This post is for mentioning that your first draft should be the wrong length, make no sense and be horrible. Everything that I write in this blog about structure and pacing and character development and arcs and tension and stakes is way too much to deal with in your first draft. The first draft is…
Read moreThe characters write the plot. Their natures do. Norman Rush (via theparisreview)
Read moreSTRUCTURE BY FLAW
Act One: Show how the flaw is a problem. Inciting Incident: Show how the protag will be forced to face the flaw. Act Two Up: Show how the protag attempts to solve the problem without facing the flaw. Midpoint: Show how the protag accepts the flaw. Act Two Down: Show how the protag fails to…
Read moreBy the way
annerocious: writerlyn: The deadlines for the Nicholl Fellowship and Scriptapalooza and Page awards and Austin Film Festival and sundance screenwriters lab (okay not so much on that one) and big bear film festival are COMING UP SOON! reblogging every day. bring it on!
Read moreScreenwriters read screenplays – Joel and Ethan Coen
lifeascaty: The Coen brothers are good at what they do and pretty much unavoidable, so don’t try and ignore them. A Serious Man (2009) Barton Fink (1991) Blood Simple (1984) Burn After Reading (2008) Fargo (1996) Intolerable Cruelty* (2003) Miller’s Crossing (1990) No Country for Old Men (2007) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) Raising…
Read moreWELCOME NEW FOLLOWERS!
So glad you’re here on my snarky blog!
Read moreRANDOMLY selected ALL CAPS words in action LINES
THE NICK CARRAWAY PROBLEM
I just read the Hannibal pilot, available here, and then watched it (streaming on Amazon). It was written by Bryan Fuller, based on characters created by Thomas Harris, and it reminded me of The Nick Carraway problem, because Fuller and Harris don’t have it. Psychopaths are interesting, in a clinical way, because they look like…
Read moreTHE OTHER KIND OF PROTAG
Sorry. Every gif is Tom Hiddleston for some reason. Not every single story is driven by overcoming the protag’s serious personality problem to effect/fail to effect a change. Those are mostly about Indiana Jones, though. So. Yes. It is true. Don’t kill yourself trying to drive your swashbuckler with a flaw. But give that protag…
Read more10 Filmmaking Myths: Busted
10 Filmmaking Myths: Busted thisoldbitch: One night when I was about 7 years old I caught my mum sliding a quarter under my pillow. I had just lost a tooth and having caught my mum red-handed I had to d I agree with most of these. Here is the business end of your script.
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