Never feel that you’re ‘married’ to an idea, even if it was the original idea that sparked the story. It might have to go, like a scaffolding that comes down after a mural is painted. Laini Taylor (via psliterary) Reblogging with comments because it’s SO true for screenplays. When I read your script, I see…
Read moreHow I know the writer is a horny little woman-hating moral cesspool-dwelling pervert
Wait. I found this in my drafts. I never finished the post, and now I can’t remember why I wrote it.
Read moreUse screenplay structure to give your story form rather than to create story Anon (via gideonsway) Story comes first.
Read moreLOGLINES I SUPPORT: Part One
A shit-hot pilot and a supermodel scientist banter until they crash land in a remote Andes village and die and Laverne Cox emerges from the wreckage and takes over on page 20.
Read more“TEEN” DIALOGUE
HOW DOES TENSION WORK?
Like this. As long as its central question stays unresolved, it is tension. It’s the only thing that makes readers turn pages. Amplify these moments in your script. Set them up and draw them out. You need to build one in each scene, a bigger one for each sequence and the ultimate one that stretches…
Read moreDON’T GIVE IT AWAY
I was just reading a spec script, and a great thing happened. I was intrigued by an idea it proposed at the inciting incident. I thought to myself, “This question is going to get me all the way to the end, still guessing.” And in the very next scene, it was answered. Why? WHY? Creating…
Read moreIMPACT
boojum.as.arizona.edu Spec scripts have this tendency to fall back on dramatic near misses. Like, if Jane found out Pedro cheated, the wedding would be off, but thank goodness that didn’t happen fifteen different times, and here comes the bride. Actually, no. Jane finds out. Impact. Now Jane and Pedro have a megaton of ejecta material…
Read moreTHINGS THAT AREN’T CORRECT
So we’ve established here that there are a lot of things you can do in your script that make it go thunk when it should tinkle like a silver bell. lifeascaty has been assembling lists of good ones, you can peruse her blog for collections of produced scripts by genre and artist to find your…
Read moreWhat do you mean, you can tell on Page 1?
Present progressive. Passive voice. It describes things that convey no story meaning. The sluglines are complex. The dialogue is all exposition. The prose style is literal and impersonal. No original images or details. Research errors. Bad grammar, usage and spelling. Improper format. Nothing happens. First pages are your resume. They show that you know what…
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