When in doubt, pillage literature. Pillage myth. my TV Genre instructor (via ub-sessed) I am getting the feeling that your instructor is descended from Genghis Khan.

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How to do dialogue. Look at all this accomplishes that four pages of declarative speeches could never do. Seriously. Look how much we know about who these people are and what they think of each other. Four very short little lines. I think this is from the Halloween episodes, written by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk,…

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WISH YOU WERE HERE

Spec screenplays do this weird thing where they leave the most interesting, original, unique parts completely out. As a for instance:  a writer needs to get two characters in bed because the plot is about hiding the affair from co-workers. So the script just has them fall on top of each other and the plot…

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wolfmansgotnards: it has never gotten any better than this. 

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What I Learned/Got from Submitting to Contests

What I Learned/Got from Submitting to Contests somedayscreenwriter: In the last year I submitted an Archer spec and an original pilot (Full-Time Dad) to contests and festivals to varying degrees of success. My Archer made it to the second round of Austin Film Fest. Full-Time Dad took Bronze in the PAGE awards, was a runner…

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Screenwriting Structure: the 8 sequence structure

Screenwriting Structure: the 8 sequence structure writerlyn: So, there are a million and one ways to properly structure a movie, I just thought I’d share this new-ish way with you guys. It’s hard to find this method of structure outside of USC’s great film school, but it’s still possible. So here it is. The distillation…

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LET’S TALK ABOUT OTHER KINDS OF STRUCTURE

There are some. I leave it to Linda Aronson to explain how they work, because I can’t fit it in a gif. Except this one. And I get really down on writers starting out with big ambitions about complicated structure because, frankly, it’s hard enough to do one protagonist and one linear storyline to good…

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