My exact experience of collaborating on a screenplay.
Read moreIdeal Way to Write a Screenplay
Have an idea about a specific person doing a specific thing. Write 90 pages about that. Put it away. Celebrate. Pick it up. Figure out what it’s actually about, which will be a pleasant surprise. Take out everything that isn’t about that. Fill in the spaces with work that is about that. Repeat steps 3-8…
Read moreJEEEEZ
I’m not asking you to make every story you write a thoughtful feminist treatise, just that you don’t keep writing like you don’t know what year it is and you don’t know what’s going on.
Read moreFor Your Consideration 2016
brianparis: lifeascaty: It’s that time of year again! Awards Season is rapidly advancing and the studios are releasing scripts (for your consideration!). I’ll update as more become available. Carol – Phyllis Nagy Danny Collins – Dan Fogelman Ex Machina – Alex Garland Grandma – Paul Weitz I’ll See You In My Dreams – Brett Haley & Marc Basch Infinitely Polar…
Read moreOn Friend Groups in Your Script
Take Bridesmaids. You have The Protagonist, the character with the point-of-view problem. She is different from The Best Friend, even though they have a shared history and sense of humor; they have different qualities that generate conflict. Lillian is not a fuck-up like Annie. That makes a lot of conflict when Lillian asks Annie to…
Read morefunnyordie: via Chicago Sanitation Snort! How to use clichés for good instead of evil.
Read moreWhat is this Subtext Thing?
It’s what you can infer from HOW characters say things. What they think of themselves, the other characters and the plot can be conveyed with their strong personal voices. It’s what you can infer from what the characters DON’T say. A main character should confess accurate self-knowledge only after the emotional catharsis that changes them….
Read moreA Toast For Screenwriters
May your protag be active, your plot blithely unfold, may your hook make you famous once your story is sold. Sláinte.
Read moreDefinition for Your Hook
Your hook is how your script’s central conflict is played out in action. A strong hook suggests the story and engages the reader’s imagination immediately. Most spec scripts have a very weak hook: Two friends go on a road trip to Vegas for Spring Break after one of them has a bad break up. This…
Read moreForgot I Had This Thingamajig
Thank you, J.L. Bell
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