HOW TO STOP OVERWRITING YOUR DIALOGUE

annerocious: It’s simple. We’re watching it. Develop your characters in such a way that even someone who has never seen True Blood can grasp what they are looking at here. If this doesn’t make sense, get out your notebook and write down everything you can tell about these two people and their relationship and their…

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ticktockdearie: pounding out a first draft no matter how crappy it is like

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ME LISTENING TO CONVOLUTED BACKSTORY

annerocious: Convoluted backstory feels right to the writer, but it’s bad. Good backstory is concise, gaspworthy gossip. Not then-he-said, but-she-thought stuff that could barely keep a therapist awake.

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Notes from a Screenreader: Hoarder Edition

nywift: Photo via Go Into the Story. A first draft is a hoarder house. It is piled full of things of great value to the writer, things that feel necessary and beautiful and valuable, or at least are too nice to throw away. The experience of the reader to the hoarder draft is, “Why are…

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TO MAKE MORE DIMENSIONAL FEMALE CHARACTERS…

annerocious: You have to get past thinking of them in terms of who would be willing to have sex with them. Go out in the street and look at ALL the women. Every single one of them has compelling dramatic conflict in their lives. Imagine that.

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writerlyn: Just a quick note, I have a long standing recommendation for anyone in screenwriting/tv writing to read John August’s blog. http://johnaugust.com/ Bookmark it, it’s useful.

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annerocious: Fave lines. This is how dialogue is supposed to work. Less telling me what’s going on in the plot, more conflict in character development.

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