else is. A lot of someones. So your desire has to be such that writing is your number one priority. Here

Black List Live!: “The Shower” starring Chelsea Peretti, Gillian Jacobs and Kristen Schaal

From the good folks at the Black List: Chelsea Peretti, Gillian Jacobs and Kristen Schaal Star in Los Angeles Live Read of THE SHOWER See Hollywood’s funniest leading ladies LIVE next Saturday at the Montalban! You’re invited… to the weirdest, bloodiest and funniest baby shower of the year.

Script Analysis: “The Imitation Game” — Part 5: Takeaways

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Takeaways. This

2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 5

For the third straight year, June is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a scene-writing prompt. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. Upload your scene here in the comments section

Congratulations to Wendy Jane Cohen!

Those of you who have followed this blog for the last several years are likely familiar with the name Wendy Cohen. She has been my development assistant, helping me on numerous fronts including Go Into The Story. Wendy has worked tirelessly to contribute to our writing community and on many

Daily Dialogue — June 5, 2015

Lynn looks over slowly. She doesn’t see anything outside his window. She eyes Cole. LYNN: Cole, you’re scaring me. COLE: They scare me too sometimes. LYNN: They? COLE: Dead people. LYNN: Dead people? COLE: Ghosts. Beat. LYNN: You see ghosts, Cole? COLE: They want me to do things

Reflections of Black List NYC Mini-Lab Writers

On the weekend of May 1–3, five writers gathered in New York City for an exciting event: The first Black List Mini-Lab. The writers — Arla Bowers, Hunter Burke, Joel Dorland, Ian McWethy, and Yvonne Paulin — had been selected on the basis of scripts they had uploaded to the

The Good Dinosaur and the power of ‘what if’ thinking

We may have missed out on a Pixar movie in 2014, but we are fortunate to have two of them being released this year: Inside Out which opens Friday, June 19 and The Good Dinosaur which rolls out November 25. This week, Pixar released a teaser trailer for The Good

Script Analysis: “The Imitation Game” — Part 4: Psychological Journey

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Psychological Journey.

2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 4

For the third straight year, June is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a scene-writing prompt. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. Upload your scene here in the comments section

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs [Part 10]

Spec scripts, that is. I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light of that fact, last year I interviewed a top

Daily Dialogue — June 4, 2015

Brad Whitewood Jr.: Is this the gun you used? Brad Whitewood Sr.: That’s a nice looking gun. Brad Whitewood Jr.: Is this the gun you used to kill Tommy? Tommy’s dead isn’t he? Brad Whitewood Sr.: Don’t even talk about Tommy. Brad Whitewood Jr.: Is this

Reader Question: How do I know if it’s too much or too little scene description?

Reader question via email from Anonymous: How do I know it I’m writing too much description in a scene or not enough? First off, you start with the invisible character who is ‘telling’ your story, what I call Narrative Voice. What is their personality, their descriptive style? They may

Classic 50s Movies: The Entire Series

May was Classic 50s Movies month on the blog. Here are 29 movies from that decade spotlighted by our distinguished group of guest posters: 12 Angry Men A Place in the Sun A Star is Born All About Eve Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Commander Cody: Sky Marshal of

Script Analysis: “The Imitation Game” — Part 3: Sequences

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Sequences. A

2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 3

For the third straight year, June is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a scene-writing prompt. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. Upload your scene here in the comments section

Great Character: Tiana (“The Princess and the Frog”)

The Great Character theme for the month: Disney characters. Today: Tiana from the 2009 movie The Princess and the Frog. Here is Jason Cuthbert’s guest post. In 2009, the Walt Disney company made a rich return to its traditional animation style with the 1913–1926-set motion picture, The

Daily Dialogue — June 3, 2015

Karen: I know this is hard but it’s all beautiful. Sarah: Yeah we put on a great funeral here. Michael: [sarcastically] Yeah, maybe I’ll have mine here. Sarah: We give first priority to people who kill themselves in one of our bathrooms. The three stop smiling. Sarah: That