Is why you really have to set up your payoffs.
Read moreME LISTENING TO CONVOLUTED BACKSTORY
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.
Read moreME LISTENING TO CONVOLUTED BACKSTORY
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.
Read moreSETTLING IN FOR THE BACKSTORY
Backstory mostly doesn’t matter. It’s just information used to interpret other information, none of which is dramatic.
Read moreOCCAM’S RAZOR AND YOUR SCREENPLAY
Here’s a valuable tip for building your story. You have a guy, in a plot, and he sleeps with his friend’s girlfriend. That is legit story. Things will happen because of that. That will turn into other things. Conflict, confrontation, crisis. Yay! What is not particularly important is that he did it because in fifth…
Read moreWHEN YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH WARPS INTO ALL THE BACKSTORY
OCCAM’S RAZOR AND YOUR SCREENPLAY
Here’s a valuable tip for building your story. You have a guy, in a plot, and he sleeps with his friend’s girlfriend. That is legit story. Things will happen because of that. That will turn into other things. Conflict, confrontation, crisis. Yay! What is not particularly important is that he did it because in fifth…
Read moreSETTLING IN FOR THE BACKSTORY
Backstory mostly doesn’t matter. It’s just information used to interpret other information, none of which is dramatic.
Read moreThe most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting. Stephen King (via jamesgrantbrown)
Read moreBACKSTORY
There is a lot of backstory that doesn’t belong in your script. It feels important to put on the page, to explain things and illuminate characters, but it’s more interesting to the reader NOT to know everything, to guess and speculate and draw our own conclusions. Bonus points if we get it wrong and that’s…
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